I have two devices with the same problem, a RB951G and a RB2011. They work but they don't boot. Let me explain the problem. If I power the device all led's come on then off and nothing happens, no beep, no nothing except for the led of the Ethernet port that I'm connected to, that one is solid on. This usually means that it's bricked, then I proceed to restart the device to access via netInstall. If I don't release the button when the user Led is still after blinking. The device beeps then boots normally with no configuration without a problem. Also by accident I found out that if I press the reset button before powering on and release it just after all led's come on it boots perfectly fine with previous configuration.

I have tried changing the firmware with FTP with success, using netInstall also with success. Tested if wifi, Ethernet ports with no problems. Cleaned the board with a brush and alcohol. Tested the voltage and capacitors of the Vin, 5V and 3.3V rails. The device works as it should with the exception that if I power the device or use software reboot the device it would not boot unless I press the reset button while all led's are on or keep it pressed until the device beeps.

The devices look with almost no usage. The board it's clean with no rust. No overheating. And both have the same symptoms with excellent repeatability. Anyone with the same problems? any fix that I could do to?

Did you update Routerboot too?

There are two possibilities that come to my mind:

1. The main bootloader is corrupt, and when you're depressing the reset button for a certain length of time, you are triggering the backup bootloader.

2. You managed to set the default boot mode to something like Netboot instead of Internal Flash / NAND. Depressing the reset button for that length of time still triggers the backup bootloader, but this also has the effect of the bootloader using the default boot options and ignoring the ones you've set.

What is the output of both '/system routerboard print' and '/system routerboard settings print' on one of the affected devices?

You're also lucky that one of the boards in question is a model that has a serial console on it (the 2011). So...plug a serial cable in, and let RouterBOOT itself tell you what the problem is.

-- Nathan

I never knew that you have to tell the routerboard to upgrade the firmware manually. I always though that it was done automatically after you add the newest version. It became quite obvious with "/system routerboard print" when it tell me that I was using way to old firmware even older than the factory one and I were able to upgrade to a newer firmware. Thanks for the help. Now I can put those devices back to work.