TP-Link 1043ND v1 bricked after upgrade to 1.8.0

[ccy]

I have a TP-Link 1043ND v1 wifi router using Gargoyle since 1.5.0 to 1.7.1. All the while I flash the firmware is fine. Until yesterday, I flash from 1.7.1 to 1.8.0 stable, I realise that my router has bricked. The SYS led has no response for long time. I switch off and on the router again and SYS led is off.

Is there a way to bring the router back to normal?

[Lantis]

Please follow the fail safe recovery procedure.
http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/generic.failsafe

[ccy]

After following the instruction to
1. open TP Link 1043ND casing
2. Solder a 4 pins connector to VCC, GND, RX and TX
3. Plug the USB to Serial cable to pin GND, RX and TX only
4. Use Putty to open the COM3 (in my case) with (115200, N, 8, 1)
5. Power up TP Link 1043ND and can notice blinks on all LEDs
6. Expected some text out from Putty COM3 but the putty screen shows nothing.

Please advice. Is my TP Link router consider dead?

[ispyisail]

try switching RX and TX