Xiaomi AX3000T Bricked (no rapid blink)

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hi everyone,
I flashed my AX3000T with OpenWrt using a Winbond NAND chip, following a guide for the snapshot version. Everything was working fine, then I installed sing-box, but after rebooting, the board turned into a brick. I tried to recover it via UART. Before opening the case, when holding the reset button, the indicator was blinking rapidly, so there seemed to be a chance for TFTP recovery. Now, however, it’s just slowly blinking orange and doesn’t respond to any buttons. The UART shows no signs of life, and TX/RX lines on the oscilloscope are empty. So it looks like all hope is gone. Does anyone know of any ways to restore it?

Let me know if you’d like to adjust it further!

2

Hi, I have the same problem, but with ESMT and stable firmware. After installing L2TP packages, the device didn't start. The reset button responds with rapid blinking.

3

https://openwrt.org/inbox/toh/xiaomi/ax3000t#tftp_instructions_for_the_stock_bootloader
try this

4

It is two of you

2 Likes
5

Show filename and add checksum of file.
History om github does not show any change specifically targetting device. General change would brik multiple models en masse.

Openwrt boot process here:

https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/troubleshooting/failsafe_and_factory_reset#entering_failsafe_mode

led off
slow blink
fast blink [if you check x86 this is when you are asked to press F for failsafe]
steady on

6

Its doesnt work for me. Because uart is dead, I can't enter failsafe mode, I don't see any logs when loading and the buttons don't accept them. LED status does not change.

7

Thank you, I restored the stock firmware using TFTP. Now I’ll try everything again, but it’s very strange that not only my device crashed after installing the packages. I’ll describe the results later.

1 Like
8

"Basically, I spent the whole day trying to get this to work. I didn’t mess with the configs or do anything strange, I was just trying to install packages for L2TP. The router randomly crashes when installing packages, it can get bricked from a random power outage, and after a reboot, it might boot up and become inaccessible for no apparent reason. I restored it three times using TFTP and entered failsafe mode three times. For now, I’ll probably stick with the stock firmware or return the device to the store."

9

Did you follow this? https://openwrt.org/inbox/toh/xiaomi/ax3000t#basic_configuration

You can always replace the bootloader with OpenWrt U-Boot too.

10

"Hi, yes, I followed the instructions, got SSH access using the script from this page, made a backup, and downloaded the firmware to the temp folder from this link: https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/23.05.5/targets/mediatek/filogic/openwrt-23.05.5-mediatek-filogic-xiaomi_mi-router-ax3000t-initramfs-factory.ubi."

root@XiaoQiang:/tmp# cat /proc/cmdline
console=ttyS0,115200n1 loglevel=8 swiotlb=512 rootfstype=squashfs firmware=1 mtd=ubi1 uart_en=1

"I ran the following commands:

ubiformat /dev/mtd8 -y -f /tmp/openwrt-23.05.5-mediatek-filogic-xiaomi_mi-router-ax3000t-initramfs-factory.ubi
nvram set boot_wait=on
nvram set uart_en=1
nvram set flag_boot_rootfs=0
nvram set flag_last_success=0
nvram set flag_boot_success=1
nvram set flag_try_sys1_failed=0
nvram set flag_try_sys2_failed=0
nvram commit
reboot

ssh root@192.168.1.1

wget https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/23.05.5/targets/mediatek/filogic/openwrt-23.05.5-mediatek-filogic-xiaomi_mi-router-ax3000t-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin

sysupgrade -n /tmp/openwrt-23.05.5-mediatek-filogic-xiaomi_mi-router-ax3000t-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin

Will U-Boot solve the problem? I'm afraid to install it; if there's another brick, will I be able to restore it afterward?

11

I was talking about the contents of the "Basic Configuration" section.

There is another bootloader that supports the stock firmware, but you will have to ask for more info in the AX3000T thread, as I don't use it myself.

12

Thanks for the suggestion, I took the risk and flashed U-Boot. So far, it seems to be working fine =)

13

Why did you close your topic and write to mine with an unrelated problem?)

14

Because i said so, if same router bricks rwo times same day there is some link.

15

I would be very happy if our cases have some link, but in my case TFTP recovery does not work (

16

Both problems started at the same point. OK, lets compare downloaded file checksums?

17

If you've no TFTP connectivity, no UART/serial signal and spamming the 'Mesh' button while powering up the device does nothing, you're kind of screwed.

I believe they come with UART disabled, which is why the flashing instructions have this line: nvram set uart_en=1
Did you do this one at some point?

I know you already mentioned TFTP is not working, but as a last effort, did you also try http://bigota.miwifi.com/xiaoqiang/tools/MIWIFIRepairTool.x86.zip (which is TFTP-based)?

1 Like
18

No, but I try mkt-uartboot. As I understand, that’s equal utilities.

19

Also have no windows machine to try MIWIFIRepairTool (

20

WIFIRepairTool is just a DHCP server + TFTP server configured to the bootloader's expected paramaters.

mtk_uartboot, as their repository describes, A third-party tool to load and execute binaries over UART for Mediatek SoCs.
Not sure how you are going to make use of it if you can't get UART to work.