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password recovery/factory default

I recently bought a cisco 2501 router from ebay for educational purposes. It came with preconfigured passwords which I didn't have so I used the instructions at the following link:

formatting link
However when I get to the point where you should type in startup-config running-config I get the response unknown command or computer name....

As well the prompt I have is different from the example. It shows: router(boot)>

instead of router>

the same applies for enable mode: router(boot)# instead of router#

and now every time I power the router it gives me the setup program (twice through)

***also****: whenever I type configure terminal I end up with:

Enter configuration commands, one per line. Edit with DELETE, CTRL/W, and CTRL/U; end with CTRL/Z

-instead of a new command line with (config) in front of it.

Very confused here, all help is appreciated.

Reply to
chusome
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This can happen if the 2501's boot ROM can't find a valid IOS image in the system flash, so it boots a stripped down version it has in ROM. What does the output from "show flash" say?

-James

Reply to
James Sneeringer

heres the output: Router(boot)>show flash

% No System Flash Router(boot)>

**** this is when booted from register 0x2141****** ****I get the same thing from register 0x2142*****
Reply to
chusome

ok so that makes sense to me now so how do i go about installing a new ios image.

I'm trying cisco's site but it keeps telling me the cisco.com account i just setup is invalid.

Reply to
chusome

ooosh, thats very bad, selling a cisco without an IOS :-[ i hope you didnt payed to much mate.

Reply to
polleke

Ouch, that's worse than no IOS. This is saying your 2501 doesn't even have any flash chips (or they're so dead that the boot image can't see them). You need to open the case and see if there are actually any flash SIMMs installed. If not, it's time to get some. If your 2501 does have flash SIMMs installed, they might just need to be reseated.

Cisco has instructions for opening the chassis and images of the 2501 mainboard online at (long URL, sorry):

formatting link
Figure B-2 shows your board. If you're looking at the router from the rear, where the serial ports are, the flash SIMM flots will be toward the front-left of the router. There should be at least one SIMM installed, maybe two.

-James

Reply to
James Sneeringer

Ah yes, right you are... so it appears i've been royally screwed

Does anyone know if you can use any old 72 pin dram/simms for this function of does it have to be specific for cisco routers?

Reply to
chusome

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