Asus WL520-GU bricked?

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Betelgeuse
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Joined: 14 Nov 2008
Posts: 21

PostPosted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 15:37    Post subject: Asus WL520-GU bricked? Reply with quote
I've been trying to get DD-WRT working on my new Asus WL-520GU. My plan is to use it as a wireless bridge to connect things in the living room (i.e. Tivo, Xbox 360) to my wireless network. I've had some problems with that, but I won't get into those here, since my problems have recently become more severe. Very Happy

So, I managed to get DD-WRT working successfully on the router and even had bridging working. Because of issues that I was having with some of the features DD-WRT v24, I subsequently tried a number of different firmwares (v23, Tomato).

The last time I remember being able to access the router via a web browser, I was trying to restore an earlier (saved) settings file to my DD-WRT v24-SP1 installation. Now, I'm unable to access the router. I'm still able to flash the firmware with the Asus Firmware tool (and that tool reports success), but no matter what I flash it with (DD-WRT v24-SP1, Asus stock firmware), I can never reach it via the web page and it doesn't respond to pings.

I don't know if this is relevant, but I've noticed that, in addition to the power button, the Wireless light is *very* faintly illuminated. I can tell that this is more than just the power button shining through, since the wireless light is blinking while the power button is steady on.

So, is this router bricked? Either way, does anyone have any insight on how to fix it?
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Eko
DD-WRT Developer/Maintainer


Joined: 07 Jun 2006
Posts: 5771

PostPosted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 16:07    Post subject: Reply with quote
Try to load clear-nvram.trx with Asus tool.
Betelgeuse
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 14 Nov 2008
Posts: 21

PostPosted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 16:10    Post subject: Reply with quote
Eko wrote:
Try to load clear-nvram.trx with Asus tool.


Yes. Sorry. I forgot to mention that I tried that. There was no obvious change after loaded that.
teddy_bear
DD-WRT User


Joined: 09 Oct 2008
Posts: 71

PostPosted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 16:11    Post subject: Reply with quote
If you can use Asus firmware restore utility and have not tried the following yet, try to flash the router with wl500g-clear-nvram.trx, then wl500g-recover.trx (both can be found here), and then with the firmware you want to use.

By the way, the fainted AIR led by itself is not an indication of a bricked router - I had the same behavior with OpenWRT installed on it, and it was working fine.

EDIT: oops, I was a bit too late with this comment...

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Asus WL-520GU /w Tomato 1.23 ND USB Mod
Betelgeuse
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 14 Nov 2008
Posts: 21

PostPosted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 16:14    Post subject: Reply with quote
teddy_bear wrote:

By the way, the fainted AIR led by itself is not an indication of a bricked router - I had the same behavior with OpenWRT installed on it, and it was working fine.

Thanks. It's good to know that that's not some symptom of a major failure.
Donny
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 13 Nov 2008
Posts: 5266
Location: CENTRAL Midnowhere

PostPosted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 17:55    Post subject: Reply with quote
Were you able to get this running? I don't think jtag is an option for this router. Can you load the original firmware back on or is this a "no reversion possible" system.
Betelgeuse
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 14 Nov 2008
Posts: 21

PostPosted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 18:14    Post subject: Reply with quote
Donny wrote:
Were you able to get this running? I don't think jtag is an option for this router. Can you load the original firmware back on or is this a "no reversion possible" system.


I'm not totally sure what all of your terminology means (i.e. jtag, "no reversion possible"), but I'll try my best to answer your question.

I was able to get the DD-WRT v24-SP1 firmware up and running more than once on this router. Moreover, I was able to get the original firmware up and running again once after I had installed the DD-WRT firmware. Another (possibly irrelevant) bit of information is that I was unable to log in to the web interface of the Acer firmware (I think I tried every plausable combination of login names and passwords).

I've been doing some reading and realize that I have never done a 30/30/30 reset on this router (and can't do it now since I'm at work and the router is at home). I'm wondering if this might help things since the last thing I did before the router stopped working was try to restore a bunch of DD-WRT settings. Might this help my situation or am I possibly past help?
Donny
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 13 Nov 2008
Posts: 5266
Location: CENTRAL Midnowhere

PostPosted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 19:31    Post subject: Reply with quote
Arrgh....had a long message written and walked away and got the weird "problem with your message" message.

Hard reset might be a possibility, but you normally already do much of the hard reset procedure with an Asus router, in order to get it into firmware upgrade mode. In addition, sending the file clear-nvram.trx should have done the same thing. That being said, perhaps the removal of the power will make a difference. Perhaps just power cycling it will.

In recent readings, I haven't seen anyone who bricked a 520gu, and I had a question about whether it was possible to do. Hopefully, you haven't answered that question! Crying or Very sad

Jtag refers to a cable connection that is used to tie into the router and fix everything by erasing all the data in the router and replacing it with good stuff. Unfortunately, with the 520gu it does not have an obvious place to tie the cable to, like most routers do. (I was hoping that was because it would never be needed!).

No reversion possible means that, with some routers, if you install dd-wrt, you can't go back to original firmware. I didn't know whether you can reinstall the original firmware, but, since you appear to have tried this, again, I expect we are all going to know.

I suggest that you provide detailed info about what you have done to install firmware, including the specific files you used, the settings in the computer and the software, and which software you used. Also provide details of the status of the router right now, and then wait for input from those who really understand this. Don't try things at this point to see if they work.

If it is working, when you set your computer to 192.168.1.10, you should be able to get to the webgui at 192.168.1.1. You have to set your computer to a static IP first, though.
Betelgeuse
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 14 Nov 2008
Posts: 21

PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 17:58    Post subject: Reply with quote
Donny,

Thanks very much for your detailed reply. I was able to fix my problems with a 30/30/30 reset, which seems rather odd since, as you say, sending the clear-nvram.trx should do the same thing. However, I'm not going to question the router gods; I'm just glad I got it working.

Moreover, I managed to fix my original problems (router in bridge mode not forwarding DHCP requests to non-DD-WRT router) with an upgrade to the newest build (10923).
redhawk0
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 04 Jan 2007
Posts: 11563
Location: Wherever the wind blows- North America

PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 19:46    Post subject: Reply with quote
Donny wrote:
Arrgh....had a long message written and walked away and got the weird "problem with your message" message.



Just so you know...if you get the "problem with message" error....click Back, then reload the page, then resend....it will go the second time.

redhawk

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