I'm impressed by myself... I hooked up the TP-Link and checked that it worked, downloaded tfp2.exe and the correct bin-file, fired up the tfp2 with 192.168.0.66, started the router and got a few error messages from the tfp2 about password. Now, when I turn on/plug in the router, I see the number 4 LED from the left (I think it's WAN) light up red for a few seconds and then nothing. Nothing at all. No LEDs, and of course no contact. I have tried to use tfp2 again a couple of times, but nothing happens. So is this a "hard brick", meaning "fun while it lasted, goodbye", or is it possible to recover from this. I only have Windows, and I must say that I have a problem understanding the instructions for unbricking. And I wanted this thing to use it on my DSL modem to utilize DNSMasq, so I hope I can fix it and use that function.
Topic: New world record in bricking TP-Link C50?
The content of this topic has been archived on 26 Apr 2018. There are no obvious gaps in this topic, but there may still be some posts missing at the end.
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Is it a v1 or a v2?
Wiki for the V1 says that TFTP flashing will overwrite the bootloader, so the bin file you supply must include a bootloader. These are generally created by hacking up a factory firmware file which includes 'boot' in its name. OpenWrt doesn't include bootloaders.
If you wiped out the bootloader, attempting to TFTP by holding down the WPS button while booting will not work, the WPS light will not come on. In that case it is pretty severely bricked and the only way to recover is by writing the flash chip directly with a SPI programmer.
(Last edited by mk24 on 30 Aug 2017, 02:10)
Yeah, it's a V1. How weird. Are there more than one wiki pages? I read this one: https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/archer-c50
And there's no mention of that, at least not as far as I can find. There's only the instructions to obtain firmware (Firmware OpenWrt Install URL) and install it, no mentioning of hacking the firmware before in the debricking section, where it says "To prepare recovery file cut the first 0x200 (that is 512) Bytes from original firmware (This cut only header of firmware, Recovery need bootloader and firmware)" So I guess I'm the victim of either being half blind or of an incomplete page.
The discussion might have continued from here.
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