The Wrt54g Revival Guide




Special thanks to Guyfromhe, Voidman, and the admins for hosting

Hi, if you are reading this then you bricked your router. sorry.
This guide has been written for beginners (steps have been simplified for ease of use).

Some of these steps WILL void your warrantee, and could possibly cause bodily harm to you, and by following these steps you understand these precautions and will not complain to or hold accountable the author of this document, Linksys or Linksysinfo.org should any new problems arse after following any of the steps outlined below.

If your problem occured while installing official Linksys firmware it may be best to speak with Linksys directly before, using these steps as a last resort.

We will begin by breaking the guide down into two sections:

Linksys approved safe revival techniques
        and
Advanced debricking techniques











Linksys approved safe revival techniques

Revival tip #1:

This step will not void your warrantee as it is directly from the Linksys support site:

1. You first need to establish a connection to the Internet and download firmware for your router. To get
    online, bypass the router and plug directly into your Cable or DSL modem.
2. Download the latest firmware upgrade for your router from 1. http://www.linksys.com/download.
    Be sure to select the WRT54G and the correct version number that matches your router.
    Look on the bottom of the router to verify the model and version (no version number means version 1.0).
3. Click on Downloads for this Product. When the Downloads page loads, click on the Firmware button.
4. Download the firmware Auto Upgrade Utility .exe file from this page.
5. Before performing the upgrade, we recommend that you do the following:

  • If using a 10/100 network adapter, change its speed to 10Mb, half duplex. Please see the instructions below on how to do this.

    Windows 95/98/ME:
    1. At the Windows desktop, click on Start then choose Settings and click on Control Panel.
    2. Double click the Network icon. This will bring up the “Network Configuration” window.
    3. Locate and highlight the icon with the green logo for your network adapter and click Properties.
    4. This will display the network adapter's Properties.
    5. Select the Advanced tab and click Connection Type (this may also appear as Media Type, Connection
         Speed, Mode, Link Speed, etc). The current default value should be set to "Auto sense" or "Auto".
    6. Change the value of this option to 10Base-t, half duplex mode (usually the lowest possible option).
         The wording of this value may also vary, depending upon the make and model of the Network Adapter.
         Other possibilities include 10T half, 10Mb half duplex, 10Mbps half, etc.
    7. Once this has been changed, click OK to return to the Network configuration screen.
    8. Click OK again and Windows will ask to restart your computer. Click “Yes” to restart.

    Windows 2000/XP:
    1. Go to Start click on Run and type in control ncpa.cpl .
    2. Double click on the Local Area Connection that controls your network card.
    3. Click Properties under Local Area connection status.
    4. Click the Configure button. Then, click on the Advanced Tab.
    5. Click Connection Type (this may also appear as Media Type, Connection Speed, Mode, Link Speed, etc).
          The current default value should be set to "Auto sense" or "Auto".
    6. Change the value of this option to 10Base-t, half duplex mode (usually the lowest possible option).
         The wording of this value may also vary, depending upon the make and model of the Network Adapter.
         Other possibilities include 10T half, 10Mb half duplex, 10Mbps half, etc.
    7. Click OK after you made the change then click Close.

    Reloading the firmware:

    1. First, hold the reset button located on the back of the router for 30 seconds.
    2. Next, to test communication between the Router and the network card: Go to Start, and select
         Run. Type in command and press [Enter]. This will bring up the MS-DOS prompt window.
    3. Type ping 192.168.1.1 and press [Enter].
    4. You should get the following results:
    Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:
    Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
    Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
    Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
    Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128

    5. Once you get these replies, close out of the command prompt by typing in exit and pressing [Enter].
    6. Double click on the firmware file that you downloaded in Step 2. The “Firmware Upgrade Utility” will open.
    7. Click Next and type in the routers “IP Address” (192.168.1.1 is the default address of the router) and
         type in the Router’s Password (admin is the default password for the router).
    8. Once you confirm the settings (click Next), click Upgrade to start the firmware upgrade process. The
         upgrade will take about 1 to 2 minutes.
    9. Once the upgrade is complete, the router's Diag light (or Power light) should no longer be blinking.
    Note: Be sure to go back to your network card settings (from the steps above) and change the speed of the link
              back to “Auto sense” or “Auto” (the original default setting) to restore full speed to the adapter.



    Advanced debricking techniques

    If the official Linksys debricking method didn't work for you you can try the following steps, however this may result in damage to your router, yourself or your equipment, and again we will not be held accountable for it.

    Revival tip #2:

      As another friendly reminder that this WILL void your warrantee.
      Now that been said lets get started.
      Here is the popular voidmain revival tip.
      When might you use this tip?
    • If you forgot to set your "boot_wait" nvram setting and uploaded a bad firmware image which caused your
         router not to boot (like I did)
    • You failed every other instruction for reviving your router
    • You like living on the edge and just wanna play

      Pros: Turn your black and blue paper weight back into a working wireless router.

      Cons: I suppose you could make your WRT54G even deader than it already is, although I have not actually heard
               of anyone who has done this.

      The pictures in this tip are for people who have the v1.1 hardware. It works for the 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 2.2, 3.0 versions as
      well but the board layout is a little different in the other hardware versions. You'll just have to find your flash chip.

      Tools Required: Small jewelers screwdriver (or any other small pointy metal object).
      Ok, I'm convinced, let's get this baby working!!

      Let us begin:

      NOTE: Click on the thumbnail images in this tip to zoom in on the image.

      Find a nice open area to rip this baby apart:



      As you can see, the one I use in my example is a v1.1 router, your board layout may be different:


      Use your fingers to unscrew the antennas from the back (you will need to slide back the antenna cap to unscrew the antenna):
       

      This thing just snaps together, no screws involved, so just "pop" the blue face plate off. I find the easiest way to do this is to turn the unit upside down and place your hands between the feet on the side, then push on the blue feet with your thumbs:
       
      Now the board just slips right out the black cover (if it's locked down with slide clips just push the board so the clips line up with the holes):

      Now locate the flash chip. On my board it is clearly labeled "Intel Flash" but I don't believe all routers are
      labeled like this. Click on the pictures below for a better view. You will see that at each corner of the chip
      is a large white number. My picture is actually upside down (you didn't think I would makethis easy on you did you?).
      Notice at the upper right corner of the chip is the number "1", upper left is the number "24", lower left is the number "25",
      lower right is the number "48" (all upside down in my pictures). Between the number 1 and 24 you will see a row of 24
      silver pins. On the board above the pins there is a little white line every 5 pins that should help you count.
       
      Now comes the fun part. Do not plug the power in just yet but plug a patch cable into one of the 4 LAN ports
      on your router and plug the other end into a computer (my laptop works great for this). Configure your network
      card on your computer with a static IP address: IP: 192.168.1.2, NETMASK: 255.255.255.0, don't need a gateway
      address. Now if you are in Linux just type "ping 192.168.1.1" which will start a ping running. If you are in Windows then
      you have to pass a "-t" param (ping -t 192.168.1.1) so it doesn't stop trying to ping after 4 pings.

      Ok, now for the nitty gritty fun part. Locate pin 15 (third white mark starting from pin 1). Take your jewelers screwdriver
      (philips head is what I used, nice and pointy) and stick the point between pins 15 and 16 (see 1. NOTE1). While holding
      the screwdriver there, plug in the power and watch your ping screen. Hopefully you will be amazed (like I was) at seeing the pings
      starting to succeed. Don't be so happy that you drop the screwdriver on the board and start sparks flying. Remove the screwdriver
      and the pings should continue:


      The router is now in failsafe mode and is waiting on you to tftp a firmware image to it. Find any good firmware image for your router
      and upload it. In linux it might go something like this:

      This is under linux
      
$ cd /home/voidmain/firmware
$ ls
OpenWrt_b3.bin
$ tftp 192.168.1.1
tftp> bin

tftp> put OpenWrt_b3.bin



      The following is for windows
      
$ cd "to direcotry of bin file"
$ tftp -i 192.168.1.1 PUT "name of bin".bin
      Just make sure you transfer the file in binary mode (that's what the "bin" command did). Once the firmware has uploaded, your router should automatically reboot.
      If you uploaded the OpenWRT firmware like I did above you can then telnet into your box (telnet 192.168.1.1). If you uploaded the stock Linksys
      firmware you should be able to get to your router with your web browser (http://192.168.1.1/).

      Now put your router back together by reversing the instructions in this tip. You are triumphant and there will be much rejoicing.

      Thank you Voidmain for that. One heck of a article saved my Wrt54g many times.

      Now if that did not work then here is another method that can revive your Wrt54g here is another tip that could revive your Wrt54g. Here is
      another friendly reminder if this results in damage to your router, yourself to or your equipment, we will not be held accountable for it.

      .



      Revival tip #3:

      If you are reading this the none of the above worked. You think that you are out of luck well you are not!.....

      Ok now here is another revival tip to recover the wrt. The old earthing pin 16. It always seems to work.
      1.Now go to your command prompt and in the command prompt type ping -t 192.168.1.1
      2.take a copper wire or some kind of wire (use copper for best results you can buy it from radioshack) that is metal.
      3. Don’t plug in the power for the wrt54g yet touch the top middle of the antenna it is very important that you touch the top
      middle of the left antenna and pin 16 on the flash chip with your copper wire.

      4 at the same time plug in the power to the wrt54g.
      5 watch the command prompt for any replies. now tftp the firmware
      6.Now tftp the firmware
      Instead of using the TFTP client downloaded from linksys You can also do the following:
      This is under linux
      
$ cd /home/voidmain/firmware
$ ls
OpenWrt_b3.bin
$ tftp 192.168.1.1
tftp> bin

tftp> put OpenWrt_b3.bin



      The following is for windows
      
$ cd "to direcotry of bin file"
$ tftp -i 192.168.1.1 PUT "name of bin".bin
      7. If you don’t get any replies then start at 2 again.
      8.Don’t give up keep trying.


      Revival tip 4:

      If you are reading this then you are going to grab your coat and go down to bestbuy to buy another Wrt54g, wait don’t go anywhere
      there is one more tip.. One word jtag it saved many Wrt54g form the trash can. Thanks to hairydairy. Here is the download link
      http://spacetoad.com/tmp/hairydairymaid_debrickv22.zip
      Though I never tried before so I cant really wirte about it. this here are the instructions you will need to download the
      hairydairymaid debrick guide.

      Instead of making a jtag your self you can always buy one from http://www.theforestnetworking.com/hardware.php