Revive a dead router
Sometimes a firmware flash can go bad, the power fails, your computer crashes or it just goes wrong. Here are some tips & tricks you can use to revive your router :
Case 1 : Power led is steady
- Reset your router to defaults by holding the reset button down for 15 seconds.
- Connect your router to your computer, putting the ethernet cable into a LAN port.
- See if your computer gets an IP from the router (something like 192.168.1.x), otherwise set a manual IP like 192.168.1.2.
- Flash v2.02.7 (for wrt54g) or v2.07.1 (for wrt54gs) using the TFTP Client from Linksys (v2.04.4/v2.09.1 firmware is too large to flash with TFTP), server is “192.168.1.1” and password “admin”.
Case 2 : Power led keeps flashing
- Reset your router to defaults by holding the reset button down for 15 seconds.
- Connect your router to your computer, putting the ethernet cable into a LAN port.
- Set the manual IP “192.168.1.2” on your computer.
- Download v2.02.7 (for wrt54g) or v2.07.1 (for wrt54gs), unpack and rename to “code.bin”
- Start command prompt on windows, go to the “code.bin” directory and type “tftp -i 192.168.1.1 put code.bin” and do NOT press Enter yet.
- Cold boot the router and in the period between the “all lights flashing” (with “boot wait” set to “on” this will be 5 seconds, with “boot wait” set to “off” only 1 second) press Enter on your computer.
Case 3 : The above didn’t work
- If your router is still under warranty go back to the store.
- If not, proceed to the next step that will give you 99% chance of reviving your router!
- You will have to open up your router and follow the instructions on this site.