Posted: Mon May 17, 2021 20:34 Post subject: Problem after flashing a bricked R7000 to working builds
My R7000 ran on Kong's build R35030 for 3 years without problem but suddenly hung up last week and had to be powered off/on to restart. It then did not response to the RESET button, failed to do firmware upgrade or restore backup (the GUI upgrade/restore screen just ended without doing anything). Both the 2.4G and 5G wifi did not work. A few minutes after power up, the router then responded to GUI access very slowly and then after a further few minutes gave no response at all. I could still ping the router at that moment but with response time >1000ms. All the LED lights work normally.
I then flashed the Kong’s build R35030 to it via TFTP/serial port. After the flashing, the router responded to GUI normally for a few minutes and then gave no response. I flashed it again and then restored a backup before it gave no response. The restore was successful but all the problems persisted after the reboot. I also tried flashing it with the latest Netgear FW (and also the old version of the stock FW came with the router) but after the successful flashing, the router rebooted itself repeatedly.
I tried to check the serial console logs but could not find any obvious error message.
Attached are the serial console logs of (1) boot up of the the router with R35030 (with backup restored) and (2) the flashing log of the latest stock FW. I appreciate if anyone can help to have a look of the logs and shed me some light what has gone wrong with the router.
R7000 Console Log - boot up with newly flashed R35030.txt
Keep in mind that 46604 and newer Official firmware for Broadcom uses swconfig for vlan configuration via CLI,
so the old way of doing things no longer applies. You will want to upgrade eventually for security reasons.
P.S. It is no longer advised, recommended, or supported to run <Kong> builds as the latest is almost two years
old now and he has pulled all of his DD-WRT images off the download server. _________________ "Life is but a fleeting moment, a vapor that vanishes quickly; All is vanity"
Contribute To DD-WRT Pogo - A minimal level of ability is expected and needed... DD-WRT Releases 2023 (PolitePol)
DD-WRT Releases 2023 (RSS Everything)
----------------------
Linux User #377467 counter.li.org / linuxcounter.net
As per your suggestion, I used nmrpflash to flash the latest stock FW and it was successful. I observed the process via the serial console and it stopped at the >CFE prompt when the flashing was done. I then did a reset by pressing the reset button during booting and saw the message “default loaded” in the serial console. However, the router still boots itself repeatedly after that.
Are there any differences between the flashed result by using TFTP (by pressing Ctrl-C during boot and stopping at the >CFE prompt) and nmrpflash (just send the nmrpflash command to the router when it is booting up)? From the serial console log, I found that both processes work similarly.
Any further suggestions to find out the cause of the problems are very welcome.
Joined: 18 Mar 2014 Posts: 12922 Location: Netherlands
Posted: Tue May 18, 2021 14:57 Post subject:
If after 3 years without you doing anything (so no change in settings or firmware) the router starts to misbehave you should consider a hardware failure.
Most common, failing power supply, so try another power supply, or failing capacitors, you can check the motherboard for bulging or leaking.
Yes, hardware failure which would ultimately come. I was just trying my best to see whether it is not the case or before telling my hardworking R7000 to RIP!