I found a Cisco 1711 router in our storage room and I want to factory restore it so we can mess around with it or use it as a backup.
I connected a console cable to it and in Hyperterminal on a Windows XP box I want to try the CTRL+BREAK sequence to clear it out. I'm not concerned with the current config or finding the password, I just want to wipe it like it's never been used before.
This is what I get:
System Bootstrap, Version 12.2(7r)XM4, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
TAC Support: http://www.cisco.com/tac
Copyright (c) 2003 by cisco Systems, Inc.
C1700 platform with 131072 Kbytes of main memory
PASSWORD RECOVERY FUNCTIONALITY IS DISABLED
program load complete, entry point: 0x80008000, size: 0x11e318c
Self decompressing the image : #################################################
################################################################################
################################################################################
################################################################################
############# [OK]
I read that you have to send CTRL+BREAK within 5 seconds after the [OK] prints on the screen, because password recovery is disabled it doesn't just work right after the boostrap text.
So I am trying this and it doesn't seem to take. I'm doing it on a dell latitude d820 laptop so it doesn't have the traditional break key. Break is under Pause but it's in purple lettering which corrisponds to the Fn key, so I tried Fn+Ctrl+Pause or just Fn+Pause or just Ctrl+pause. Can't do it. So I plugged in a dell USB keyboard into the laptop and I verified that this works by typing in other programs. I tried Ctrl Pause|Break key and still nothing.
If I mash it like a machine gun I can once inawhile get the prompt to come up about doing a factory restore but from pushing it so many times it kind of jumps out of the question. I've even typed yes at the are you sure prompt and it just goes on continuing to load until it freezes after a bunch of Kron: Policy Accepted, Policy needs to be configuredNo physical hardware support for line 1 modem InOut
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
So my questions to you are...
WHEN do I push CTRL+BREAK
Is it press and hold control then press break while holding control down?
Do you have to HOLD CTRL and BREAK together for an extended period of time?
Do you have to double press CTRL and BREAK together?
It takes about 4 minutes to do the software load process so when it does not work it's a very frusterating and time consuming process. If the sequence is entered correctly WHEN will it ask me? Before or After it reports back the IOS version and/or hardware / memory status? Before or after the "This product contains cryptographic features" disclaimer?
This is really difficult and frustrating. Perhaps there is another program that would work better to reset this? I've also tried putty but can't figure out if a Ctrl+Break sequence is really going though.
I've also tried the brk key from the Windows XP accessibility on screen keyboard. I've also tried the trick of holding the spacebar down for 15 seconds in a terminal connected at 1200 baud... however I can't see the screen so I dont really know the timing. Plus if you connect at 9600 baud to see the screen when you disconnect it asks you a dumb question (are you sure you want to disconnect) and by the time you reconnect at 1200 baud I bet the 5 second window of sending CTRL+BREAK is gone, especially the fact that you have to hold the spacebar down for 10 seconds.
