Installing DD-WRT on my wireless router

[PenPoint]

I recently purchased an 'Archer C9' wireless router from TP-Link, and from the installation guide I figured out that I can install an router-friendly operating system called DD-WRT. But the guide warned that 'you may lost your warranty if you install it', so that's basically what I'm worried about. Is there a way that I can reinstall the originally included router OS in case of the customer service?

And furthermore, I searched through the DD-WRT database and found out that the 'beta(v3.0)' version only supports my router. I'm also worried that the lack of performance of my router since it has 1.0GHz dual-core processor, 128MB of RAM, and only 16MB of ROM.

What would be the best idea?

[Alex Atkin UK]

The main issue here is if the flash to DD-WRT fails, you're stuck as you voided the warranty.  Although you could probably get away with returning it to the retailer.

 

If DD-WRT works however, its trivial to flash back to stock firmware.

 

The biggest difficulty is some recent versions of TP-Link routers have blocked the easy installation of custom firmwares.  Do it depends if DD-WRT still have that deal with TP-Link to bypass that issue, it should be mentioned on the router WiFi page though.

[Just.Oblivious]

There is always the chance that tinkering with firmware 'bricks' a device, though in reality I've only seen it happen once (out of the ~100 firmware flashes that I've done on consumer routers). And even if it does happen, the router can usually be recovered through a serial console (which may required opening the device and soldering some wires onto the board).

 

1 hour ago, PenPoint said:

But the guide warned that 'you may lost your warranty if you install it', so that's basically what I'm worried about. Is there a way that I can reinstall the originally included router OS in case of the customer service?

If the router powers on and the web UI is accessible, you can usually revert back to the original firmware by flashing the firmware file provided by the manufacturer. But keep in mind that when a product requires warranty repairs it's often broken beyond this point, making it very hard (or even impossible) to revert the firmware before shipping it in.

 

Whether or not tinkering with firmware voids the warranty of a product depends on local laws and regulations.