E60iUGS (hEX S 2025) bricked after official RouterOS/RouterBOOT upgrade

[fenixsu]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice before assuming my router is permanently dead.

I have a MikroTik hEX S 2025 (E60iUGS) that appears to have been bricked immediately after an official firmware upgrade.

1. Logged into the router using WinBox.
2. Updated RouterOS to the latest stable version.
3. After the update, WinBox showed the "RouterBOARD Upgrade" button.
4. The router requested a reboot.
5. After rebooting, it never came back.

Current symptoms

• Only the blue power LED stays solid.
• No Ethernet port LEDs at all.
• No physical link on any Ethernet port.
• The Reset button appears to have no effect.
• Netinstall never detects the device.

What I've already tried

• Holding the Reset button before applying power.
• Holding Reset for over 30 seconds after applying power.
• Multiple Netinstall attempts.
• Different Ethernet cables.
• Different PC.
• Static IP configured correctly for Netinstall.
• Firewall disabled.
• The router has remained unplugged for several hours before trying again.

The behavior is always identical: solid blue power LED only.

There was no power loss during the upgrade. The upgrade was performed entirely through the official WinBox interface. The router was working perfectly before the reboot.

Has anyone experienced this on an E60iUGS?

Is there any recovery method besides Netinstall?

Does this model have any hidden recovery procedure if RouterBOOT fails?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[holvoetn]

Netinstall.

And it would be interesting to know from which ROS version you came and which one you tried to upgrade to.

[jaclaz]

Try the other bootloader:

hAP Mini reset

This appears the documented method to use the "other" bootloader. There are two bootloaders: the "main" one that is invoked by pressing reset (and keeping it pressed until leds start flashing) immediately** after** (I guess that your 0.5s counts for immediately) having inserted power the "backup" one that is invoked by pressing reset (and keeping it pressed until leds start flashing) before inserting power 99% of the time the second method is used as it is much easier to perform, the…

[fenixsu]

Unfortunately there is absolutely no difference between the two methods.

Whether I hold RESET before power, press RESET 0.5 seconds after power, or never press RESET at all, the behavior is identical.

The blue power LED turns on immediately and stays solid forever.

Netinstall never detects the device, and there is no visible indication that the router is executing anything. Just the solid blue power LED.

Even if Netinstall can't detect the device, I would still expect some indication that it's attempting to boot, such as Ethernet LEDs or any change in behavior, but the only thing I see is the solid blue power LED, which remains unchanged indefinitely from the moment power is applied

[hasmidzul]

if youre using windows. try disable your firewall and antivirus and try netinstall.

[Nikalia]

when the router switches to netinstall mode, the lan1 port will blink green, but if the lan port or USR LED does not even light up, it only indicates a 'brick'

overall, I'm not surprised.. another disadvantage of the many in the EN7562CT series

[jaclaz]

So likely it is not the bootloader, it is improbable that both are corrupted.

Netinstall can be tricky, ideally you should make sure that your environment/settings/etc. are allowing it to run correctly or try the (surely working but a bit complex) VM method:
https://tangentsoft.com/mikrotik/wiki?name=Run%20NetInstall%20in%20a%20VM

But if it is a brick, it is a brick.