Solved 3 Asus Routers doing the same thing. About to drop ASUS. Help!!!!

[jeffry51ne]

Forum,
Before I eat the loss of about $400 I spent I'd like to see if anyone knows a work around.
I'm a Collaboration Engineer for Cisco for about 15 years so I'm pretty technical.

I purchased the AC88U and AC68U about 1.5 years ago. Everything worked great until I upgraded the flash.
Now both routers and the AC5300 that ASUS support replaced my AC88U with all do the same thing (If I enable any features other than DNS Family Filter - Merlin OS).

The routers work great for about 10 to 15 hours then start recycling up and down non stop. Only a factor reset fixes it.

I thought maybe it was my Disney Circle so I took that offline and it's still doing it. I keep waiting and hoping ASUS puts out a firmware that fixes this recycling issue.

Is anyone else getting this? I"m so frustrated. I"m about to drop ASUS and just eat the money I spent.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Forum,
Before I eat the loss of about $400 I spent I'd like to see if anyone knows a work around.
I'm a Collaboration Engineer for Cisco for about 15 years so I'm pretty technical.

I purchased the AC88U and AC68U about 1.5 years ago. Everything worked great until I upgraded the flash.
Now both routers and the AC5300 that ASUS support replaced my AC88U with all do the same thing (If I enable any features other than DNS Family Filter - Merlin OS).

The routers work great for about 10 to 15 hours then start recycling up and down non stop. Only a factor reset fixes it.

I thought maybe it was my Disney Circle so I took that offline and it's still doing it. I keep waiting and hoping ASUS puts out a firmware that fixes this recycling issue.

Is anyone else getting this? I"m so frustrated. I"m about to drop ASUS and just eat the money I spent.

What does "recycling up and down" mean?

OE

 

[jeffry51ne]

So when the router goes into “psycho mode” I run a consistent ping to the internet(4.2.2.2. -t) and the default gateway(192.168.3.1 -t). They both time out for about 2 to 3 minutes then will reply for about 30 seconds.

During the 30 second window I can login to the router and do a soft factory reset. If I take no action it will continue that up and down pattern non stop.

thank you for replying. I will try anything at this point. Right now I unplugged my AC68U and only have my AC5300 running. I have all features turned on waiting for psycho mode. I factory reset last night about 9 hours ago. So it shouldn’t be long. I plugged both the modem and 5300 directly into wall outlet to rule out a power issue. Tried different outlets as well. The Disney Circle was the only other non ASUS device attached to the router.

 

[Jack Yaz]

a copy of the system log from the affected routers would be very helpful

 

[jeffry51ne]

See attached. I have not enabled any logging outside of the default setting.

 

[jeffry51ne]

FYI I also upgraded to Merlin 386.3 last night.

Some other helpful info. It's possible that my iphone XR is tied into this somehow. I haven't found a direct correlation "yet" but one time, at the beginning of the birth of psycho mode, my cell phone actually took down the house internet when connected to the wifi. Of course a factory reset fixed that. I just deleted the ASUS app off of my iphone just now to rule it out.

Also, since I factory reset last night, this is the 1st time the Disney Circle has been connected to the router in any way. So far everything is working. Still waiting for psycho mode.

 

[sfx2000]

Sounds almost like a spanning tree loop...

 

[jeffry51ne]

Sounds almost like a spanning tree loop...

yep but why 15 hours after a factory reset and how to stop it!! Tried so many things. I even sent the AC88U to ASUS support and they couldn't fix psycho mode. They only sent me a replacment 5300 which goes into psycho mode also.

 

[Datalink]

Can you provide a layout or description of your network, from the modem, down to the last device, including any switches in the network.

Thinking logically, given that different routers (although based on similar firmware build) are exhibiting the same behavior, there has to be something in the network layout, or a problem with a device that causing the issue.

Have you isolated networks running on the routers one at a time, as in:

1. disconnect everything from the ethernet port, leaving the wifi networks up and running.
2. reconnect the ethernet ports and shut down the 2.4 or 5 Ghz network
3. reenable the inactive wifi network and shut down the other active wifi network

Running thru that list, one step at at time, you're looking for yet another failure at each step. If at any step the failure occurs again, the immediate conclusion is that the current test step isn't the source of the failure. Move on to the next step. It might take more than a day, at any one step to determine if that particular wifi network or set of ethernet ports is the culprit as determined by the absence of any router failures.

When you find that disconnecting the ethernet ports or disabling one of the wifi networks results in no further failures, the next question is, which device connected to the ethernet ports or running on a wifi network is the source of the failure. That's a step by step search, turning off connected devices one by one until you find that there are no more problems, ergo, you've found the culprit. That could take a while, depending on how many devices are connected to the ethernet ports and wifi networks.

A failing ethernet or wifi adapter in a device can take down a modem or router, making it appear that the modem or router is the problem. That can take hours if the device in question has to heat up to a point where it fails. If the failures occur at the same time each day, back up a few hours and think about any devices that are turned on at, or near the same time every day. That would be a good starting point to consider.

A little patience and methodical searching should determine the real source of the problem.

 

[jeffry51ne]

Datalink,
Thank you very much for taking the time to reply.

I've never connected anything to the ethernet ports other than the ethernet cable running from the WAN port to my modem. So we can rule those other ports out.

No other equipment attached or involved in any other way. Just the AC5300 wireless connections.

I will do what you suggest and work with the one band at a time.

I'm working solely with the AC5300 right now as the AC68U is unplugged.

There are no switches or any additional pieces of equipment involved in my setup other than

Note* At different times we have noticed different bands would go down (Not in psycho mode - aka during normal operation) while other bands would be functional.

Right now everything is working. Want to rule out the Disney Circle (which was always in the picture connected wirelessly and via Ethernet but has been unplugged now and disconnected before the most recent factory reset.)

If psycho mode returns I will factory reset then only enable 2.4, then 5G if 2.4 goes psycho etc...

Thank you all again for your time and help.
-Jeff

 

[Ian Campbell]

Forum,
Before I eat the loss of about $400 I spent I'd like to see if anyone knows a work around.
I'm a Collaboration Engineer for Cisco for about 15 years so I'm pretty technical.

I purchased the AC88U and AC68U about 1.5 years ago. Everything worked great until I upgraded the flash.
Now both routers and the AC5300 that ASUS support replaced my AC88U with all do the same thing (If I enable any features other than DNS Family Filter - Merlin OS).

The routers work great for about 10 to 15 hours then start recycling up and down non stop. Only a factor reset fixes it.

I thought maybe it was my Disney Circle so I took that offline and it's still doing it. I keep waiting and hoping ASUS puts out a firmware that fixes this recycling issue.

Is anyone else getting this? I"m so frustrated. I"m about to drop ASUS and just eat the money I spent.

 

[Ian Campbell]

If you mean by psycho mode that you get alternating 100% CPU usage...i had the same thing happen to me. I have a AC5300. If I turned off all AI protection, the router went back to normal. I would then add one feature at at time and wait for a day to see if psycho mode would come back.

 

[L&LD]

See attached. I have not enabled any logging outside of the default setting.

You have not attached anything.

 

[L&LD]

How are you doing the factory reset? Are you using a saved backup config file? Be specific in your steps or compare to the following and see what you're doing (or not) to get a 'true' reset of the network and router.

Fully Reset Router and Network

Then, when you set up the network, the following link may be useful too.

Best Practice Update/Setup Router/AiMesh Node(s) 2021

 

[jeffry51ne]

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

If/when psycho mode returns I will go through the links you sent but I will tell you this. One time I went on the forum and an ASUS engineer posted a very thorough procedure that I followed to the tee and it did not fix psycho mode. That's when I sent the router into ASUS support. I told them to factory reset it and wait 24-48 hours. They did and could not fix it.

 

[L&LD]

Curious to see that post the Asus engineer offered.

 

[jeffry51ne]

Curious to see that post the Asus engineer offered.

Sorry I don't have the original post but I do remember part of the procedure such as deleting the JFFS partition and unplugging the power, pushing the power button, replugging the power and then proceeding. There were like 10 steps that was to be a complete correct wipe of the router.

 

[L&LD]

Do I have anything out of order that you remember from that post?

Fully Reset Router and Network

 

[BreakingDad]

Why do you even need the disney circle, when the router has all of those features either natively or via addons?

Couple of other thoughts I though Spanning Tree Loops only occured when using switches, or too many switches.

Someones mentioned overheating, have you looked into this? reason being it occurs after so many hours.

Another thought you mention different bands going down, are you using standard channels, just to rule out DFS causing this.

Have you tried each router individually with a total reset then latest Merlin, based on the above guide, with just a few normal devices (a pc, a phone for example) in line and default settings? with no mesh on.

As in add things one by one like one of the above threads suggests so you can catch what is causing this.

Last thought, there's not really enough info in your posts for us to help you. Get those system logs up.

 

[jeffry51ne]

Do I have anything out of order that you remember from that post?

Fully Reset Router and Network

There a few things such as a the username and password that was not part of the procedure. Keep in mind ASUS themselves couldn't reformat the router and fix it. The replacement 5300 goes into psycho mode also.