A customer returned some RB250GS switches because they couldn’t be accessed and had a rapidly flashing activity light. After digging through the forums and the SwOS wiki, I figured out that they were in BOOTP client mode… waiting for a BOOTP installation server.
http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/SwOS#Reinstall_SwOS_firmware
From the wiki, I followed the directions to “Reinstall SwOS firmware” but used Winbox instead of the CLI to create a BOOTP server from an unused RouterBoard 450G.
Then all I had to do was connect the BOOTP server ether1 to the RB250GS ether1, apply power, and within seconds the ACT light flashing slowed, then stopped and the RB250GS was “fixed”. SwOS 1.4 was installed and working. I also found that the customer switch config was still there.
Through some trail and error, I found that if you hold (depress) the RES button while powering up the RB250GS, in about 5 seconds, the ACT light begins to flash slowly about 5 times a second. If you release the RES button as soon as this slow flashing begins, the switch config will be cleared and reset to defaults.
If you continue to hold the RES button, when about 12 seconds have passed, the ACT light will flash rapidly about 15 times a second. At this point, the switch is in BOOTP client mode and is waiting for a BOOTP server.
You can take the switch out of BOOTP client mode by powering up with the RES held and release it as soon as the slow flashing begins.
I also found that the BOOTP upgrade method is fast and an easy way to upgrade our RB250GS inventory so customers aren’t frustrated with bugs from the early SwOS versions (which are still arriving with new RB250GS product from Mikrotik).
Tom