Cannot flash gargoyle(or other firmware) onto 3700v2

[zzcranjo]

Hi all,

I bought a 3700v2 a few months ago, just using stock firmware as a modem+router, and had another dd-wrt 1043nd(I think thats it) as a client bridge. My needs changed however and now I need the great qos/bandwidth monitoring that gargoyle has(now have gargoyle on the 1043) but for some reason am unable to flash it to my router. My current stock firmware is at 1.0.0.12, which is supposedly the last version before netgear coded in checks to make sure you could only flash netgear updates.

I tried using the "factory" imave for the 3700v2, both the latest experimental and the latest stable. Also tried dd-wrt, open-wrt and none worked. All have the error message "incorrect file". Am I doing something wrong? Could my router be faulty?

[cirial]

Just rename the gargoyle firmware img to mimic the stock firmware filename and it should work fine..

[zzcranjo]

I tried that, renamed to "WNDR3700v2-V1.0.0.12.img" and same error.

[DoesItMatter]

http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=697901

Read that thread, the last 2 posts.

If you have a Windows 7 machine, you will have to put a switch
in between the PC and the WNDR3700

It's MUCH easier to TFTP on a Windows XP machine or a Linux machine

Try that and see if you can get DD-WRT or Gargoyle on the router

[cirial]

Try to downgrade to the oldest stock firmware you can find for your v2 and then try my trick again.

[zzcranjo]

http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=697901

Read that thread, the last 2 posts.

If you have a Windows 7 machine, you will have to put a switch
in between the PC and the WNDR3700

It's MUCH easier to TFTP on a Windows XP machine or a Linux machine

Try that and see if you can get DD-WRT or Gargoyle on the router

I tried tftping it before, didn't set my computer a static address though, that is probably what screwed me over. Also using windows 8. I am in the process of getting an arch linux install going so I can just use that.
Why do I have to use a switch? Is this once I have gargoyle or to flash it?

@cirial I tried flashing v07 down from v12 and it seemed to be succesful but upon reboot still said v12.

Thanks for the help! Much appreciated.

[DoesItMatter]

I tried tftping it before, didn't set my computer a static address though, that is probably what screwed me over. Also using windows 8. I am in the process of getting an arch linux install going so I can just use that.
Why do I have to use a switch? Is this once I have gargoyle or to flash it?

Thanks for the help! Much appreciated.

With Windows Vista, Windows 7, & Windows 8, there is an upgraded
TCP/IP stack, which causes the TFTP failures to routers.

The upgraded TCP/IP stack will disable the network port if it does
not detect any activity, which is the main issue with trying to TFTP
on these versions of Windows. The port sees activity and starts to
become active, but those few seconds can cause the TFTP
transfers to always fail.

If you have a switch between the PC ethernet port and the router
LAN port, Windows is tricked into thinking the port is always active
and allows TFTP transfers to go much easier.

[zzcranjo]

I got my arch linux install going, and followed many guides to tftping openwrt, gargoyle and dd-wrt. None worked unfortunately, and I believe I am unable to get my 3700v2 into recovery/failsafe/tftp mode. I do exactly as each guide says, but the lights that light up are not consistent with what the guide says.

For example
http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/netgear/wnd ... lsafe.mode

Code: Select all

 Steps needed in the flashing process:

    configure and connect PC
    power on the router
    press and hold the RESET button as soon as the switch LEDs light up.
    keep holding RESET until the power LED begins to flash orange and then green.
    once the power LED is flashing green, release RESET
    start the TFTP transfer to router at 192.168.1.1.
    wait a few minutes for the router to complete flash. It should reboot automatically.

Shortly after the router powers on(while I am holding the reset button), the power led begins to flash red, and when it is "off" the internet light is on, and green. So they alternate, which one is on, and which one is off. The power led is definitely red, and not orange, the green led is off, and the red is on. I cannot ping or put the image at this point. I have tried holding the button for much longer, 5 minutes sometimes, but the pattern of led flashes never changes, and I never successfully ping or put an image.

What am I doing wrong?

[ericwong]

Try serial recovery then..

[zzcranjo]

I have never done serial recovery before, I will look into that, but why is a stock router showing different patterns of lights when I try and boot it into recovery mode?