Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 7:03 Post subject: wzr-hp-g300nh2 bricked
wzr-hp-g300nh2 bricked thanks to shitty buffalo packaging (and my oversite :/)
long story short...
I just bought a new wzr-hp-g300nh(or so i thought) from amazon. the amazon page said wzr-hp-g300nh, the amazon.com packaging said wzr-hp-g300nh, the box said wzr-hp-g300nh. I had already read up about this router and was already to flash the latest wzr-hp-g300nh dd-wrt build on it. and I did... it even looked like my router accepted the flash correctly. then when it was supposed to reboot... it didn't. it just sat there with the green power light on and the red diag light on. i don't get an IP. I pull the power, put it back in and right away get a green power light and a red diag light. thats it. then i look at the side of the router and realize my huge mistake. its a wzr-hp-g300nh2. not wzr-hp-g300nh.
So.. am i screwed. is there recoverable? I need some help here. did i just throw 64.99$ down the drain?
Joined: 04 Oct 2010 Posts: 28 Location: Fairbanks, AK
Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 17:44 Post subject:
I'm in the exact same boat - even the ordering from Amazon part. However, re-flashing in recovery mode (well, TFTP- is that the same thing?) did not work for me. I tried everything from the buffalo firmware included with the router to various builds of DD-WRT, and even a build of openWrt. On most of them the transfer failed with a "Unsuport MODEL" error. On the ones it did accept (full builds of dd-wrt and openwrt), it didn't help- it still is stuck with the green power light and solid red diag light.
The good news is Amazon has a return policy, so I can get the money back (I hope). Of course, I'd much rather have a fully functioning buffalo router.
I spent all last night and today trying to reflash it and I had the exact same results, just as ibrewster mentioned.
I am sending it back for refund and already ordered another. Obviously I learned my lesson here.
I still don't know why I can't reflash it using the TFTP method.
To anyone else ordering a new wzr-hp-g300nh make sure you look at the router itself and see what model you got.
Joined: 06 Feb 2010 Posts: 7401 Location: Little Rock
Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 0:30 Post subject:
You should probably try with a switch in-between. TFTP works, but the timing is different on these units.
The way i tftp to these atheros buffalo units on WinXP is..
1) disable LAN within networking on windows, then with it still disabled, set its IP to 192.168.11.2
2) re-enable the LAN once the IP is set, then add an arp entry like so..
arp -s 192.168.11.1 02-AA-BB-CC-DD-1A [enter]
Then have the tftp command line ready to go with..
tftp -i 192.168.11.1 put buffalo_to_ddwrt_webflash-MULTI.bin (i would use build 17201 to do this with)
Unplug the router, then plug back in and count to 10, then hit enter on the tftp, if you get a success msg wait no less than 6 minutes (the diag light will go off and the wifi light will begin to blink when its fully flashed) _________________ Wireless N Config | Linking Routers | DD-WRT Wiki | DD-WRT Builds | Peacock - Broadcom FAQ
if you get a success msg wait no less than 6 minutes (the diag light will go off and the wifi light will begin to blink when its fully flashed)
It was flashing sometimes after "success". Maybe i didn't wait long enough. :/ O well, next time. it's already packed up and ready to be shipped back. UPS will bring the new one tomorrow morning.
If i somehow screw this new one up I'll be sure to wait longer next time.
I had the same problem trying to TFTP the stock firmware on to the device. I had to set the ARP mac to one I found in another thread to get it to work at all (It was like 02:AA:BB:CC:DD:1A or something like that). Then it would indicate that it was the incorrect firmware version. Apparently the MAC people used varied by router, and the one I tried was for the WZR-HP-G300NH, and not the 2. I am not too happy with the current DD-WRT firmware that I finally got installed, I was hoping to return it to stock and use IP tables to enable NAT loopback.
Wow.. After spend quite a few hours trying to unbrick my device, I also realized that I had the WZR-HP-G300NH2 even though all the packaging was for the WZR-HP-G300NH. It seems like restoring via TFTP with the stock firmware always led to
Code:
Error code 0: Unsupport MODEL
.
HOWEVER, it looks like we're in luck! There is a way to flash it with OpenWRT without giving the error and then upgrading it to DD-WRT:
This worked out well for me and I was back up and running pretty quickly after following these instructions. I only wish I had realized this sooner. Hope this helps anyone who has trouble unbricking their ver. 2 router!
I bricked one as well. Luckily I was able to take it back and exchange it. I too fell for the NH vs NH2 debacle. The second unit, I actually made sure to read the model number directly from the unit.