Recently bricked my TP Link C2 v1 EU trying to install openwrt. Big error on my side i know where i went wrong reading the wiki. The bootloader is corrupt or missing as i am not able recover by tftp or serial method. Only have power light on.
I can un solder the rom flash which is a 25L6433F. If some has and willing to share full flash dump for the "TP-Link C2-v1 EU AC750" i would be most grateful.
Thanks
tplink offers those for download, under disguide of "firmwaare update"
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The router is not accessible anymore to flash the firmware.by tftp and pressing reset button or the serial console. i need the full dump from the chip itself which is different from the firmware and then flash it via flash programmer.
Ask tplink?
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Hi Thanks
Did try tplink first. Unfortunately they only offer support by the official tftp recovery method. After that they are unable to assist.
https://openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/archer_c2_ac750
First 128kB of flash is uboot (i.e. recovery) which is 512B from start of OEM fw upgrade.
Last 256kB of flash is device-unique data
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Hi - Much appreciate your assistance.
Tried both TP Link fw and openwrt fw 19.07.1 as provided in wiki link with with uboot to chip using ch341a programmer. The programmer correctly detects the chip. I am able to backup existing data then erase, add verify new but router only shows power LED. For recovery using tftp assume i need to press reset button to start the recovery process. The router stays with power led lit.
Have a friend who is donating his spare C2 v1 router tomorrow. Going to back up dump on chip on this router and will report back tomorrow. If successful i know this will clone the donor routers mac and wifi mac. May need further assistance to correct this.
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Basic layout is in OpenWRT wiki page - first 2 blocks is bootloader, last block is factory configuration. Check is last 64k is not zeroed/erased then you can just flash bootloader from OEM upgrade and play in OEM upgrade via tftp.
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OpenWrt's factory image do not include u-boot, TP-Link's OEM firmware often does (not always). As mentioned, if ART (the last 64 KB) is clobbered, it's game-over (at least for the wireless functionality, as this is device specific calibration data and cannot be recovered).
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Tried as much as possible yesterday and was not able to recover the bricked router with trying to put firmware on to chip. Today i received the donor spare good working router from a friend. I soldered wires onto the chip and backed up chip.
I then put this donor dump on to the bricked router and bingo the router has come to life.
The only issue is it shows the mac address and wifi mac as the donor router. Otherwise all working good.
i have then put on the openwrt fw 19.07.1 as provided in the wiki link, named this ArcherC2V1_tp_recovery.bin as mentioned in the wiki and and successfully loaded this by the tftp method. the router now runs openwrt.
I have original brick dump and going to see if the original issue was just the missing bootloader which caused the brick. Going to try and recover or set correct original mac
Thanks for the replies much appreciated learning from this forum.
Likely what the previous poster said. The last 64KB are device specific data.
Thats last 64kB of donor firmware to be replaced by one from your backup, just check it is not all zeroes/ff/55
Thanks all for your great help
Unfortunately the bricked dump which was only backup after the brick has nothing in the last 64kb.
i Can see this info on the donor dump regarding its info.
Not a problem as the default can be changed in openwrt
The good news at least its recovered and working as a clone