Power failure while upgrading firmware on TP-Link WR940N, router is bricked. How do I fix it?

I was upgrading my wireless router TP-Link WR940N, while then, the device faced a sudden power outage. Anyway, the machine never started working properly again. All the lights of WAN and WLAN and SYS are turned off. The device original version has already been damaged. What can I do to restore it?

Solution 1:

Unfortunately, this often results in the device being bricked. The hardware is all fine, but it is left without a functioning firmware, so in a way, it is now braindead.

You might be in luck, tho. Some devices have a very basic firmware that cannot be overwritten, and the sole purpose is to receive a firmware to install. This is usually done via TFTP, so what I suggest you do is to try to upload the firmware via the TFTP protocol to whatever your device has as a default IP.

Edit:

Based on my research, your device has a serial port that can be used for this if all else fails. Open it up, and you will see 4 pinholes appoximately in the middle, right next to 2 capacitors. Juryrig a serial cable with TX, RX, GND, and NC (in that order, from top to bottom) onto those pinholes, and you should be good. The serial port settings are 115200, 8n1, no flow control. You should be able to instigate a filetransfer via TFTP or FTP from there.

Source: DD-WRT forum

Solution 2:

I had a similar experience. I really thought I bricked my TP-Link W9970. What I did to recover was as follow:

1. Try to hard reset (Sys light will not flash) - This will put the IP back to default.
2. Set your pc's IP to the router default IP range.
3. Browse to your router via the web browser.
4. Router will ask for the firmware again. Browse to your firmware and upgrade.

Let me know if this did not work as this worked in my instance.