Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 11:23 Post subject: Bricked WBMR-HP-G300H
Apologies for another lengthy post on the same topics...
I bricked my router (WBMR-HP-G300H) trying to upgrade it. As it was not responding on any of default common IPs, I tried the 30/30/30 reset (that btw, as per some posts, seems to be wrong thing to do altogether). Then, I tried to flash it using TFTP method (http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=87579&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30) which seemed to have timeout all of the time (perhaps that I was too lazy to find a switch).
Eventually, I run into instructions here (https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/buffalo/wbmr-hp-g300h#how.to.recover.from.bricking) how to initiate TFTP upgrade from router by starting when holding AOSS button. I successfully uploaded several DD-WRT images (and even the image they had on the page) but all of them result in router waiting there for infinity and when you restart it, it is still restarting every 15 seconds or so. I'm sure image was successfully uploaded as wireshark shows router initiating TFTP get for firmware.ram and I see last block sent.
So what to do next? Is serial recovery the only option or are there other things I can do before I go ahead with this drastic option?
What the router does, when it is powered on, it seems to show power lead, then it flashes all network LED lights and then, it just keeps one on port 1 switched on (where my computer is connected) waits for few seconds and then, flashes all network LEDs and I think it reboots.
When I flash it via AOSS method above, I see TFTP get coming in, PC uploading the firmware and basically, it's hanging there forever - green LED of connected port is on and power LED switches off (which may be ok).
Any advises, opinions etc welcome. If it's of any relevance, I'm uploading this via Linux laptop. Thanks...
I faced similar symptoms like yours a couple of month ago and it turned out some later versions of ddwrt put the device into infinite restart loop. this version(v3.0-r29519 std (04/25/16)) worked smoothly and didn't suffer the infinite restart loop, try it.
Done that and it appears, once this recovery firmware is retrieved by the router, it no longer continously reboots and instead, stays up. Following this, I changed network configuration on the laptop to use DHCP and the router does NOT respond at all. DHCP was disabled on this box (used it as repeater) and I knew old IP. So, I changed laptop network configuration to match the 'old' subnet range and tried pinging 'old' router's address and that does not respond either. Nor does telnet.
I remember I had to install an old version of openwrt to make the router boot normally and then installed ddwrt
I guess the openwrt version was from this blog [http://s4ff.blogspot.com.eg/2012/11/buffalo-wbmr-hp-g300h-how-to-recover.html?m=1] , make sure the tftp process completed successfully(the whole firmware file is sent completely) as some tftp servers caused problems with me.
Done that and it appears, once this recovery firmware is retrieved by the router, it no longer continously reboots and instead, stays up. Following this, I changed network configuration on the laptop to use DHCP and the router does NOT respond at all. DHCP was disabled on this box (used it as repeater) and I knew old IP. So, I changed laptop network configuration to match the 'old' subnet range and tried pinging 'old' router's address and that does not respond either. Nor does telnet.
So what to do next?
To unbrick WBMR-HP-G300H you need a switching hub.
1. Set your PC's IP to 192.168.11.2
2. Put 'firmware.ram' from blogspot to your router, this will boot AA from router's memory
3. Change your PC's IP to dynamic and try pinging 192.168.1.1
4. Use your web browser to connect 192.168.1.1
5. Flash 'WBMR-HP-G300H_FW_1.79.decrypted.bin' via AA
6. Flash anything you prefered, stock, dd-wrt, or even openwrt
You can find 'WBMR-HP-G300H_FW_1.79.decrypted.bin' here;
https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=!AAc7kJAUzeu6cy4&id=659D016A0D65C324!116&cid=659D016A0D65C324
