Bricked my router, anyway to save it ?

Combat squirrel · 21 Sep 2009 at 14:03

Was updating the firmware on my netgear DG834N and it failed, now flashes red and green power light and does nothing, can I save it ?

Tried resetting it and all that jazz, also looked for 'recovery' software, doesnt seem to be any....

Any more ideas?

gurusan · 21 Sep 2009 at 14:05

I did this yesterday to my DG834GT....if your router is blinking orange and green lights then download this:
ftp://downloads.netgear.com/files/dg834_recovery_utility.zip

and use it to flash your router with the correct firmware.

AbsenceJam · 21 Sep 2009 at 14:10

gurusan said:
I did this yesterday to my DG834GT....if your router is blinking orange and green lights then download this:
ftp://downloads.netgear.com/files/dg834_recovery_utility.zip

and use it to flash your router with the correct firmware.

I downloaded that using my phone last week when I messed up a flash.

Saved my behind.

LEK-89 · 21 Sep 2009 at 14:14

My DG834GT did this when it failed too, just download the Netgear Recovery Utility as gurusan has suggested and it will reload the whole router back. If you are in Vista though you might experience a BSOD like i did, there is something with the Netgear program that you need to change so it can work normally in Vista, i think you need to set both of the program things to Windows XP Compatibility.

Liam

Combat squirrel · 21 Sep 2009 at 14:15

running update now, doesnt seem to be doing anything, it take long ?

LEK-89 · 21 Sep 2009 at 14:16

Combat squirrel said:
running update now, doesnt seem to be doing anything, it take long ?

It can take time, took me about 5 mins in total for it to finish (when I finally got it to work in Vista correctly lol).

Liam

Combat squirrel · 21 Sep 2009 at 14:26

Well i was trying to run it from an xp virtual machine on OSX (macbook pro), thought prob wouiildnt work after 2-3 mins, booted into vista 64, doesnt even run on that

, keeps asking me run ramdrv , so i do, but still asks me run it, no joy, any ideas? should the VM work ?

LEK-89 · 21 Sep 2009 at 14:29

Combat squirrel said:
Well i was trying to run it from an xp virtual machine on OSX (macbook pro), thought prob wouiildnt work after 2-3 mins, booted into vista 64, doesnt even run on that , keeps asking me run ramdrv , so i do, but still asks me run it, no joy, any ideas? should the VM work ?

In Vista 64, set the ramdrv program compatiability to Windows XP (right click, compatiabiltiy options), same with the actual Netgear program (UpgradeWizard.exe).

When it works properly it will take time for the progress bar to move and as far as I know it works in 3 steps, and it will notify you when it moves onto the next step.

Liam

Klytus · 21 Sep 2009 at 14:30

I borked mine with a firmware update and couldn't fix it. I went onto the netgear site and registered it and found it was still under warranty, so I sent it off and they sent me a refurb. Think it has either 2 or 3 years warranty.

LEK-89 · 21 Sep 2009 at 14:32

I think the standard warranty is 2 years now for all home wireless products, My DGN2000 I recently got has 2 years warranty.

EDIT - Combat Squirrel, I forgot to say that you need to copy the newest firmware file into the Recovery Utility folder, this way when you load the program it will attempt to scan for the firmware file upon loading the program. I think because it is hanging is that it cannot find the firmware file in there (the program comes with no firmware file and the instruction PDF supplied will explain about this procedure to copy the firmware into the folder).

Liam

Combat squirrel · 21 Sep 2009 at 14:40

LEK-89 said:
In Vista 64, set the ramdrv program compatiability to Windows XP (right click, compatiabiltiy options), same with the actual Netgear program (UpgradeWizard.exe).

When it works properly it will take time for the progress bar to move and as far as I know it works in 3 steps, and it will notify you when it moves onto the next step.

Liam

hmmm tried that no luck, also set it to run as administrator level, says same thing :mad:

LEK-89 · 21 Sep 2009 at 14:43

Combat squirrel said:
hmmm tried that no luck, also set it to run as administrator level, says same thing

I've edited my last post, try what I suggested.

Sorry I totally forgot about copying the firmware part in the beginning! :eek:

Liam

Combat squirrel · 21 Sep 2009 at 14:45

Yeah saw that the firmware file is already in there, still same thing happens

, says could not get system information correctly, this does work on the DG834N yes? :S

LEK-89 · 21 Sep 2009 at 14:48

Combat squirrel said:
Yeah saw that the firmware file is already in there, still same thing happens

Damn, Yes it should work. On the Netgear website it does mention that it is only Windows 2000 & XP compatiable. My only suggestion would to try it on a clean XP machine (not a virtual machine, try dual boot?) and try it again, i'm sure it will work properly. If you get it to work but then the program still fails to reload the router then contact Netgear to send the router back under the warranty.

Liam

gurusan · 21 Sep 2009 at 14:50

Apparently it's quite picky about hardware...it would not work on Win7 64 with my Foxconn Blackops but worked when I used my laptop.

Try a friend's laptop/netbook or something.

LEK-89 · 21 Sep 2009 at 14:52

It took me a few tries to get it to work properly on my Vista laptop, before i changed the compatiability options I kept getting BSOD's when it was on the 1st step during the reload.

Liam

gurusan · 21 Sep 2009 at 15:04

ah yes you have to change compatibility to XP SP2 and run as admin otherwise it will bluescreen.

slylittlefox · 21 Sep 2009 at 15:48

I've had loads of problems with the Firmware Recovery util, it is indeed very picky about what it's run on. I ended up having to load pre-SP2 XP onto an ancient laptop and using it from there.

I had no joy using it in Vista, an XP SP2 VM, an XP SP2 machine, or a Windows 7 machine - even after playing for hours with the compatibility settings.

Rroff · 21 Sep 2009 at 15:59

Out of interest those using the DG834GT are you using the DGTeam firmware?

I've got the latest netgear one on mine and web browsing is horrid with intermittent timeouts, pages sometimes partially loading and taking 2-3 attempts to load

dunno if the DGTeam firmware would fix it... so back on my old router for now - which doesn't sync anything like as high as the netgear.

gurusan · 21 Sep 2009 at 16:02

I had a 1.02.16 Version of the 743 dgteam firmware then upgraded to the 848 the other day and could not play demigod at all without severe lagging and lockups...

So I downgraded to some other 743 dgteam firmware, and it was not stable for me! I can't for the life of me find 1.02.16 743 firmware so I have just installed the stock netgear 1.02.14 which works fine...

However I want the dgteam advanced adsl settings as I managed to squeeze an extra 1.5mbit download from snr tweaking.