@punkrawkgeek 

Hi,

I think it depends on how the router got bricked.

If the router got bricked while your friend was attempting to flash a firmware (i.e. upgrade, downgrade or 3rd-party firmware), then there might still be a chance to recover it.

However, if the router went bad on its own out of the blue, without anyone messing around with it, then it's more likely that some hardware component died.

Have you already opened the housing of the router and had a look inside? In some cases it's actually possible to see traces of a hardware failure with the naked eye.

  @woozle I think he may have been trying to upgrade the firmware or some form of flashing. The insides look fine. I have opened it up and taken a look around. Thank goodness for my background in electronics! Nothing looks bad, and there is no smell of a fried component. 

  @punkrawkgeek 

As far as I am aware there are only two recovery methods for TP-Link routers (follow the link). If none of them works, then I guess there is nothing more you could do.

https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/stories/detail/582