Bricked Netgear R7800. Tftp not working

Hey, something went wrong when I was trying to flash firmware from the openwrt webpage to my router(R7800). And now it seems stuck in some kind of bootloop. See here: https://imgur.com/a/jCY3vlV

So I'm trying to put it back to the original netgear firmware using tftp, but the process as described here: https://kb.netgear.com/000059633/How-do-I-upload-firmware-to-my-NETGEAR-router-using-a-TFTP-client-on-Microsoft-Windows

Does not work tftpd64 is stuck on block #0 when trying to upload the firmware. It stated in the tutorial that you should wait until the amber light starts blinking but that does not happen(I can make it happen when holding down the reset button but then it only start blinking briefly and tftp still does not work).

What are my options now?

The TFTP recovery has worked dozens of times for me during the past 6 years with almost daily R7800 flashing (that goes wrong every now and then). It is pretty bulletproof, as the uboot bootloader is not part of OpenWrt or OEM firmware.

Read the R7800 specific advice from

One possibility is that you have a bad flash block in the first few blocks of the firmware area. To see that, you need serial cable and serial session during flashing.

In any case, if the TFTP does not seem to work, you best debugging step is serial, so that you see what actually happens. Otherwise it is pure guessing.

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Thanks for the links. What did the trick was holding the reset button and then turning it on and waiting for the white led to flash 10 times. Weird that that method is not explained in the official netgear guide. Thanks for the quick help!

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