Did I brick my Wireless VoADSL2 Gateway?

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jvchawk
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Did I brick my Wireless VoADSL2 Gateway?

Post by jvchawk » Mon Sep 26, 2011 5:20 pm

Hello,

This is my first post and although I've read many many topics during my couple of hours surfing in this forum, I remain quite in doubt whether to open a new topic or just stich to some existing ones. Finally I made the decision to open a new one. My apologies if the answer is already somewhere here. I'll just be too happy if someone could redirect me to there.

1. I have a Wireless VoADSL2 Gateway I wish to upgrade the firmware.
2. I executed the "Router Upgrade Checker". See output in attached files.
3. I downloaded the recommended "RouterTech_3.6.0D_20110502_2.96_AR7WRD_psbl_1-Port_firmware.upgrade.img".
4. I reset the device to factory defaults by depressing a needle in the reset hole for more than 15 seconds. Device reset. Password reset (Admin/Admin). IP address reset (192.168.1.1)
5. Went into the Router's upgrade facility and flashed. Everything went smoothly and I can see the led UPGRADE blinking on the router.
6. After flash successful completion, I waited 10 minutes. Nothing changed. I waited another 5 minutes. Still nothing. I can only see the power and the Lan leds steady green.
7. I tried to reset to factory defaults again but this time the router became insensitive to the physical reset. Nothing happened.
5. I tried to ping 192.168.1.1. No answer. Telnet doesn't answer either.
6. Downloaded and ran RouterRepairTool.exe. Managed to connect to the bootloader. (see attached pic). Upgrade progressed to 100%. Then everything freezes with "Looking for router to finish rebooting and settle..." at about 14% and in a few times 34%. During all that time the router seems to be completely unaware of what is happening. No UPGRADE led blinking this time.
7. Went again to the forum and learnt that defrag might be necessary. And when defrag is done, then MTD should be calculated again. Well, here I'm really stuck as I don't know how to issue defrag command if I'm unable to go telnet?

When I looked again to this statement: "The upgrade process for the wireless (AR7WRD) routers takes a VERY long time. Particularly, for the AR7WRD_1350A firmwares, it will typically take at least 7 minutes for the upgrade process to complete. At least 3 minutes of this will be AFTER the progress bar has reached 100%. It is important to WAIT FOR AT LEAST 7 MINUTES before doing anything else. If you are installing the AR7WRD_1350A firmwares, you'd better go and boil the kettle, have a cup of tea, and take a little nap while waiting for the firmware upgrade to complete!" I thought I should have waited maybe much more! Perhaps it's too late?
Attachments
env-20110926_141406_Wireless V0ADSL2-Gateway.txt
(985 Bytes) Downloaded 325 times
check-20110926_141449_Wireless V0ADSL2-Gateway.txt
(9.42 KiB) Downloaded 336 times
FW upgrade in progress.jpg
FW upgrade stuck.jpg
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thechief
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Re: Did I brick my Wireless VoADSL2 Gateway?

Post by thechief » Mon Sep 26, 2011 7:06 pm

I don't think your problem is related to not waiting long enough - that can only be an issue with 1350A wireless firmwares. You should be able to upgrade your firmware using the PCtool. You may need to try different versions - start with PCTool v2.3 or 2.4, and, if unsuccessful after a few attempts, try PCTool v2.1. You may need several attempts at flashing a firmware with the PCTool.

The potential issues, as far as I can see are
1. the hardware - your router has 8mb flash and 32mb RAM - as far as I am aware, our firmware has never been used on such hardware - it may be that the RouterTech kernel does not support the flash or RAM size; this is a distinct possibility - and, if this is the problem, you will need to restore your original environment (run the env... text file created by the RUC as a script, using the PCTool), and then flash your original manufacturer firmware

2. If #1 (above) is not the problem, then perhaps your environment has been trashed and needs to be restored. But I suspect that the problem is as described above.
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jvchawk
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Re: Did I brick my Wireless VoADSL2 Gateway?

Post by jvchawk » Mon Sep 26, 2011 10:54 pm

Thechief,

Thanks for your fast reply.

Following your suggestions I downloaded PCTOOL 2.1 on XP (2.3 and 2.4 regularly failed on W7) and tried a number of times until I decided to power off/on the router. Suddenly the router successfully retrieves the IP address. I then executed the script to restore the env parameters. That too completed all right (See pic)

But here comes the problem: I couldn't find any longer the backup of the previous firmware (Version: 3.6.0C - stamp: 20070122155513) supposedly stored on my PC 2 years ago. What I managed to find on the web is just an upgrade version and not the official shipped firmware.

I have already spent more than 3 hours searching and searching but as this chinese device has no name it is extremely difficult to know where to go. During that effort, I realized that the platform AR7VW is deployed by a number of known brands (D-Link, Linksys,...). I'm wondering if there is a model I can afford, with reasonably limited risk, to use the firmware from. I thought of that because I saw many similarities between my RUC file and other RUCs from RouterTech firmware.

I fully understand your concern about the size of the original flash ROM of 8 MB while others appear to have just 4 MB, but unless I can find the last official ROM I have no choice to unbrick the device.

Thanks for your assistance.
Attachments
pctool execution.jpg
pctool execution.jpg (47.3 KiB) Viewed 7175 times
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Re: Did I brick my Wireless VoADSL2 Gateway?

Post by thechief » Tue Sep 27, 2011 4:12 pm

The "AR7WV" is not the crucial point with respect to trying other firmwares. The bootloader has to be the same (pspboot), the wireless chipset has to be the same (tnetw1130), and the flash and ram sizes have to be the same (8mb/32mb). There are some routers out there with 32mb ram (which, rather than the flash size, may be the problem), but they may have the 1350A wireless chipset - which wouldn't work for you.

Since we are only guessing at what the problem might be, I think your best bet would be to get a serial console cable, flash the RouterTech firmware with the PCTool (after setting the correct mtd partitions), and then see in the serial console what the problem is.
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jvchawk
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Re: Did I brick my Wireless VoADSL2 Gateway?

Post by jvchawk » Thu Sep 29, 2011 9:34 pm

Hello,

There appears to be no serial port on the back panel of the device (see pic). So I opened it to make sure I can find it inside. I was wrong as I found nowhere to connect the serial console cable (See pic).

So I think I've just witnessed the end of a long cooperation between the device and me. In this story I've learnt a good lesson: think 70 times 7 before flashing a router! And should I decide to have a go, I'll not forget to say a few prayers before starting!

Joke apart, thanks thechief for your assistance.

At the bottom of my no-name chinese device bought in Gernany a few years ago, I read on a printed white label:
Name: Wireless VoADSL2+ Gateway
Model No: 2110EHR-VW+
Power: DC12V/1A
Version No: V1.20
Serial No: 320797......

Should anybody own the same device, thanks to contact me. Perhaps with the right firmware, I'll have a better chance and the device might get a second life.
Attachments
back panel.jpg
Inside Gateway.jpg
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thechief
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Re: Did I brick my Wireless VoADSL2 Gateway?

Post by thechief » Fri Sep 30, 2011 11:29 am

jvchawk wrote:There appears to be no serial port on the back panel of the device (see pic). So I opened it to make sure I can find it inside. I was wrong as I found nowhere to connect the serial console cable (See pic).
No, I can't see any serial pins. You can always solder then on (including JTAG pins), if you know where to do it. From the pictures, I can't tell where serial or JTAG headers should go.
jvchawk wrote:So I think I've just witnessed the end of a long cooperation between the device and me.
I doubt it. There are other AR7 routers with 8mb flash and 32mb RAM. Some of them have been mentioned on this forum. Do a forum search for "32mb".
jvchawk wrote:In this story I've learnt a good lesson: think 70 times 7 before flashing a router! And should I decide to have a go, I'll not forget to say a few prayers before starting!
Good lesson - and the reason for all the dire warnings in the docs. Flashing a firmware is a very risky business. And you should have backed up your original firmware before trying anything new.
jvchawk wrote:Joke apart, thanks thechief for your assistance.
You're welcome :)
jvchawk wrote:At the bottom of my no-name chinese device bought in Gernany a few years ago, I read on a printed white label:
Name: Wireless VoADSL2+ Gateway
Model No: 2110EHR-VW+
...
Should anybody own the same device, thanks to contact me. Perhaps with the right firmware, I'll have a better chance and the device might get a second life.
http://www.freewtc.com/products/adsl2-m ... -18288.htm

All I did was run a Google search for "2110EHR-VW". Run the same search, and you should see more. It is a "Fujian Star-net". You might find copies of the firmware in a Chinese DSL forum, or on the manufacturer's web site.
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dhammika
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Re: Did I brick my Wireless VoADSL2 Gateway?

Post by dhammika » Sun Nov 27, 2011 10:27 am

Hi Thechief,
My router(DSL600EW) already bricked and trying to recover it. I have tried using all PC tools, RRT and finally adam2 ftp commands. I have notice that every time when uploading the kernel all environment settings will crash. When use the RPT I am also facing the same what "jvchawk" faced. My current env settings as follows.

bootloaderVersion 1.2.5.9
ProductID AR7VW
HWRevision Unknown
SerialNumber none
MAC_PORT 1
MEMSZ 0x01000000
FLASHSZ 0x00400000
MODETTY0 9600,n,8,1,hw
MODETTY1 9600,n,8,1,hw
CPUFREQ 150000000
SYSFREQ 125000000
PROMPT (psbl)
IPA 192.168.1.1

Pls let me know why all env settings will be null once kernel file upload. This happens to all firmwares of originals and RT.

Thank you.
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Re: Did I brick my Wireless VoADSL2 Gateway?

Post by thechief » Sun Nov 27, 2011 9:11 pm

You probably have a badly fragmented environment, or faulty flash chip. Your best bet is to get a serial console cable. The 600EW should have serial pins on the system board.
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Re: Did I brick my Wireless VoADSL2 Gateway?

Post by mstombs » Sun Nov 27, 2011 11:33 pm

dhammika wrote: Pls let me know why all env settings will be null once kernel file upload. This happens to all firmwares of originals and RT.
Try setting the env vars as per the set in the first post above, and reboot before doing anything next. mtd5 and mtd6 not used by default in RT firmware

If the mtd* are not defined correctly firmware may get loaded into wrong place
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