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Modding Netgear WNDA3200 WiFi

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    Modding Netgear WNDA3200 WiFi

    Hey all.

    This stick is a bit odd - you plug it in, it appears as a virtual CD ROM device with the drivers on. You install the drivers, and right click->eject the device. It then disconnects, and then reconnects as the actual WiFi stick and runs normally.

    I'd like to make it so that you don't need to do that, and it just functions as a normal stick.

    Tried shorting various things on the board with no luck. Nothing on the board heats up in CD ROM mode, the two Atheros chips heat up once it's a normal stick.

    Very hi-res pictures of the PCB are here: http://wikidevi.com/wiki/Netgear_WNDA3200

    On board there's an MX25L6445E flash chip and an ST 24C32WP.

    I'm guessing I'd need to remove or flash the MX25L6445E?

    Cheers!
    Last edited by spleenharvester; 05-04-2013, 05:58 AM.
    Dell E7450 | i5-5300U | 16GB DDR3 | 256GB SSD

    #2
    Re: Modding Netgear WNDA3200 WiFi

    It may sound simplistic but maybe try searching around on the manufacturer site for a utility to disable this behavior. I have some sandisk thumb drives that did a similar behavior. When you plugged them in they created a virtual cd-rom to install their U3 launcher crap (whatever that was) and then the actual flash drive was the next drive letter down. The trouble was that this caused complete fail when trying to use the devices in my car stereo that plays MP3s off a thumb drive. But thankfully sandisk provided a utility on their website to disable U3 and then all was well. So maybe netgear has something similar. Perhaps in the name of 'supporting linux' or some such.

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      #3
      Re: Modding Netgear WNDA3200 WiFi

      there has got to be a USB hub somewhere. on there for dual device action like that. Unless Atheros has started building that capability in their chips, which I doubt

      if I were to guess, I would say the hub and storage controller is on the other side of the stick, and the flash memory chips are behind the big atheros chip. But don't mess with them, as long as the storage controller is active, if you mess with the chips it might cause access failure

      this stick is a highly modified netgear wnda 3100, released only by virgin mobile. Other than a bios hack to get rid of the storage hardware ID, I don't think there is any other way to do this
      Cap Datasheet Depot: http://www.paullinebarger.net/DS/
      ^If you have datasheets not listed PM me

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        #4
        Re: Modding Netgear WNDA3200 WiFi

        There doesn't seem to be anything to disable it anywhere interesting idea though. Wonder if it's worth seeing if it's similar to that Sandisk stick in any way and seeing if the software could be modified.

        I think that's my only hope anyway, because I cannot for the life of me figure out what makes this thing tick. There is no voltage going into either Atheros chip in CD ROM mode, only the tiny little chip on the back, the two SPI chips, and the two (memory?) chips on the front.
        Dell E7450 | i5-5300U | 16GB DDR3 | 256GB SSD

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          #5
          Re: Modding Netgear WNDA3200 WiFi

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual...tching_utility found this! But still doesn't seem to be anything I can do :\
          Dell E7450 | i5-5300U | 16GB DDR3 | 256GB SSD

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