Asus RT-N12 stuck in recovery after initial flash [FIXED]

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librainian
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Joined: 08 Jan 2012
Posts: 3

PostPosted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 20:22    Post subject: Asus RT-N12 stuck in recovery after initial flash [FIXED] Reply with quote
Hopefully someone can help me get out of this loop I am in. I purchased two Asus routers, the WL-520GU which I sucessfully flashed and configured with DD-WRT and OPtware install etc, and the RT-N12. Everything went smoothly with my first router so I moved on to my new RT-N12

I attempted to flash the RT-N12 with dd-wrt.v24-14929_NEWD-2_K2.6_mini_RT-N12.trx following the router wiki page instructions. I did a 30-30-30 reset and then attempted to use the recovery tool to flash but I think it was the same official Asus recovery tool I used for the WL-50GU and it didn't see the router so I moved on the the second browser based method using IE from an XP based laptop with Wifi disabled, AV disabled, using LAN static IP etc (same conditions as my successful flash of the WL-520GU).

I may not have cleared NVRAM on the first attempt - pretty sure I didn't. At any rate the transfer of the file was successful and I got the wait for reboot prompt. The router restarts, all the lights flash, I get a network connection prompt and then it disconnects a few seconds later. The lights flash again. I get a reconnect message again.. etc. I waited at least 5 minutes but this did not change so I pulled the power and tried another 30-30-30 reset and flash the TRX again, with the same result. Then I tried the recovery tool with the original firmware with the same result.

Router will not boot normally - i.e a reboot command will restart it but it just comes back with a solid power light and no other activity. I can get into is the CFE recovery screen. I can ping the router with constant 100ms reply. If i reboot from the CFE while pinging with -t I get several timeouts, several responses several hardware errors and then destination host unreachable.

I then tried tftp recovery after clearing NVRAM and it appears to be able to transmit a firmware image that way as well, the router just won't seem to load any of them.

I'm stumped. The good news is I still have CFE so it's not really bricked at this point. If anyone dealt with a bad flash recovery on this router I would appreciate some advice before I try anything else.
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librainian
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 08 Jan 2012
Posts: 3

PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 7:09    Post subject: Success rolling back to Asus firmware. Reply with quote
I haven't succeeded in flashing DD-WRT to this router yet but I was able to finally restore the initial firmware. Here's what happened.

When I got the router I immediately registered it with my asus account at vip.asus.com with the serial number etc. Asus handily provides you a link to the downloads page after you register. The problem is, the link is to the WRONG FRAKKING version! I was downloading firmware for the original version but I have a Version B1 (RT-N12B1) I was uploading the wrong firmware with the recovery tool.

How nice of Asus to link me to the wrong firmware automatically. If you are trying to recover from a bad flash with factory firmware, check which Rev you have and then use the right download page!

Original
http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=RT-N12&p=11&s=2

RT-N12 (VER.B1)
http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=RT-N12%20(VER.B1)&p=11&s=2

RT-N12 (VER.C1)
http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=RT-N12%20(VER.C1)&p=11&s=2

RT-N12E(RT-N12LX)
http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=RT-N12E(RT-N12LX)&p=11&s=2
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