The $200 router I bought bricked itself after a firmware update yesterday

Picked up a TP-Link AX5400 from Best Buy last week, seemed great for the price. Everything was fine until I ran the firmware update through the app yesterday afternoon. Midway through the progress bar froze, then the power light started blinking amber. Now it won't even show up on my network scan. Tried the 30-30-30 reset trick and held the reset button for a full 2 minutes, nothing. Support says it's out of warranty because of a 30 day return window I missed by 2 days. Has anyone here had any luck unbricking one of these with a serial console or JTAG? I'm open to trying anything before I smash it with a hammer.

3 comments

3 Comments

benc531mo agoMost Upvoted

Did you try the TFTP recovery method yet?

bennett.patricia1mo ago

Oh man, "smash it with a hammer" - I felt that in my soul. Had the exact same thing happen with a Netgear router a couple years back, amber light of death and everything. @benc53 is spot on with the TFTP recovery tip, that's actually how I got mine back from the dead. You'll need to set a static IP on your computer first, usually 192.168.0.66 or something similar depending on the model, then grab the firmware file from TP-Link's support page and use a TFTP client to push it over while the router is booting up. It's a bit fiddly but way cheaper than a new router. If TFTP fails, check if there's a serial console header on the board - some of those AX5400s have them near the antenna connectors, and PuTTY over serial can sometimes brute force a recovery.

loganl2212d ago

Nah man I gotta disagree here... TFTP recovery is such a pain and half the time it doesn't even work. I spent like 3 hours messing with static IPs and timing the boot sequence just right on my old TP-Link, and it still bricked. Plus most people don't have a serial console cable lying around or know how to use PuTTY for that. Honestly a new router is like 60 bucks now, and you get warranty and support. All that fiddling around isn't saving you much when you factor in your time and frustration...