Netgear Router DG834Gv4 Failure after Firmware Upgrade

February 1, 2010 9 Comments

My Netgear Router, DG834Gv4 failed after a recent upgrade to updated firmware V5.01.14.

What a royal pain, I upgraded to the latest firmware for DG834Gv4, I did it while wirelessly connected to the network, downloaded the latest and greatest firmware and uploaded the patch via the Netgear admin web page via Firefox – it went through the bouncing ball stages and then just started to hang, not finishing up, then a dialog box said complete, and  the led’s on the router were flashing so I assumed time for reboot.

Rebooted the Netgear DG834G and all I got was rapid blinking red lights on the main power light – big problem, no more “coolest guy on the planet” submissions for me. Internet down and wireless down, had to tether my iPhone to my laptop to get connection so i could scour the web for a solution. Tried for hours and no joy – i also tried to reset the router by holding the reset button for up to 20 and 30 and 60 seconds – depends on where you get your info from.

Anyway eventually i found a Netgear Router Recover Utility with instructions on what to do with it, and although my particular model wasn’t listed other people did have success with the utility. You need this if your router is what is known as a “bricked unit”.

Blast! then i find that it only works in Windows, I have a Mac – no problems boot camp to the rescue, i copied the recover utility and the lastest firmware image – putting the firmware image in the recover directory.  Connecting the Mac (Boot Camp) Windows to the router via an ethernet connection – but i couldn’t ping it and the recover tool did not recognise the router – so it was a brick and about to get chucked in the lake.

coolest guy on the planet

Last resort was to hold the reset button on the router down and recycle the power keep the reset button held whilst trying to use the recover utility and then the router was found in the list and I applied the upgrade of firmware (same one it failed on) it showed the progress bar and confirmed the verification of firmware. Success and it even remembered all my settings.

Saved me a couple of $100s – it should be more documented on the Netgear site – I also won’t upgrade via a wireless connection but rather be attached directly via ethernet to the router from now on.

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  • Sami Michael

    Thank you!!!! You really saved my ass!!!!

    This is the ONLY thing that worked. Thank you again and again and again.

  • Tony

    Lifesaver — Nothing worked until I read you post and tried detecting the modem after power cycling with the reset button help down

    Thanks a million!

  • mike

    Thankyou very much!!! You saved my life and my router!!

  • Agusbagus

    Hell0.. i am having similiar problem, does it work for TP-link router? thanks for your advice!

  • Andrew

    Hello.
    you write that you had a DG834G V4 and the recover utility is for V1 and V2.

    It work for V4 or there is another version for V4?

    Thanks

    • cool

      It is OK for DG834v4

  • Ca

    Worked just fine with dg834g v4. Thanks,

  • Craig

    Thank you very much for this fantastic tip!  Power cycling with the reset button pressed was key to getting the utility to detect the router.  Without this page I would have been buying another router so thank you again.

  • Barry Duncan

    Holy good god. You deserve sainthood for this article…THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!  You saved me having to buy my brother a new router after the bios upgrade on his router failed. I couldn’t get it to happen under win7x64, so I actually ended up booting into a Windows XP PE (as opposed to the new PE’s based on Win7 also)