How to rescue a DSL-50X at the chip level

Subject: Another slightly more technical DSL-50x fix
From: "Guru"
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 00:53:29 +0800

Some time ago I contacted you about an issue with a DSL-500 I had that had a
failed firmware update.

I did contact D-Link at that time and they didn't have a clue about
the firmware that I really needed (the actual contents of the flash chips),
so I put it in storage for a rainy day.

The firmware version was an old one with no xmodem command in it so I was not
able to repair it..... until now.

A few days ago I got hold of a blown-up DSL-504 (one of the red things near
the ADSL input... I think it's an inductor? was cracked in 3 pieces....
pretty funny too, the guy updated to Vista and he thought it was Vista that
didn't like it so he bought a new one), but it powers up and works, can't
get an IP on it though, there's no access via the web interface (no IP
access on 192.168.0.1) and it doesn't allocate the DHCP server. Probably one
of the main chips is damaged. It can be accessed with Hyper Terminal through
the serial cable though.

Anyway, since I have a ton of repair equipment
(http://www.mameworld.net/gurudumps/MyStuff/index.html) I removed the 2
surface mounted flash ROMs and read them. Then programmed them to the
(previously removed) DSL-500's flash ROMs, re-attached them and that fixed
it.

The ROM dump is attached for your archives. The version is 2.21 something I
think. This is a sure way to fix a dead DSL-50x if there's no xmodem command
available. Of course, you'll need some equipment to remove and replace the
flash chips as well as an EPROM programmer and flash ROM adapter capable of
handling those devices :-)

Regards,

Guru
http://www.mameworld.net/gurudumps/

DSL-50X Firmware Dumps for the DSL-504 U9 and U11 chips.
	

Oh, I forgot to mention, the DSL-504 has flash chips at U9 and U11. The 500
has them at U7 and U13 (IIRC). The physical location on the PCB is the same.
If these are ever used to repair a 500, the equivalents are:

DSL504        DSL500
U9        >      U7
U11       >      U13


btw, after this is used to repair the 500, it's then possible to use the
normal method to put a proper DSL500 version of the firmware into the flash
chips.... that's what I did after.

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