Bricked Linksys WRT54G repair instructions
What you need:
1 bricked Linksys WRT54G router with boot_wait=off
1 corkscrew
optional:
1 bottle of wine
If you have to take courage first, the bottle of wine could help!
What to do:
Unscrew the antennas and open the router and look for the Intel flash chip. The chip has 48 pins. You can find the numbers on the edges of the chip 1 .. 24 .. 25 .. 48. Time for a big slug of wine! Now use the corkscrew to shorten pin 16 and 17.
I have the Linksys WRT54G v2.2, on some older routers you have to shorten pin 15 & 16.
Now plug in the power cable and your Linksys should be ping-able now. You can send the firmware using tftp:
tftp 192.168.1.1
binary
rexmt 1
timeout 60
trace
tftp> put firmwarefile.bin
My WRT54g is almost 4 years old and, appears to have fritzed. Happened during the nite. Only the “diag” lite appears-and that is dim..I tested the power adapter and it is in “OK” shape.. Not having much luck with my search for a repair shop..Can you help with any suggestions?
Thanks,
Knute.
No sorry 🙁
I was able to use this same method to recover a dead BEFW11S4v4.
The data sheet for the flash (29LV800, TSOP package) indicates that pins 16 and 17 are A18 and A17, the topmost address lines – so there’s no point in shorting them.
However, pin 15 is the ready/!busy signal, while pin 16 is A18, the top address line. Shorting these together pulls the ready signal down, indicating the device is busy with a program or erase operation, and cannot be read – so the broken firmware cannot be loaded. The device can then be recovered as described.
However, while the firmware was broken, the NVRAM was not – and it wouldn’t let me tftp the new firmware without a password – until I did “put firmwarefile.bin /” – ie, with a / (meaning, in the root directory).
Then, without powering off, I was able to load http://192.168.1.1 and recover all the settings.
Thanks for the tip!
I was successful (thanks for the advice!) with a WRT54g V1.1 resetting via pins 15&16, then loading DD-WRT V24 mini. Advice seems to be use a jeweller’s screwdriver to short the pins…. no wonder success rate is only 20%!!
The board has lacquer on it and most screwdrivers are too large to ensure you short the right pins.
Use a magnifying glass and sharp sewing needle, and make sure you short the pins close to the flash chip to miss the lacquer.
sewing needle worked shorting WRT54GS V2 pins 15 16
Do you short the pins to each other or both to ground and do you short then power up or while power is on ?