AC5300 bricked

[Peter_S]

Just over a year ago I rebooted my router after a firmware upgrade, and it failed to come up. I managed to enter recovery mode and uploaded the current firmware at the time, after that update I rebooted the router (it died) and since then been unable to access rescue or recovery mode. if I hold the reset then power up only the power led lights up and remains solid. I have tried the 30/30/30 and other options mentioned but nothing seems to work.
I have held the reset for over 5 min on one occasion saw the wan led and power led blink once followed by solid power led. every other month I scour the internet to see if there are any updates on unbricking this router.
Is there any way to recover this router or do I just trash it. I have another router the same model but dread updating it's firmware just in case it doesn't reboot.

 

[AndreiV]

Have you tried a different power supply?

(30/30/30 doesn't exist in ASUS WRT )

 

[Peter_S]

I may have when this issue first happened but will give it another go. so the only way to enter rescue mode is power on while holding reset.
Still nothing with a different power supply even though both power supplies are exact same voltage and amperage.
19v 3.42A
I have been watching the power led and every 2 min it blinks once, this cannot be the rescue mode as I have set the network adapter with IP 192.168.1.10 and do not get a ping response from 192.168.1.1

 

[Grisu]

Did you ever try with Asus restoration software? https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/wireless/RT-AC5300/Rescue_RT_AC5300_2000.zip
You need to press reset while power on and keep pressed till slowly blinking!
Or these may be helpful:
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac5300-will-not-enter-rescue-mode.50422/#post-449682
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/bricked-rt-ac5300.33180/#post-266519
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/asus-rt-ac5300-bricked-what-to-do.35718/#post-290728

 

[Peter_S]

been through all those links and have the application. which doesn't work unless I can get the router into rescue mode where I a can ping it.

 

[Grisu]

There may be only one more possibility to load firmware on internal serial interface, maybe beyond your skills (I wont learn weeks/months to get them and maybe fail at the end).
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/asus-rt-ac5300-bricked-what-to-do.35718/

 

[Peter_S]

I have opened this unit and as far as I can remember there is no serial interface. I think the solder points are there but no pins or adapter plug. is there a way of doing this through the USB port, or I may have to lookup soldering a serial plug onto the board

 

[follower]

I have opened this unit and as far as I can remember there is no serial interface. I think the solder points are there but no pins or adapter plug. is there a way of doing this through the USB port, or I may have to lookup soldering a serial plug onto the board

There is a Serial Interface. You saw the base side of the PCB. The Serial Interface is on the upper side. You have to separate the PCB from the case completely. It's near by a heat sink.

 

[Peter_S]

I have managed to access the router through the serial interface however t halts at the point of enabling device. and goes no further.
here is the boot sequence if that helps. it also cannot find a config file (highlighted in bold)



CFE version 7.14.131.1608 (r589038) based on BBP 1.0.37 for BCM947XX (32bit,SP,)
Build Date: Thu Oct 22 17:53:52 CST 2015 (chengche@ubuntu)
Copyright (C) 2000-2008 Broadcom Corporation.
Init Arena
Init Devs.
Boot partition size = 262144(0x40000)
DDR Clock: 400 MHz
Warning: invalid DDR setting of 0 MHz ignored. DDR frequency will be set to 400 MHz.
CPU type 0x0: 800MHz
Tot mem: 524288 KBytes
CFE mem: 0x00F00000 - 0x017A7AE8 (9075432)
Data: 0x00F500A8 - 0x00F505E8 (1344)
BSS: 0x00F505F8 - 0x00FA5AE8 (349424)
Heap: 0x00FA5AE8 - 0x017A5AE8 (8388608)
Stack: 0x017A5AE8 - 0x017A7AE8 (8192)
Text: 0x00F00000 - 0x00F46540 (288064)
Null Rescue Flag.
boot the image...
go load
Loader:raw Filesys:tftp Devnull) File:: Optionsnull)
Loading: TFTP Server.
Failed.
Could not load :: Error
Booting(0): boot -raw -z -addr=0x8000 -max=0xef8000 nflash0.os:
Loader:raw Filesys:raw Dev:nflash0.os File: Optionsnull)
Loading: .. 1474160 bytes read
Entry at 0x00008000
Starting program at 0x00008000
Uncompressing Linux... done, booting the kernel.
pci 0000:00:11.0: [Firmware Bug]: reg 0x10: invalid BAR (can't size)
PCI: Fixing up bus 0 domain 0
PCIE1 link=1
PCIE1 switching to GEN2
PCIE1 link=1
PCI host bridge to bus 0001:00
pci_bus 0001:00: root bus resource [mem 0x08000000-0x0fffffff]
pci_bus 0001:00: No busn resource found for root bus, will use [bus 00-ff]
PCI: Fixing up bus 0 domain 1
PCI: bus0: Fast back to back transfers disabled
PCIE: Doing ASMedia switch Init...Test Read = 20010002
PCIE 0001:01:0000: ASMedia UpPort mem_base 0x08000000, mem_limit 0x09ffffff
pci 0001:01:00.0: can't set Max Payload Size to 512; if necessary, use "pci=pcie_bus_safe" and report a bug
PCI: Fixing up bus 1 domain 1
PCI: bus1: Fast back to back transfers disabled
PCIE: Doing ASMedia switch Init...Test Read = 20010002
PCIE 0001:02:0018: ASMedia DownPort mem_base 0x0b000000, mem_limit 0x0cffffff
PCIE 0001:02:0018: ASMedia DownPort Link speed is GEN2
PCIE 0001:02:0018: ASMedia DownPort Link status 0x7012
PCIE: Doing ASMedia switch Init...Test Read = 20010002
PCIE: Doing ASMedia switch Init...Test Read = 20010002
PCIE 0001:02:0038: ASMedia DownPort mem_base 0x0e000000, mem_limit 0x0fffffff
PCIE 0001:02:0038: ASMedia DownPort Link speed is GEN2
PCIE 0001:02:0038: ASMedia DownPort Link status 0x7012
PCIE: Doing ASMedia switch Init...Test Read = 20010002
PCI: Fixing up bus 2 domain 1
PCI: bus2: Fast back to back transfers disabled
PCI: Fixing up bus 3 domain 1
PCI: bus3: Fast back to back transfers disabled
PCI: Fixing up bus 4 domain 1
PCI: bus4: Fast back to back transfers disabled
pci 0001:00:00.0: BAR 8: assigned [mem 0x08000000-0x08bfffff]
pci 0001:01:00.0: BAR 8: assigned [mem 0x08000000-0x08bfffff]
pci 0001:02:03.0: BAR 8: assigned [mem 0x08000000-0x085fffff]
pci 0001:02:07.0: BAR 8: assigned [mem 0x08600000-0x08bfffff]
pci 0001:03:00.0: BAR 2: assigned [mem 0x08000000-0x083fffff 64bit]
pci 0001:03:00.0: BAR 0: assigned [mem 0x08400000-0x08407fff 64bit]
pci 0001:02:03.0: PCI bridge to [bus 03]
pci 0001:02:03.0: bridge window [mem 0x08000000-0x085fffff]
pci 0001:04:00.0: BAR 2: assigned [mem 0x08800000-0x08bfffff 64bit]
pci 0001:04:00.0: BAR 0: assigned [mem 0x08600000-0x08607fff 64bit]
pci 0001:02:07.0: PCI bridge to [bus 04]
pci 0001:02:07.0: bridge window [mem 0x08600000-0x08bfffff]
pci 0001:01:00.0: PCI bridge to [bus 02-04]
pci 0001:01:00.0: bridge window [mem 0x08000000-0x08bfffff]
pci 0001:00:00.0: PCI bridge to [bus 01-04]
pci 0001:00:00.0: bridge window [mem 0x08000000-0x08bfffff]
PCIE2 link=1
PCIE2 switching to GEN2
PCIE2 link=1
PCI host bridge to bus 0002:00
pci_bus 0002:00: root bus resource [mem 0x20000000-0x27ffffff]
pci_bus 0002:00: No busn resource found for root bus, will use [bus 00-ff]
PCI: Fixing up bus 0 domain 2
PCI: bus0: Fast back to back transfers disabled
pci 0002:01:00.0: Max Payload Size set to 512 (was 128, max 512)
PCI: Fixing up bus 1 domain 2
PCI: bus1: Fast back to back transfers disabled
pci 0002:00:00.0: BAR 8: assigned [mem 0x20000000-0x205fffff]
pci 0002:01:00.0: BAR 2: assigned [mem 0x20000000-0x203fffff 64bit]
pci 0002:01:00.0: BAR 0: assigned [mem 0x20400000-0x20407fff 64bit]
pci 0002:00:00.0: PCI bridge to [bus 01]
pci 0002:00:00.0: bridge window [mem 0x20000000-0x205fffff]
PCIE3 link=0
Error creating gpio class
futex hash table entries: 512 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
squashfs: version 3.0 (2006/03/15) Phillip Lougher
io scheduler noop registered (default)
io scheduler cfq registered
PCIE: Doing ASMedia switch Init...Test Read = 20010002
PCIE: Doing ASMedia switch Init...Test Read = 20010002
serial8250_init
Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 3 ports, IRQ sharing disabled
console [ttyS0] disabled
serial8250.0: ttyS0 at MMIO 0x18000300 (irq = 117, base_baud = 7812500) is a 16550
console [ttyS0] enabled
serial8250.0: ttyS1 at MMIO 0x18000400 (irq = 117, base_baud = 7812500) is a 16550
brd: module loaded
loop: module loaded
bcmsflash: found no supported devices
The first offset=200000, 2nd offset=2100000
Boot partition size = 524288(0x80000)
lookup_nflash_rootfs_offset: offset = 0x200000 size = 0x1f00000, 0x20000
found TRX Header on nflash!
nflash: squash filesystem with lzma found at block 28
lookup_nflash_rootfs_offset: offset = 0x2100000 size = 0xfff00000, 0x20000
Creating 6 MTD partitions on "nflash":
0x000000000000-0x000000080000 : "boot"
0x000000080000-0x000000200000 : "nvram"
0x000000200000-0x000002100000 : "linux"
0x000000380000-0x000002100000 : "rootfs"
0x000002100000-0x000102000000 : "linux2"
mtd: partition "linux2" extends beyond the end of device "nflash" -- size truncated to 0x5f00000
0x000002100000-0x000102000000 : "rootfs2"
mtd: partition "rootfs2" extends beyond the end of device "nflash" -- size truncated to 0x5f00000
tun: Universal TUN/TAP device driver, 1.6
tun: (C) 1999-2004 Max Krasnyansky <maxk@qualcomm.com>
PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
PPP BSD Compression module registered
PPP Deflate Compression module registered
PPP MPPE Compression module registered
NET: Registered protocol family 24
GACT probability NOT on
Mirror/redirect action on
Simple TC action Loaded
netem: version 1.3
u32 classifier
Performance counters on
input device check on
Actions configured
Netfilter messages via NETLINK v0.30.
nf_conntrack version 0.5.0 (8047 buckets, 32188 max)
nf_conntrack_rtsp v0.7 loading
xt_time: kernel timezone is -0000
ip_set: protocol 6
gre: GRE over IPv4 demultiplexor driver
nf_nat_rtsp v0.7 loading
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
NET: Registered protocol family 17
bridge: automatic filtering via arp/ip/ip6tables has been deprecated. Update your scripts to load br_netfilter if you need this.
Bridge firewalling registered
8021q: 802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8
Registering SWP/SWPB emulation handler
max nvram space = 131072
read 131072 bytes to offset 0
Key type encrypted registered
Northstar brcmnand NAND Flash Controller driver, Version 0.1 (c) Broadcom Inc. 2012
nand: device found, Manufacturer ID: 0x01, Chip ID: 0xf1
nand: AMD/Spansion NAND 128MiB 3,3V 8-bit
nand: 128 MiB, SLC, erase size: 128 KiB, page size: 2048, OOB size: 64
Spare area=64 eccbytes 56, ecc bytes located at:
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 3435 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63
Available 7 bytes at (off,len):
(1,1) (16,2) (32,2) (48,2) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0)(0,0) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0) (0,0)
Scanning device for bad blocks
Options: NO_SUBPAGE_WRITE,
Creating 1 MTD partitions on "brcmnand":
0x000002000000-0x000008000000 : "ddwrt"
VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly on device 31:3.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 344K (c03ca000 - c0420000)
start service
starting Architecture code for northstar
udevtrigger[389]: parse_config_file: can't open '/etc/udev/udev.conf' as config file: No such file or directory
1970-01-01 00:00:06 main: Sanity checks succeeded
length = 0
try modules for ethernet adapters
et: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel.
Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
et_module_init: passivemode set to 0x0
et_module_init: txworkq set to 0x0
et_module_init: et_txq_thresh set to 0x400
et_module_init: et_rxlazy_timeout set to 0x3e8
et_module_init: et_rxlazy_framecnt set to 0x20
et_module_init: et_rxlazy_dyn_thresh set to 0
ifconfig: ioctl 0x8913 failed: No such device
vconfig: ioctl error for add: No such device
vconfig: ioctl error for add: No such device
roboswitch: Probing device 'eth0'
roboswitch: No such device
roboswitch: Probing device 'eth1'
roboswitch: No such device
roboswitch: Probing device 'eth2'
roboswitch: No such device
roboswitch: Probing device 'eth3'
roboswitch: No such device
PCI: Enabling device 0001:03:00.0 (0140 -> 0142)

 

[Peter_S]

got one step further.
I managed to stop the router from booting and have access to the CFE, I followed a set of instructions to load the eth0 but this just came back with 'Network interface has not been configured' this is not very helpful considering the lan port is needed to run tftp.

 

[Peter_S]

There may be only one more possibility to load firmware on internal serial interface, maybe beyond your skills (I wont learn weeks/months to get them and maybe fail at the end).
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/asus-rt-ac5300-bricked-what-to-do.35718/

so the latest, I have an unbricked AC5300 using the serial interface and a whole bunch of rebooting and web searching.

 

[Grisu]

so the latest, I have an unbricked AC5300 using the serial interface and a whole bunch of rebooting and web searching.

You are a hero in my eyes, but sorry thats all far beyond my knowledge to help any further.
If you have 2 identical devices maybe just blind copy complete NVRAM (really everything) from working to bricked if that is possible? You cant loose anything, there is no more than brick.
Of course first save everything to be able in future to go back and change individual values (secret codes, MAC). Otherwise you still could use it as AP or mesh-node with no internet access.

 

[Peter_S]

You are a hero in my eyes, but sorry thats all far beyond my knowledge to help any further.
If you have 2 identical devices maybe just blind copy complete NVRAM (really everything) from working to bricked if that is possible? You cant loose anything, there is no more than brick.
Of course first save everything to be able in future to go back and change individual values (secret codes, MAC). Otherwise you still could use it as AP or mesh-node with no internet access.

the unbricked ac5300 I was referring to is the once bricked unit. your suggestion of using the interface did the trick. I managed to get to the command prompt of the router then got the tftpd running after which I uploaded the firmware, rebooted and hey presto, a router that was sitting in it's original box for over a year is now fully operational.

 

[Grisu]