Comments on I Moved To Linux: Fix for Netgear WNR854T: Green Ring Of Death (GROD...

Hi folks, I did some more measurements and now I t...

2011-10-03T07:22:59.106-07:00

Hi folks, I did some more measurements and now I think I've found the troublesome component - seems to be D27, a zener diode. On its "upper" end, there are 5V, on the lower one only 0,8. It is supposed to create 1.2V and the circuit is not separated by a transformer from the original input (12V external power supply). Hence creating 1.2V from the 12V and connecting it behind D27 doesn't work. To me, it seems that D27 is just not powerful enough and therefore the device is prone to break, particularily if the router is used 24/7. Let's see if I can find a more powerful zener diode with 3,8V. What do you think about it?

Hi folks, I've got the same problem with the G...

2011-10-03T06:08:11.301-07:00

Hi folks, I've got the same problem with the GROD phenomenon over here. However, I conducted some experiments and got the following results: Some component(s) behind the C537 / L17 must be broken or the voltage regulator which creates 5V / 1.2V is the cause of the problem. Applying stabilized 1.2V from an external power supply to C537, the router is running as smooth as ever. Using some kind of voltage regulator which creates 1.2V but is not separated from the 12V power supply of the router us useless because the broken component seems to backfire over the built-in regulators. In my eyes, there are only two solutions: a) find the broken component (almost impossible!) or add a built-in power supply to the router which creates two separated voltages, one time 12V and one time 1.2V. Cheers, Stephan

I was able to take everything apart without breaki...

2011-06-28T08:51:25.943-07:00

I was able to take everything apart without breaking anything, yet no luck, still have the GLOD... for the plastic tabs on the bottom they are clearly seen, you can use a small flat head to push them in as you pull up, on the other side not so visible, all you see is little holes, if you look thru those holes you can faintly see the tabs hiding behind it, i used a very small (thin) Allen wrench that fit perfectly in the whole and pushed them in as i pulled up and worked like a charm. The wires that go to the wifi card pull right up and the plastic clamps just need to squeeze the wings in as you gently pull up on the card slowly working each loose, my card was also soldered in at the metal tabs, luckily i have a soldering and desoldering kit so it was easy. No where near as hard as soldering so its an easy fix to take it out without breaking it if you want, just takes a bit of patience, i did it all in about 10 min (including finding my tools lol) doing it again would take about 2-5 now that i know what im doing lol.

Did you try to change Power Adapter ? Try to conn...

2011-02-19T10:02:54.585-08:00

Did you try to change Power Adapter ?

Try to connect it to a PC 12V :)

I have a WNR854T that is "almost" dead (...

2011-01-10T04:56:31.420-08:00

I have a WNR854T that is "almost" dead (the power light comes up, if I connect my switch (does not work directly connect to PC) on ports 1 or 2 (of the switch) the leds light up but I can't do anything else with it. I tested the voltage of C524 and it's 3.3V (also between pin 2 and gnd and pin 3 and gnd of the serial port 9 pins header it's 3.3V).
Can somebody please tell me what are the voltages for C537 and C554 ( I have 0.8V and 1.43V respectively )

I also tried to solder a serial cable but nothing comes on.

I removed the wifi card but it won't boot... Any ideas would be helpful...

2011-01-10T04:56:14.254-08:00

This comment has been removed by the author.

What a POS! Had bought three of these off ebay - ...

2011-01-04T05:02:22.186-08:00

What a POS! Had bought three of these off ebay - factory refurb, you would have thought Netgear would have corrected the problem given the chance. Pulled boards on all three, no difference and no time (although very qualified) to diddle with caps and resistors... In the trash and mental note: Do not buy Netgear products. Will look into Linksys or D-Link. Hell, Belkin probably would have been a better choice at this point. Luckily, I was able to write them off!

@www.Giacomorilla.com Sorry, couldn't find any...

2010-11-11T06:43:34.202-08:00

@www.Giacomorilla.com
Sorry, couldn't find any matching
regulators on the maplin list.

@anonymous
You may try a wireless miniPCI card
with low power consumption (no idea which one) together with an alternative firmware (e.g. OpenWRT). The original firmware will certainly not contain the drivers for the replacement card.

BTW, the link in the OpenWRT wiki has
changed again:

http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/netgear/wnr854t/glod

Hi, same "Green Ring Of Death" for me. I...

2010-07-28T10:06:41.855-07:00

Hi, same "Green Ring Of Death" for me. I took out the card and like you explained it came to life. Now anyone know where you can get a wireless card for this router?
Thanks.

Hi Jal2 - I'm in the UK and have the same GLOD...

2010-05-11T04:05:36.493-07:00

Hi Jal2 - I'm in the UK and have the same GLOD issue. Thing is, I can't find a UK equivilant (where I'm based) for the regulator you used.

Can you recommend one from this list to use?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?criteria=switching+regulator&source=15

Many thanks!

The link above was broken when the OpenWRT article...

2010-04-08T02:53:08.040-07:00

The link above was broken when the OpenWRT article moved from inbox into the wiki. Please use this one instead:
http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/netgear/wnr854t_glod

@Dave
Is there any more info needed in the article? part numbers etc. are there.

jal2, PLEASE, would you be able to let us know whe...

2010-03-10T15:46:53.423-08:00

jal2,
PLEASE, would you be able to let us know where the power regulator for 3.3V is on the PCB and the part numbers of the replaced power regular (PicoTlynx you said), restistor and two capacitors so others who are adventurous enough can fix this router?
It would be appreciated by MANY.
thanks

BTW, the wireless card is connected to a miniPCI s...

2010-02-09T15:19:03.397-08:00

BTW, the wireless card is connected to a miniPCI socket (not IDE).
Unfortunately the card is larger than the usual miniPCI card. So it won't fit into an notebook (and even if it would, the next task would be to find the driver for it).
Just in case someone is curious about the IC on the board:
http://wiki.openwrt.org/oldwiki/openwrtdocs/hardware/netgear/wnr854t

I've put some more info about my changes into ...

2010-02-07T04:35:32.103-08:00

I've put some more info about my changes into a OpenWRT Wiki article (see attached URL). HTH.

Just loosened the soldered clips with a soldering ...

2010-02-06T00:11:41.113-08:00

Just loosened the soldered clips with a soldering iron and the card popped out without breaking. Still doens't work for me though. Any help finding the 3.3V regulator would be appreciated.

Try shorting the WAN port with any of the others w...

2010-02-01T11:46:36.028-08:00

Try shorting the WAN port with any of the others with a utp cable y cicle the power, mine starts like that

damn!!!!!!! it didn't work for me. man, than...

2009-12-19T00:58:38.997-08:00

damn!!!!!!!

it didn't work for me. man, thanks a million for posting it though.

Its a piece of SH*T!!!!

oh well, happy holidays!

jal2, can u pls post some more info(pics if possib...

2009-09-22T13:36:24.553-07:00

jal2, can u pls post some more info(pics if possible) on what you replaced and part numbers for the replacement. this will be a big help... and big thanks to the author of this page!!!

Nice article. Removing the WLAN card helped here, ...

2009-08-17T01:23:08.929-07:00

Nice article. Removing the WLAN card helped here, too. I looked into it a bit deeper - seems like the internal 3.3V drops down to 2.8V if you add the WLAN card.
The WLAN card itself worked fine in a PCI adapter.
So I assumed that the internal power regulator for 3.3V was broken and I replaced it with a PicoTlynx, together
with a restistor and two capacitors.

This helped and now the device is working with the WLAN card again.

I bought another dead device from ebay (as I like the platform to play with, may put OpenWRT on it) and it seems like the manufacturer meanwhile added some
capacitors to the PCB - which didn't prevent it from breaking.

Hi chris,

Glad another one pulled through. ...

2009-03-02T11:08:00.000-08:00

Hi chris,

Glad another one pulled through. Did you also have to "snap" th card out?

Cheers.

Worked like a Charm!! At least it's not a complete...

2009-03-01T23:03:00.000-08:00

Worked like a Charm!! At least it's not a complete waste. I haven't experienced any issues connecting multiple devices.

I did update the firmware and it didn't help with the wireless. It still bricks it. I'm guess the card itself has a burnt chip. Most likely due to the cheap chip it uses and poor ventilation. If you haven't noticed this POS of a router gets pretty hot.

I have put the card back in and the router immedia...

2009-02-04T16:07:00.000-08:00

I have put the card back in and the router immediately stopped working again (confirming it is that card for sure that kills the router). As for the firmware, I wouldn't even know how to do that, how do I get the firmware (just)on the card? The router is/was on the latest firmware.

Also note that I have now stopped using the thing again. It works fine with one PC connected but as soon as I hooked up another device (Popcorn Hour NMT), it failed on me again. It kept resetting itself. Has anybody seen that too? Darn this thing is crap.

Cheers,
Mark.

Thanks for the tip - will give it a go! (I too cou...

2009-02-04T15:14:00.000-08:00

Thanks for the tip - will give it a go! (I too couldn't bring myself to throw it away, given how much I'd spent on the blasted thing...)

Out of interest, have you tried reinstalling the wireless card, perhaps after flashing to the latest firmware etc, or was its removal terminal?

excellent, glad I could help. So did you have to ...

2008-12-30T22:48:00.000-08:00

excellent, glad I could help. So did you have to rip it out like I did? Or did it come out smoothly?

Nice. I pulled my wireless card and now I have my...

2008-12-30T16:55:00.000-08:00

Nice. I pulled my wireless card and now I have my backup dsl router if I need it. Glad I didn't get around to throwing it away. I may actually end up using it as my main router simply so I can move my current one to a better place for the wireless signal.

Cheers!