Asus RT-N66U - can't get it out of rescue mode / slow power flashing

[Mike Renna]

I have an Asus RT-N66U (hw B1) that I think had a non standard firmware on it. It was used by a vendor of a client of mine to offer up wifi after entering your email address. My client had this after they stopped using the vendor.

With info here, I was finally able to get into rescue mode. Got the latest and then an older firmware from Asus page for this model. also tried the 'older' and newer firmware restoration apps. Neither would connect to the Asus (interesting - someone wrote about being able to get into rescue mode, then successfully ping 192.168.1.1 UNTILL starting the restoreation program and the pings failed.

Somewhere in the process, I read someone said to hold the WPS instead of / in addition to the reset button. at some point, the wifi changed from the company name SSID it was before to dd WRT and I could see a DD wrt config page at 192.168.1.1. talked of a version date of 2014 or so I think?

oh, I was holding the reset button WAYYYY too long trying to get it into rescue.. someone here said just hold for 5 seconds before turning on and then 5 seconds after. THANKS!!

Anyway, it pings with TTL 100 now. going to 192.168.1.1 on a browser, I get the CFE mini web server. Reset the NVRAM. Rebooted, then back in safe mode, I give it the latest firmware. It takes it, says it's going to reboot.

The power LED is still flashing slow (the PC is the only device connected to the ASUS. I tried a firmware from 2018. Same thing - slow Power blinking, going to 192.168.1.1 gets the cfe mini web server.

It's a fun challange, but I'm about to toss it unless anyone can offer other advice. Admittedly, I don't know what was on the box before i started with it. They taped over the LAN ports when it was being used to offer wifi / collect email addresses. Is there situations when you just can't get it back to asus firmware?

I saw pages talking about partitions, etc. so they could have changed too much to ever get it back to 'normal'?

being that its stuck in rescue - it just can't find the right partition to boot from / run the asus firmware?

Any value in this condition? or just toss it?

 

[Grisu]

Which firmware did you try to load?
You have to use RT-AC68U firmware!
And use old intermediate firmware: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/my-troubles-flashing-an-asus-rt-ac68p.49217/#post-436226https://www.snbforums.com/threads/my-troubles-flashing-an-asus-rt-ac68p.49217/#post-436226

 

[ColinTaylor]

Which firmware did you try to load?
You have to use RT-AC68U firmware!
And use old transition firmware.

No he doesn't. He has a RT-N66U.

 

[Grisu]

He posted in AC forum, not N forum!
So I assumed RT-AC66U_B1, but you are correct in header he wrote N66U thats very different.

 

[ColinTaylor]

How long did it take to apply the new firmware? On the older versions of the N66U like I have it takes about 40 minutes! The interface says it's timed out but that's not true, it's still applying it.

Did it reboot by itself after uploading the new firmware or did you power it off/on manually.

 

[Mike Renna]

DOH!!! Sorry guys! Yeah, it's an N66U sorry to bother you here. I'll post in the N