What I mean is, according to the Wiki table, this version of CH EC should be DDR3, but it's actually DDR4. Naturally, U-Boot for DDR3 killed the router. I had to disassemble the router and restore it via UART. As you can see from the startup log, the memory is DDR4. If I run it with the DDR3 file, the router won't boot, and the log shows 0 MB instead of RAM: 512 MB.
The firmware for all router versions is naturally the same and works normally.
This info was taken from the commit and some statistics left no room for doubt:
And here we need to ask whether the OP is a China Telecom subscriber and whether the router was received directly from the provider. Refurbished devices are common on the Chinese trading platforms. And there could be anything inside them.
Naturally, the author is not located in China. These aren't refurbished versions; they're new, imported from China, ordered by a local resident, and shipped to me. More routers are on their way from there. Once they arrive, they'll also be flashed to OpenWRT. The versions with UART holes are fine—you just insert the pins and refurbish them, but the versions with solder-only spots—that's a nightmare! All those contact pads are very flimsy, and you really don't want to make any mistakes there.
I couldn't find a way to fix this programmatically (what commands to enter in the console).
The Chinese firmware is based on version 21.02 or 21.2 SNAPSHOT, I don't remember exactly, and unflashed routers are no longer available. Moreover, there are routers for which the method described in the WIKI (saving configuration, modification and flashing) does not allow access to the console. Configuration upload is blocked by the firmware. I couldn't find a software unlock for these routers at all, only UART.
The production date of these routers is 2025 or later. But again, this may not be 100% accurate.
This is China.
Furthermore, I couldn't find a way to check the type of memory installed in an already-flashed OpenWrt router. Given my poor English, my questions to the developers are usually relegated to the sandbox, implying that I'm not particularly bright and too young to ask adults questions, let alone give advice))).
I'd like to point out an inaccuracy in the WIKI instructions. It's generally assumed that all files we flash to the router are first placed in /tmp. Therefore, the commands are incorrect.
It's good that Wiki clarified that the tables don't match, but I don't understand why U-Boot version 24.X is universal for both DDR3 and DDR4, while version 25.X already differentiates them.
Why create a problem for yourself and then heroically solve it?
Is this a boring life?
In this case, you just need to decide whether it's NAND or eMMC.
You likely know this better than I, but while using U-Boot version 24.X, I haven’t seen any routers getting bricked.
Yet, as soon as I followed the Wiki instructions to the letter, I ended up bricking the device. If a manufacturer of OpenWrt-based routers with an OpenWrt bootloader develops a universal bootloader, it clearly means it's feasible and the flash partition capacity is sufficient.
I'm on a lucky streak. Not a single DDR3 router until now, and the first one I try with the SNAPSHOT bootloader is DDR3. Sadly, I never win the lottery though.
The AN8855 issue in the Xiaomi AX3000T was addressed several years ago.
My point is that the RAM type isn't tied to the alphanumeric index on the sticker; it’s strictly determined by the manufacturer's current inventory availability.
I'm sorry this has caused you trouble. I'm in China and worked as a designer for a consumer products company（but not router） for several years. I completely understand the challenges you're facing. During my time as a designer, we frequently initiated cost-reduction projects, trying to cut costs as much as possible in production-ready projects.
However, if your production volume is large enough, I recommend you customize and purchase a fixture similar to the one shown in the image below.
It’s not about the design; it’s about the attitude towards customers. It feels like you treat your clients as "disposable." How can you change product specifications like this?
Take the Xiaomi AX3000T, for example: they changed not only the ROM but the entire CPU—to a completely different manufacturer! All this without changing the model name, without any notice on the packaging, and using the exact same casing.
This completely alters the consumer properties of the product.
It reminds me of a negative experience buying something as simple as solder in China. The listing said "Solder for soldering - 100g." Naturally, having paid for it, I expected 100g of actual solder. But a Chinese marketer decided it would be more "interesting" to sell me 25g of solder wound onto a 75g spool. And when accused of fraud, they claimed I was wrong because "25 + 75 = 100," so everything is fine.
When you go to a restaurant and order 100g of rice, do you also get a plate weighing 99.9g with just two grains of rice on it?
Or is this a "special offer" exclusively for the export market?
