(over)bricked Archer AC1200 A5

[Jybz]

Hello there !

I bought an Archer AC1200 A5 (not a C5 nor C50, I don't know the differences) yesterday.
As it mentions "hype facebook access" something, I said "I will try to install openwrt first".

The website of OpenWRT confuses me with snapshot install, first install, links, and found the first interresting page here :

Archer A5 V5 Installation Help!

Hello Open WRT Community, I need your help I Recently Got a TP Link Archer, A5 V5 From Amazon US With these Specs Firmware Version: 0.9.1 0.1 v0094.0 Build 181019 Rel.58740n(5553) Hardware Version: Archer A5 v5 00000001 After Looking Some Forums, I found nothing about this device, However i am aware that the Archer A5 V5 and The Archer C50 V5 Are Identical (both have the MediaTek MT7628A) , And also have found that there is a fork for The Archer C50 V4 That works on the V5 Aswell, so that…

I select and upload openwrt-19.07.7-ramips-mt76x8-tplink_c50-v4-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin (visible here https://openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/tp-link/tp-link_archer_a5_v5 ) from the web interface of the TP link. Yeah ! Blinking app ! (aka boot-loop ! \o/ )

So, I open my toolcase, take a screwdriver, open the box : no serial pin, just drilled holes.
So, I open my second toolcase, and solder the pin. (Here my first start being angry. I said no problem, I will repair it... Best will come later...)
In my third toolbox, I took a serial adapter for flashing from serial.

I (tried to) follow the instruction:

Techdata: TP-Link Archer A5 v5

Installation method(s):

see devicepage
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/installation/installation_methods/see_devicepage?dataflt[Model*~]=archer+A5
"Jan 2020: See device page and use instructions for Archer C50 v4 to create install image for C50 v5 (US version)."
https://openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/archer-c50
https://openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/archer_c5_v4#restoring_back_to_the_stock_firmware_via_tftp_recovery_mode

But at the end, I was distriburbed by a third and mixed the TFTP and Serial instructions... I remove the first 512 Byte, erase and flash tp_recovery.bin

After that mistakes, no surprises, it does not boot at all

I read here, he uses a Rpi to reset the flash (and desolderd/resolderd it).

Archer A5 v4 bricked (Solved)

Hi, I have also a problem with my TP-Link Archer A5 V4 (which is the same router as Archer C50 V4) But I know the problem with mine. My eeprom is broken. I desolderd it and checked the content of it with a raspberry pi. It reads about 1.5 MB of zero's and then I get data. When I try to flash a new image, it fails on it since it can't write the first part of the chip. I have a new chip. That is no issue, but I don't know how to create a working image for it. Is there anyone who has a full dump of…

I never did it yet. I went online and buy JTAG programmer (I'm missing it in my tools boxes !). What would you suggest me ? Try to find JTAG port and ISP ? desolderd the flash and flashs it with a Rpi ?

[henser]

hello, to install openwrt on the a5, you don't need to open the device and connect to a serial writter to install the firmware, some time ago it was discovered that you are able to instal via tftp, using ethernet port, and following some steps, you did the wrong way and bricked your device, hopefully you can start trying the tftp via ethernet recovery method, on the wiki page of the device there are instructions, let me know if you need any hints to recover your device.