Media for Linksys WRT54G now a brick....but wireless works...

Linksys WRT54G now a brick....but wireless works...

I have been trying to get a better signal from my WRT54G in the office to my lounge (through several walls and doors). I upgraded the firmware to the third party Alchemy rc6 which improved things a lot as I was able to increase the power to transmit, however it kept dropping out which was annoying. So I decided to go back to the last good Linksys firmware. I flashed this.....and it is then that I had the problem.

Nothing worked, so powered down and up again (waiting the customary

30secs, still not altogether sure why I do this) and the dreaded flashing diag light happened. I looked this up and discovered that the most likely reason is corrupt firmware....ooops!

So I went to try and access 192.168.1.1 but no joy just a long wait and then an error page, no password request. Tried resetting...no joy. Tried connecting with just a hard line at 10mbs Half Duplex etc. etc. but still no joy. No ping being received or returned.

So the WRT54G is now officially a brick....except...the wireless from the lounge still works. I cannot change any settings (as I cannot get access to 192.168.1.1) but it connects to my modem and allows access to the internet. The flashing diag light goes out after about 5 secs of booting the WRT54G up.

I have got details of how I can "de-brick" the linksys by shorting across pins 15 and 16 of the Intel chip inside the brick. But I am loathed to try this whilst it still (kind of) works.

Does anyone have any advice?

I can of course just go and replace the brick for £50 but I would like to sort this one out if i can.

Matt. Davies