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[sheddyian]

I found a grotty looking Netgear DG834Gv3 in the cats charity shop today, for £1, so had to buy it.   

Cleaned it up, found a PSU for it (it was sans leads, sans box, sans everything), connected it up, and it all worked.  Got good speed connection.  Impressed with the interface and it's extra functions.

Decide to give the DGTeam firmware a try.

Downloaded what I beleived to be the correct firmware for this modem, flashed it via the web interface which seemed to go ok, but when the modem restarted, only the power and LAN lights come on, doesn't attempt to make a WAN connection.

Can't connect to it via the web interface either.

So may well have bricked it 

That may be the shortest time between acquiring something and breaking it that I've achieved to date, think I had it for about an hour. 

Still, the cats got a pound from me. 

Ian

[burakkucat]

Meow!

I seem to recall some mention of leaving such an apparently 'dead' device powered up and connected to a computer that is ready to connect to it via the default IP address. After a period of time, it becomes possible to access the device via the GUI. If that works for you, you could then re-flash the device with the Netgear firmware.

Other than that, open it up and look for a serial console or JTAG header pins . . . 

[sheddyian]

Yeah, I've got a feeling there's a recovery mode, I'll look into it later.  Or maybe tomorrow since I'm not having much success today (see other thread about my bargain NAS box not-responding)

Ian

[sheddyian]

Fixed it!

And as this is relvant to another thread where I was trying to flash an ex Sky modem with DGTeam firmware, and failing, I'll add an update there too.

So :

I downloaded the DG834 recovery tool, and the most recent official Netgear firmware from their site.  Ran the recovery software, exncountered the same problem I'd had trying to update the Sky modem - the recovery tool window becomes corrupted, and nothing happens. 

The recovery software gets as far as asking you which network adaptor to use (I've only got the one) then the window  gets partly overwritten and pressing buttons makes the display change but nothing else happens.

A bit of googling found various solutions to this, one of which was to install a 2nd network adaptor.  As I had one handy, and it was a Netgear adaptor, I've just tried that.  And it worked!

I added a 2nd network adaptor (Netgear PCI gigabit one), connected the dead Netgear DG834 to that, and ran the recovery program.

I put the Netgear into recovery mode by holding in the reset button whilst plugging the power lead in, making the lights on the front flash alternately.

Recovery program showed me both network adaptors, I chose the newly installed Netgear one, and it correctly displayed firmware versions etc, then flashed the modem, and it's all working again! 


Might try reflashing with the DGTeam firmware a bit later, after I've checked I downloaded the correct version! 

Ian

[HPsauce]

various solutions to this, one of which was to install a 2nd network adaptor

I recall seeing that long ago, I think in the context of a laptop and IIRC it specifically suggested 2 wired adapters and using a USB-LAN unit to create #2.

[GigabitEthernet]

I recall seeing that long ago, I think in the context of a laptop and IIRC it specifically suggested 2 wired adapters and using a USB-LAN unit to create #2.

Or install the Microsoft Loopback adaptor.

[burakkucat]

Fixed it!

Excellent news. 

(Now you just need to sort out that 'bargain' NAS . . .  )

[sheddyian]

I've bricked it again! 

Tried re-installing the DGTeam firmware via the web interface, all went as before, and after it reboots, it won't do anything.  Can't get a connection to it, though the LAN lights up.

Worse, I can't get it to stay in recovery mode to reflash it!  If I hold the reset button and power it up, the green and yellow lights alternately flash, as expected.  But as soon as I let go of the reset button, it starts booting up into it's unresponsive state!

Holding the reset button whilst running the recovery software doesn't work, quite obviously!

Well done me.   

Ian

[burakkucat]

I've bricked it again! 

     

[sheddyian]

Well, the only reason I bought it was so I could have a play with the DGTeam firmware, so apart from losing the chance to do that (unlcess I can recover it somehow) I'm not too fussed that I've lost a £1 modem.

Still annoying though.

Ian