Archer C7 V5 back to stock

I am currently on openwrt on Tplink Archer c7v5... Would like to switch to stock.... Help plz

@arkabose, welcome to the community!

Have you started with the 3 sections beginning with this section on the V5 page?

I hope you also heeded this warning found there:

WARNING: DO NOT install OpenWrt 17.03 or 18.06 on Archer C7 v1.x (and WDR7500 v2.x) , the AR1A (v1) variant of QCA9880 wifi card causes a bootloop as the ath10k driver crashes hard when trying to initialize wifi hardware. Also, in older OpenWrt releases the 5GHz 802.11a/n/ac wifi does not work (due to issues with the same wifi card).

Hey...
Thanks for the quick reply.... Well I did try copying the stock tp link c7 v5 firmware (renamed to tplink.bin) to /tmp of the router via winscp then used putty to connect to the router via ssh and run this

mtd -r write /tmp/tplink.bin firmware

It appeared to execute successfully but the router didnot reboot successfully instead it was stuck and just the power light came on and it was stuck there...

Looking at the stock firmware (US-EU-CA- etc region) it is not in the typical format. binwalk suggests the kernel starts at 0x12A36 instead of 0x20200.

This means the stripping process would be different.

It may work to TFTP recover with that image anyway, that would be the next thing to try.

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I did try with tftp... But it always tyms out before the whole firmware could be copied... Gets stuck at around 84 percent...

Im also having this issue with my Archer C7 v5 (US)

The only firmware i can get to actually install via TFTP is openwrt-18.06.2-ar71xx-generic-archer-c7-v5-squashfs-factory.bin

And when ssh'ed i cant seem to push any firmware without killing the device again.

How do we strip the original TPLink firmware knowing the different kernel start point ?

to avoid such things, you should make flash backup before installing openwrt. then you can flash this backup via putty/tftp method

Too late for that now :frowning:

Unless someone has a backup of their v5 handy that I could use...

Any other options ?

Ok, so i was able to get a serial connection working to the device, and was able to recover via serial and tftp...

I restored the original firmware via TFTP then the web recovery console loaded, i loaded the same image again via the console and the system boots.

However... now when i try to apply the latest firmware from TP-Link it fails again:

upgrade firmware... 
true 
file_len:14841998 
fw_type_name : Cloud 
md5 verify ok! 
[Error]sysmgr_proinfo_buildStruct(): 480 @ Invalid file. 
[Error]sysmgr_cfg_getProductInfoFromNvram(): 711 @ sysmgr_proinfo_buildStruct() failed. 
-------------------------------------------------------------------- 
vendorName : 
vendorUrl : 
productName : 
productLanguage : 
productId : 00000000 
productVer : 00000000 
specialId : 00000000 
hwlId : 
oemId : 
-------------------------------------------------------------------- 
[Error]sysmgr_cfg_checkSupportList(): 870 @ ARCHER C7 NOT Match. 
[Error]sysmgr_cfg_checkSupportList(): 870 @ ARCHER C7 NOT Match. 
[Error]sysmgr_cfg_checkSupportList(): 870 @ ARCHER C7 NOT Match. 
[Error]sysmgr_cfg_checkSupportList(): 870 @ ARCHER C7 NOT Match. 
[Error]sysmgr_cfg_checkSupportList(): 870 @ ARCHER C7 NOT Match. 
[Error]sysmgr_cfg_checkSupportList(): 870 @ ARCHER C7 NOT Match. 
[Error]sysmgr_cfg_checkSupportList(): 870 @ ARCHER C7 NOT Match. 
[Error]sysmgr_cfg_checkSupportList(): 870 @ ARCHER C7 NOT Match. 
[Error]sysmgr_cfg_checkSupportList(): 870 @ ARCHER C7 NOT Match. 
[Error]sysmgr_cfg_checkSupportList(): 870 @ ARCHER C7 NOT Match. 
Firmwave not supports, check failed. 
[NM_Error](nm_checkUpdateContent) 01065: hardware version not support 
[NM_Error](nm_buildUpgradeStruct) 01178: checkUpdateContent failed. 

[NM_Error](CheckUpgradeFile) 00359: check firmware error! 

[NM_Error](nvrammanager_checkUpgradeFile) 00523: check firmware file failed! 

3rd firmware file_len:14841998 --14841998 
magic number is:0XBD08DD7F 
magic number error![NM_Error](nvrammanager_check_3rd_UpgradeFile) 00572: check firmware file failed!

Any ideas how to fix this part (without a backup, or does someone have a backup i could restore ?)

Check that the country / region coding matches.

If you are saying that you can load and boot some stock firmware but not others, boot the stock firmware that works then:

  1. use its web interface to "reset to factory" and reboot.
  2. use its web interface to flash another copy of the exact same firmware that is running. (This may replace the bootloader.)
  3. Then try to install the latest version.
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Im not able to do this, i can reset to factory (and have done so) using the tp link gui. however when i try to flash the same or newer version it fails....

I actually gave up and returned the device.

Is there a safe way to return to stock on the V5?

I also have the problem of timeout (at 90%) when try to return to stock firmware via tftp. has someone a idea how to solve this?

How to make backup of the stock firmware before installing openwrt for the first time?

unless there is console access or backdoor in stock fw you are looking at UART or external programmer backup method