Bricked my Archer C7

[bnimble]

Just opened the router today, got into its setup screen and uploaded the gargoyle_1.8.1-ar71xx-generic-archer-c7-v2-squashfs-factory.bin firmware. Upload successful, started resetting...

...and that's the last I ever heard from it.

There were no power interruptions or the like. I verified that it was a V2 before I started the upload.

I haven't been able to talk to 192.168.1.1, or 192.168.0.1, or 192.168.1.254, or 192.168.0.254, or 192.168.1.66... not with HTTP, not with Ping.

I've set my IP to static 192.168.1.2.

I've tried to do 30/30/30 resets until my fingers are sore, both with a cable to the internet modem attached and without. I don't get any blinking of the LEDs at all (and it seems from the 30/30/30 posts that I should).

The "failsafe" mode also appears to do nothing.

As a matter of fact, holding down the WPS/reset button at startup seems to go into "WPS mode" (with the two arrows at far right on the display) briefly, but then follows the above sequence. It's as if it doesn't know it's supposed to act as a reset button.

Its power-up behaviour is to show all LEDs, then Power/System/Wireless, then just Power, my LAN cable and the internet cable (if attached). It can detect if you plug in or remove WLAN or LAN, but that's about it.

I *never* get Wireless LEDs showing after the router boots up, regardless of the position of the Wireless On/Off switch in back.

If I run Wireshark, it can tell that -something- is going on when I turn the router on, but there doesn't seem to be any other traffic than my address (192.168.1.2) desperately asking for things and not finding them or my onboard ethernet (Giga-Bye_a0:61:13) asking Who has 192.168.1.1? Tell 192.168.1.2.

My LAN connection lists IPv4 Connectivity as No network access and while there are plenty of packets sent, there are none received.

I *wish* I was in the position of any of the folks who can still talk to 192.168.1.1 somehow, but I'm not. Something seems to be going on, but it's mute... and maybe deaf.

Is there any hope for this thing?

I really wasn't expecting this to turn into an "either solder something on the motherboard or throw it in the trash" type of effort :/

-- Ritchie

[tapper]

Hi mate you have to tap the button fast as the router is booting to get in to fail safe.

[Lantis]

I agree that your method of putting it into failsafe probably isn't correct.

Also 30/30/30 does nothing.

[bnimble]

The "boot sequence", such as it is, appears to take nine seconds. From all the OpenWRT documentation I've seen so far, the SYS icon is supposed to blink during that opening sequence. It doesn't.

I've been looking at mostly the OpenWRT pages about failsafe as well, such as when/how long/how often/how fast to press the button and the only way it seems to affect the boot sequence is that it either does or does not look like it's trying to do a WPS pairing.

I'm going to see if there are any other techniques. I've seen the suggestion for some TP-Links to plug your PC into the WLAN port and try telnetting in from there (https://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/generic.failsafe). Maybe.

-- Ritchie

[mrD123]

Hello, I have exactly the same tale of woe--same router, bin file, and symptoms. Any progress since your last post (Saturday)?
Thanks-
-Andrew

[bnimble]

Yikes! You too, Mr. D123?

How recently did you buy yours? I mean, I had mine shipped maybe a week ago and it arrived in time for the weekend.

I'm sad to say that it didn't progress at all. No blinking during startup, no talking, nothing of note on Wireshark, even tried plugging my machine into it in isolation both on LAN1 and WLAN... to absolutely no avail.

I used the 1.8 release presuming it would be the stable one.

If I had to guess, I'd say that TP-LINK changed the hardware somehow, even with it saying V2. With two of us, that can't be a coincidence.

I've ordered another C7 for which I'm just going to use the stock software for now. (I'm in desperate need of finding out where the big bandwidth suck in the house is, considering that we don't do Netflix or anything of that sort outside of YouTube, and YouTube normally at 360p)

This bricked C7, well, I'm going to try getting some help from some friends with tools and manual dexterity and try the whole JTAG thing. I mean *something* is alive in there, so I've got to think there's hope for it.

Sorry you ran into the same problem. If you find something that works, PLEASE TELL ME.

I'll try to do the same once I've done JTAG stuff, but it's probably going to be ages from now if I'm ordering a cable off eBay

(Also, thank you a lot for posting. When it was just me, I was feeling sheepish; with others in the same boat, well, that's an issue. There are a LOT of links out there recommending the C7 for Gargoyle. We might have to warn them that it will turn their C7 into an expensive paperweight )

[mrD123]

Hello,
so I got my C7 new from Amazon, delivered a couple of weeks ago (mid-March.) I bought this router as a replacement for a sketchy WR1043ND. The 1043 was a dream, for both loading and running Gargoyle, for about a year, and then it started spontaneously rebooting, among other seemingly-hardware-related bad behaviors. I thought the C7 would be a nice upgrade, and also felt I was on safe ground from the generally positive comments on this forum. When I couldn't load Gargoyle effortlessly (as on the WR1043ND), I found and followed the method in the "Holy Cow Testicles" forum post. And so here we are. Power light on, an occasional blink of the ethernet port light, and nothing else, no ping responses etc. I haven't had any luck experimenting with timing/sequence of reset button presses.

I don't have your level of technical understanding with this, so I'm wavering on digging deeper or just eating my $99 brick and moving on with life (i.e., ordering another WR1043ND for $45 and maybe getting another year of Gargoyle fun.). Sorry I have no hopeful news!

[techie19]

I just got my router a couple of weeks ago too. I have been doing a lot of research and I have managed to get to the point of freely going back and forth between stock and gargoyle but gargoyle never loads. The good news is it isn't bricked and hopefully gargoyle will run on this router soon. Apparently there was a hardware change back in December and OpenWRT has been broke since then. The trunk build of OpenWRT works. I tested it this morning and it seems to be good. The proper way to get to failsafe on this version is to hold the reset button for about 3-5 seconds when booting. The WPS light will light up.

[mlahey]

I just got my router a couple of weeks ago too. I have been doing a lot of research and I have managed to get to the point of freely going back and forth between stock and gargoyle but gargoyle never loads. The good news is it isn't bricked and hopefully gargoyle will run on this router soon. Apparently there was a hardware change back in December and OpenWRT has been broke since then. The trunk build of OpenWRT works. I tested it this morning and it seems to be good. The proper way to get to failsafe on this version is to hold the reset button for about 3-5 seconds when booting. The WPS light will light up.

I just received a new C7 and am considering returning rather than dealing with a potential brick.

@techie19

Have you tried installing the experimental (1.9) factory bin? I'm curious if the updated flash driver in the upstream trunk might have made it to into this build?

[techie19]

I haven't tried the latest and greatest build but I tried one of the others with no success. I believe the devs for gargoyle are built on the latest stable release of OpenWRT which will not run on the Archer C7. I wouldn't worry too much about bricking it but if you want Gargoyle to run on it right away then I would buy a different router.