so in effect , you were uploading the wrong firmware to the box it seems?.
you didnt say if it auto reset after upload,as it should, what revision board do you have.
for future readers:
you cant just go uploading any firmware you might find, you really need to pay attention to the revision of the board and so on as the companys swap & change stuff all the time between revisions or risk bricking the box forever, glad you managed to clear it.
unbricking many brands of boxs is covered over on
http://forum.openwrt.org/ from time to time, just search on your brand/version and brick to get some threads that might help even if your not using any of the 3rd party firmwares.