TL-WDR4300 bricked?

[holgus103]

Hello!

I messed up apparently and flashed the upgrade image instead of the factory image of Gargoyle 1.6.2.2, yet after the flash it was working more or less. I wanted to set it up as a repeater but it only worked in a and n standards. When I changed it to a+b+n the WIFI wasn't working until I reset everything to default. Therefore (unknowing of my previous mistake) I updated to 1.8.0 and since then there is no WIFI signal whatsoever. The Wifi diodes won't light up. I managed to connect to 192.168.1.1 once using LAN, but after i configured it, it stopped responding and now even resetting everything to defaults won't help. Can I flash the factory image using the TFTP recovery mode now? Any other thoughts? I'll be happy if you guys could help me out as I'm a complete newbie to this.

[nworbnhoj]

Bummer! Easy to make a mistake

I would be trying the Failsafe recover mode in the first instance because you seem to have had some "discussion" with Gargoyle on the router.

http://www.gargoyle-router.com/wiki/dok ... e_recovery

[holgus103]

Thanks, but the router doesn't respond to pings after what happened. It used to when I first booted it up with 1.8 but not anymore, so there won't be any packets coming from 192.168.1.1. So what now?

Is this any good?

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https://polkaspots.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/202882583-Installing-the-firmware-on-a-TPLink-using-the-TFTP-method

Also if it helps I get the following from WIRESHARK:

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33	12.563443000	Tp-LinkT_f8:8d:b4	Broadcast	ARP	60	Who has 192.168.18.1?  Tell 192.168.18.2

192.168.18.1 is my main router, as this was supposed to be a repeater.

[holgus103]

Ok, I connected it to my main router and now it's accessible. I don't know why but it seems resetting the settings to defaults just isn't working. So how do I flash the factory image now? Can I just flash it using the upgrade menu?

[nworbnhoj]

If you have access to the Gargoyle menu then yes I would reflash with gargoyle_1.8.0-ar71xx-generic-tl-wdr4300-v1-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin using the GUI
Gargoyle - System - Update Firmware

[holgus103]

I flashed the sysugrade over the stock firmware, therefore shouldn't i flash the factory-gargoyle one now? Could that be a problem? When flashing the sysuprade one I experience lot's of issues, seems to be a drivers problem so I guess some files are missing.

[nworbnhoj]

There are some details about the OpenWRT memory model here if you are interested
http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/techref/flash.layout

I am not a developer, but I am guessing that the factory.bin file flashes the entire memory space, and the sysupgrade.bin flashes only the rootfs "partition".

If I am right about this, then your post is a little confusing, because I cannot imagine that using the manufacturers GUI to flash the sysupgade.bin would work in any way, shape or form.

So, given that you have at least had a "discussion" with Gargoyle on the router, then I figured that is was worthwhile attempting to flash with the sysupgrade.bin file.

(The other thought is that you are working with a faulty network cable)

[holgus103]

The image file I used is:
gargoyle-1.6.2.2-ar71xx-tl-wdr4300-v1-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin

Anyways, so can I use the Gargoyle upgrade tool to flash a factory.bin image or will my router get bricked? Flashing the same image again didn't really help.

[tapper]

If i was you i wood flash 1.8 factory.bin that should wipe the rom chip and start again from scratch!

[holgus103]

So can I just flash the factory image using the upgrade tab in gargoyle or will it brick my router?