Bricked TL-wr841n

[N1ght5tar]

Hello!

I downloaded latest git on 16 Sep 2014, built it for wr841 with make tplink_wr841n_v8,
flashed it on device and it stuck without output.
The command sequence was:
setenv ipaddr 192.168.1.3
setenv serverip 192.168.1.1
tftp 80800000 <bin_file>
erase 9f000000 +10000
cp.b 80800000 9f000000 10000

md 9f000000 after flash showed u-boot image head and I believed it is fine. However after "reset" no output at all, and after swapping power too.

I then unbricked board (with original firmware from tp-link_wr841n_v8_130506.bin), built RAM version and put in in memory in 80100000 and issued "go 80100000" and it worked. However I tried to flash freshly built non-RAM version of it and it stuck again.

RAM version works fine and detects my bigger flash, but flash version stucks.
I can send binary images or any other files you need to see what's wrong with them.

Below is log of second attempt:

uboot> tftp 80800000 ub.bin

TFTP from IP: 192.168.1.1
Our IP: 192.168.1.3
Filename: 'ub.bin'
Load address: 0x80800000
Using: eth1

Loading: #############

TFTP transfer complete!

Bytes transferred: 65536 (0x10000)
uboot> erase 9f000000 +10000
Erase FLASH from 0x9F000000 to 0x9F00FFFF in bank #1
Erasing: #

Erased sectors: 1

uboot> cp.b 80800000 9f000000 10000
Copying to FLASH...
Writting at address: 0x9F000000

Done!

uboot> md 9f000000
9F000000: 100000FF 00000000 100000FD 00000000 ................
9F000010: 10000194 00000000 10000192 00000000 ................
9F000020: 10000190 00000000 1000018E 00000000 ................
9F000030: 1000018C 00000000 1000018A 00000000 ................
9F000040: 10000188 00000000 10000186 00000000 ................
9F000050: 10000184 00000000 10000182 00000000 ................
9F000060: 10000180 00000000 1000017E 00000000 ...........~....
9F000070: 1000017C 00000000 1000017A 00000000 ...|.......z....
9F000080: 10000178 00000000 10000176 00000000 ...x.......v....
9F000090: 10000174 00000000 10000172 00000000 ...t.......r....
9F0000A0: 10000170 00000000 1000016E 00000000 ...p.......n....
9F0000B0: 1000016C 00000000 1000016A 00000000 ...l.......j....
9F0000C0: 10000168 00000000 10000166 00000000 ...h.......f....
9F0000D0: 10000164 00000000 10000162 00000000 ...d.......b....
9F0000E0: 10000160 00000000 1000015E 00000000 ...`.......^....
9F0000F0: 1000015C 00000000 1000015A 00000000 ..........Z....
uboot> reset

Resetting the board...

[pepe2k]

Hello @N1ght5tar,

If RAM version works without any problems, that means there is some problem in low level initialization. Could you tell me exact revision of the SoC (AR9341-XXXX), please? What memory chip do you have in that WR841v8?

Regards,
Piotr

[N1ght5tar]

Sorry for delay.
I can't exactly tell what the board is, the only info "visible" to me is:
TL-WR841N(RU) Ver:8.4, board rev:1.2
Memory chip: ESMT M13S2561616A

Another thing I may got wrong - I used LZMA compressor from xz-5.0.2 instead of yours (lzma-4.32.7), because I am running pure x86_64. Could this be reason that raw RAM image worked fine but compressed flash is not booting, i.e. no output at all?

[Deoptim]

pepe2k wrote:

What memory chip do you have in that WR841v8?


Or just read in uboot console "Chip Revision ID" value (common for all ath79):

md 0x18060090 0x1


[N1ght5tar]

Deoptim,

If that helps, this is the output from that command:
wasp> md 0x18060090 0x1
18060090: 00010123 ...#

[pepe2k]

@N1ght5tar
Try image from the link below and let me know if it works for you. Different LZMA tool version on your host machine was probably the reason.

http://www.tech-blog.pl/pliki/uboot_for_tp-link_tl-wr841n_v8__20141014.tar.gz

@Deoptim
Yes, bits [0:3] should indicate minor revision ID (higher bits are for major ID), here (in @N1ght5tar WR841Nv) we have minor revision ID = 3. I have revision 1 on my desk (the one which I'm using for tests).

Regards

[N1ght5tar]

Thanks pepe2k, it working!
I guess it's my mischoice of LZMA tool before build.
I will try my image next time I will have another this device.
Close if needed.

[pepe2k]

Hi @N1ght5tar,

Great news!

Cheers