How to Unbrick TP-Link TL-WR740N WiFi Router Easily

A new version of the popular OpenWRT firmware for various WiFi devices has been released recently. This is why I thought of upgrading my TP-Link TL-WR740N router to the latest OpenWRT version (Chaos Calmer 15.05-rc2). But unfortunately doing so actually bricked my router. When a WiFi router is bricked, the only possible way to unbrick is to use a serial cable and solder it to some points on the router’s circuit board. But lucky for me, there is also a very easy method to unbrick the TL-WR740N router.

Here is how you can unbrick your TL-WR740N router in a few seconds without needing any serial or JTAG cable:

  1. Power off the WiFi router.
  2. Download the latest firmware for the router from the https://www.tp-link.com/us/download-center.html.
  3. Extract the firmware BIN file from the download ZIP archive. Rename the BIN file to wr740v4_tp_recovery.bin.Debrick TPLink WiFI Router
  4. Download TFTPD64 server from http://tftpd32.jounin.net/tftpd32_download.html. You can use the portable version of TFTP server or install it on your PC – either way it works the same. It will ask for Firewall permissions which you should grant for it to work.
  5. Connect the WiFi router to your PC through an Ethernet cable.
  6. Open network settings in the Windows control panel. For this, you can press hotkey Win+R to open the Run dialog, type control ncpa.cpl in the Run dialog and press Enter. It will open Control Panel showing all of the configured network connections. Then right-click on the network connection icon for the wired connection to your WiFi router, and select Properties from the menu.
  7. Change the network adapter settings (the network adapter that is wired to your WiFi router) and set the static IP address to 192.168.0.66, subnet mask to 255.255.255.0 and default gateway to 192.168.0.1. Save the settings by clicking on OK button.Debrick TPLink WiFI Router
  8. Launch TFTP server and change the current directory to where the wr740v4_tp_recovery.bin is copied in step 3 above. Change the server interface to 192.168.0.66.Debrick TPLink WiFI Router
  9. First press the reset button (using a paper-clip or pin) of the router and then power it on. Do not release the reset button for 4-5 seconds after powering it on. As soon as you release the reset button, TFTP server shall flash the firmware and start the router.
  10. That’s it. Now you have a fully unbricked working WiFi router without actually needing any serial cables.
Note: For other models of TP-Link modems/routers, you can find the filename required by checking the Log viewer tab of TFTP server window after following all the steps. In the case of WR-740 v4 router, the filename needed is wr740v4_tp_recovery.bin, so you should download the latest firmware, extract it from the ZIP and rename it to this filename. For other models of TP-Link devices, the filename would be different. You can find the required filename from the TFTP logs easily.

This method works for many models of the TP-Link WiFi routers. You have to rename the firmware file for your router according to your router model and version (in step 3 above).  The original credit of this hidden unbricking method goes to bkil (http://bkil.blogspot.com/2014/12/hidden-tftp-of-tp-link-routers.html).

33 comments

  1. Somehow, this does not work for TL-WR1043ND v1.8.

    I tried the steps and also tried 192.168.1.66 in addition to 192.168.0.66 but unfortunately no go on getting the recovery firmware being transferred via my TFTP server. 🙁

    Tried on multiple computers but no luck. The router actually works fine but I am trying to get rid of DD-WRT on the router and restore it back to original manufacturer firmware.

  2. Thanks, i usually dont make mistakes upgrading firmware, this time i cut power of router after upgrading and setting up, didnt wait and all the leds were blinking, this recovered to stock firmware and then i again installed openwrt, this is the same method for my new archer a5 v5 but on that oportunity all went fine, i just had to made a prebuilt image. but it is fine that all tp have easy recovery

    Greetings

  3. thank you I have a WR740nv5, I tried like 4 years ago, and today I said, if this doesn’t work I’m going to dispose it.
    But after changing the file name to the one that was asking, it’s working perfect

  4. I have an Archer C1200 v2. Out of the blue it just failed and was rebooting to the all lights for a few seconds, then just power light, then kept repeating.

    I tried this method but was failing. Until I checked the “Log viewer” tab and noticed I had renamed it improperly. The log showed what filename it was searching for then displayed an error that it couldn’t read it. Required name = ArcherC1200v2_us_tp_recovery.bin

    So I renamed the .BIN to what was in the Log, and it worked. 🙂 Although my router now boots and displays proper lighting, it’s unresponsive to pings or DHCP. Further testing is needed, and/or possible older firmware flashing.

    But I just wanted to let everyone know, and possibly a page update, that you can find your required filename in the Log tab after an unsuccessful attempt.

  5. Thank you very much. I used this method to circumvent TP-Link’s disallow of changing between different regional firmware versions. I originally didn’t know which filename my router would be looking for, but I used the TFTP logs to find it.
    Kind regards, Jason

  6. Hi,

    Just saved my router using this guide. Adding two things for us novice users 🙂

    1. The firmware transfer is really quick when you let go of the power and reset button. It is transfered but you see it very quickly. Just a second or so.

    2. When transfer is done all led lights are solid for a couple of minutes. Maybe 3 min? Just wait and then it will start up.

    Thanks!

  7. Hi I have an Archer C3150, and a firmware upgrade to latest version seems to have failed. It uploaded the file, but never rebooted. Only lights are solid and are the 2 arrows, red internet and power light, never flashes. I updated over wifi perhaps that was the problem. Is it a lost cause? I cannot connect via browser, changed the IP adress etc in network as advised. I tried TFTP, but the holding the reset while powering on does nothing (same 3 lights). One thing I did not do yet is have the firmware file in the same directory as TFTP executable and point to that, will try that later. But there just seems to be no communication with the router, any ideas?

    1. I do get the WHOIS 192.168.0.1 ARP Protocol lines in Wireshark, so at least there’s some communication happening……lots of other lines too, no TFTP line though, requesting the firmware file, as some say.

      1. Hi Derek Corcoran, I downloaded the GPL source code for the firmware of your router TP-Link AC3150. I went through the source-code but could not find any reference to is_auto_upload_firmware() function or anything related to it. So perhaps, this feature is not available for your router.

  8. does not work for WRD3500 v1
    Connection received from 192.168.0.86 on port 3622 [15/02 20:59:03.792]
    Read request for file . Mode octet [15/02 20:59:03.792]
    File : error 2 in system call CreateFile The system cannot find the file specified. [15/02 20:59:03.792]

  9. YOU SAVED MY DAY, THX
    i bricked TPLINK 1043ND v4 by force flashing stock image from tplink homepage after i was unsatisfied with LEDE v17

    😀

    1. How did you manage to start the upload of file? My 1043nd v4 doesn’t do anything. Can you describe a little bit what were the steps? Thank you

  10. hey when i am upgrading my tplink wa5210g suddenly the power goes off.
    now my device only flash power or all are dead
    when i press reset button no effect appears..
    how can i fix it..

  11. Tp link TP-WR740N
    All lights blinking after interval of 2 seconds…..what should i do…..please help!!!

      1. You have attached a power supply adapter that is giving low voltage/current. TP-Link TPWR740 needs power supply input of 9V 0.6 A DC. You can check output of power supply adapter using a multi-meter if you have any. If the power adapter is working okay, then perhaps the capacitors inside router have gone bad.

  12. hey when i am upgrading my tplink wa5210g suddenly the power goes off.
    now my device only flash power or all are dead
    when i press reset button no effect appears..
    how can i fix it..
    please reply me on acharyasiddharth416@gmail.com

  13. Hi Trisha I have a TP-LINK TL-SG3424 and it is bricked. I have setup the tftp server and it downloads the firmware file. When I reboot the Switch it says that the format is unrecognized. The switch then connects to the tftp server again and re-downloads the file. The filename that it looks for is uImage.img. Have you got any thoughts on what I should try next?

    1. make sure that you are using the firmware file for the correct version of the device. uImage.img is compressed kernel and root filesystem image. The bootloader is asking for uImage so it can boot into the kernel and then the kernel will take over.

  14. Hi Trish,
    When I reboot/reset the router I do not see a connection request from the router in the log window. What could I have done wrong?

    1. If you have taken all the steps as described then perhaps there is hardware problem. Try using a different LAN cable or different PC. If all else fails, then perhaps bootloader is corrupt or device has other problems.

  15. thank you thank you soo much i love u man it worked with my wr940nv2/wr941ndv5 oh man im so haappy

  16. doesnt work for me. i followed all the steps. My tp link wr740n router is dead and displays power LED and LAN4 led only. no other activity.

    1. In a bricked router LED’s do not light up. Your router may have hardware problem – most probably one or more capacitors have gone bad and are not able to supply stable voltage to the other components.

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