Did I just brick my Asus RT-AC3200?

[RamGuy]

I was updating my Asus RT-AC3200 from Asus Merlin 378.55 to the new official 3.0.0.4.378.9135 release and something must have went wrong somewhere.. Because I can't for the life of me get this router back up and running.

I did the regular firmware update, and followed by doing a factory default within the administration portion of the webui. Ever since I did that nothing has worked at all. All the led's are as usual, the power led is on, same goes for 2,4GHz and 5,0GHz, WAN and LAN1. Everything seems to be just fine but I have no connection, my LAN connection on my desktop just keeps reporting unidentified network and there is no IP-address being delivered.

As my desktop is going through a Cisco Managed Switch I decides to unplug it and connect it directly to the router just to take the managed switch out of the equation. But still nothing.



So then I decided to start forcing things. I did the whole hold down the reset button while power cycling the router to force it into firmware restoration mode and the restoration mode is working, as long as I give my desktop a static 192.168.1.XXX IP-address and set 192.168.1.1 as the router IP-address I'm able to access the default recovery webui on http://192.168.1.1 and I could also use the firmware restoration utility available from Asus.

But even after inputting the latest firmware through the firmware restoration webui, or the restoration utility there is still no connection afterwards? I can clearly see that something is happening as it goes from the slowly blinking power led back to having all the regular led's working as usual and you can also see that it does seem to do a NVRAM clear / reset factory defaults somewhere in the process as you have all the leds light up for a few seconds before the router seems to be rebooting but I'm still not able to connect to anything after this whole firmware restoration process has come to an end.


I did even try to use the oldest firmware that's available on Asus.com/support but it dose not make any difference. I did also force a nvram reset using the firmware restoration webui as that's an option, and I did also do it by holding the WPS button on the router for 30 seconds and you can clearly see that it's rebooting while I'm doing this but still nothing...


There is no Asus or Asus-5G WiFi SSID's showing, no nothing. The only time I'm able to actually communicate with the router is while being in recovery mode and that's pretty much it.



Is there anything else that I could do in order to resurrect this thing? It seems quite awkward that the entire thing is going haywire by simply updating the firmware, which I know for a fact went well as I was able to access the webui after the update and click on the reset to factory defaults within the webui after the update finished.

 

[zoomee]

I have a similar problem - see here: http://www.snbforums.com/threads/new-asus-rt-ac3200-firmware-version-3-0-0-4-378-9135.27368/

but I've just found a workaround I think.

I used the Asus restoration utility and after that it just kicked into action. The utility stopped at 5% and disconnected stating that the router was working so this utility can't be used. I tried to connect to 192.168.1.1 and it worked this time!

Numpty here though decided to reset it again (This time through the Factory reset option in the admin page) and its done EXACTLY the same thing (get login page but nothing further). Lets keep things in the original thread bud - suggest you post there.

 

[jontalk]

I have the AC56R and noticed this same version update is available. After reading this thread I'm hesitant to install it. Once of the senior members of this group suggest to wait until the latest Merlin firmware is out of beta and use it instead. My router is running fine but I want to ensure I have the latest protection too. Thanks

 

[DaveMishSr]

I was updating my Asus RT-AC3200 from Asus Merlin 378.55 to the new official 3.0.0.4.378.9135 release and something must have went wrong somewhere.. Because I can't for the life of me get this router back up and running.

I did the regular firmware update, and followed by doing a factory default within the administration portion of the webui. Ever since I did that nothing has worked at all. All the led's are as usual, the power led is on, same goes for 2,4GHz and 5,0GHz, WAN and LAN1. Everything seems to be just fine but I have no connection, my LAN connection on my desktop just keeps reporting unidentified network and there is no IP-address being delivered.

As my desktop is going through a Cisco Managed Switch I decides to unplug it and connect it directly to the router just to take the managed switch out of the equation. But still nothing.



So then I decided to start forcing things. I did the whole hold down the reset button while power cycling the router to force it into firmware restoration mode and the restoration mode is working, as long as I give my desktop a static 192.168.1.XXX IP-address and set 192.168.1.1 as the router IP-address I'm able to access the default recovery webui on http://192.168.1.1 and I could also use the firmware restoration utility available from Asus.

But even after inputting the latest firmware through the firmware restoration webui, or the restoration utility there is still no connection afterwards? I can clearly see that something is happening as it goes from the slowly blinking power led back to having all the regular led's working as usual and you can also see that it does seem to do a NVRAM clear / reset factory defaults somewhere in the process as you have all the leds light up for a few seconds before the router seems to be rebooting but I'm still not able to connect to anything after this whole firmware restoration process has come to an end.


I did even try to use the oldest firmware that's available on Asus.com/support but it dose not make any difference. I did also force a nvram reset using the firmware restoration webui as that's an option, and I did also do it by holding the WPS button on the router for 30 seconds and you can clearly see that it's rebooting while I'm doing this but still nothing...


There is no Asus or Asus-5G WiFi SSID's showing, no nothing. The only time I'm able to actually communicate with the router is while being in recovery mode and that's pretty much it.



Is there anything else that I could do in order to resurrect this thing? It seems quite awkward that the entire thing is going haywire by simply updating the firmware, which I know for a fact went well as I was able to access the webui after the update and click on the reset to factory defaults within the webui after the update finished.

I use the following method to restore the factory default settings with a 100% success rate to date:

1) With the router powered off press & hold the wps button for 7 seconds.
2) While still pressing the wps button, power up the router.
3) Continue to hold the wps button for at least 30 seconds after power up.
4) Release the wps button.
5) Immediately power down the router.
6) Repeat steps 1-5 at least twice.

Now my AC68U will start rapidly flashing or pulsating the power LED after about 5 seconds during Step 3 each & every time. However, with both my AC3200 (which I despise) & AC87x's (one R and one U variant) I have noticed that the power LED takes about 20 seconds to pulsate during Step 3 on the first effort with each subsequent effort taking only about 5 seconds to get to a pulsating power LED during Step 3.

It seems that if I do not get the 87 and/or 3200 to that "5 second pulsating phase" when resetting to factory defaults that problems start happening. It may be purely coincidental but it is very hard to argue against a 100% success rate with 2 very finicky platforms.