384_4 Broke my AC3200

[Armand Plarina]

First, sorry for the really long message and second maybe I'm being a bit dramatic here, but it isn't back to 100 percent yet.

Right now I only have an issue when plugging in a USB key, it will effectively cripple the router. DHCP stops working, cannot browse websites, can't ssh/web admin the router. Takes a bit of time to happen (maybe an hour or so).

Here's the TLDR; of the series of events and lets you know what I've done so far:
- After first install of the firmware all was pretty broken, in fact my laser printer wouldn't even print a test page from the printer controls on the front panel of the printer when the network cable was connected.
- Tried factory defaults, (using 5 seconds reset and firmware page).
- Router would take 10-15 minutes to reboot and still have issues shortly later
- Tried to downgrade to 380.69 and the only way to that was to use the ASUS Firmware restoration tool, in which i did
- Still issues happen with DHCP and reboot times (with or without USB plugged in)
- Eventually gave up and went back to 384.4 version and did the reset processes again.
- Found the "mtd-erase2 nvram" command and that seems to have solved it, for the most part
- Router reboots in under a minute and is stable as long as I don't plug in a USB to it.
- If I do plug in a NEW usb freshly formatted the CPU spikes almost full, memory spikes and eventually I lose internet browsing and access ssh/web to the router. (this usually takes an hour to start)
- I have turned Samba off so that doesn't pin the CPU anymore
- The only AiCloud 2.0 thing I have on is Smart Access, no USB applications enabled or AiProtection, Format JFFS partition = off, enable JFFS custom script = off

So I really don't know what to do next. I also find it interesting that "mtd-erase2 nvram" was the only thing that brought any kind of life back to the router. What I read is that is the same thing as doing the 5 second reset, but my tests seem to prove otherwise!?

I know when the first issues started happening there were some nasty memory errors in the log file, but I don't believe that is happening now. I might try to plug in the USB and monitor the log files until I lose web UI again.

I know I might have been a bit light on the details; but hopefully someone can give me an idea to try next.

 

[adampk17]

Have you tried more than one USB key?

 

[daviworld]

I have an ac5300 not too far off from your ac3200, and while not exactly the same as your problem, I had something similar happen sometime around the end of last year.

Let me try to recall my step's and memory the best I can lol

I originally had a 2GB old USB in my 2.0 port with a 1GB swap on it, which kept becoming corrupted. I think I ran e2fsck on the USB at least 3 or 4 time's before switching it to the 3.0 port. This is were thing's take a weird turn, the USB was no longer corrupted which I believe was due to my scheduled reboot's or a bad old USB. Since the USB would always corrupt after a reboot, I also had UUID entry placed in fstab for this device. Oh I also forgot to mention I did have Skynet and Entware installed which utilized the USB

Maybe 2 week's went by without no incident with the USB until suddenly my router locked up really bad. I almost thought I was being actively hacked, I couldn't access the router at all and rebooting didn't help. However, my internet still worked fine, but like you after a couple hour's through some strange mystery I was suddenly able to access my router.

I eventually get fed up, and randomly pull the USB(after umounting) out to start and prepare to factory reset. When I notice suddenly everything is working, and I input the USB back in there and suddenly I am locked out of the router again.

Now that I finally narrowed the problem down, I took another old USB, this time a 4GB flash drive. Installed a 2GB swap, installed Skynet & entware and put the USB back in the original 2.0 port utilizing the same label name. Ran e2fsck just to make sure I was free and error's, and everything work's now. No more issue's, I am still using that USB till this day with even more script's installed on it.

I never was able to solve exactly why the USB locked the router up, but chalked it up to strangeness. Maybe something in my story might help you in your situation, the only difference in my case is that my router still maintained internet connectivity during all of this

 

[Armand Plarina]

@daviworld & @adampk17 You might be onto something here. First I have tried another USB key, but what I forgot to mention was prior to the update to the new firmware I had Absolution running on it.

So I believe that might have had entware going as a result. If I recall correctly.

I may give it a try tonight and watch the logs to see what's going on.
I have to be careful because any time I corrupt the network it impacts the wife, kids and thus my quality of life

Thanks for the responses so far, I'll post back when I have some more results.

 

[Madferret]

- Tried to downgrade to 380.69 and the only way to that was to use the ASUS Firmware restoration tool, in which i did

I'm kind of in a similar situation. Upgraded to 384_4_2 and my AC3200 just isn't working the same. Even after a factory reset, sometimes even saving settings would cause issues.

Can you let me know how you downgraded? I downloaded the ASUS Firmware restoration tool but it's not detecting my router after I hit Upload

 

[Armand Plarina]

I'm kind of in a similar situation. Upgraded to 384_4_2 and my AC3200 just isn't working the same. Even after a factory reset, sometimes even saving settings would cause issues.

Can you let me know how you downgraded? I downloaded the ASUS Firmware restoration tool but it's not detecting my router after I hit Upload

I don't know why your restoration firmware tool won't find your router, but that didn't fix my issue anyway. What worked for me was to do the "mtd-erase2 nvram" on it. That made the difference for me. Still haven't tried reusing a USB key, but it's 100% otherwise.

So just ssh/telnet into your router and do the "mtd-erase2 nvram" and then reboot setup all over again and maybe you'll be good.

Today I hope to e2fsck the USB stick and monitor it later today to see if I can solve/provide more info to what's going on with my router.

 

[guho]

Most Ac3200 people on this forum, including myself, went back to 384.3 and many reported good results (2.4GHz wireless working again). Now my question is whether 384.5 is going to be good on our AC3200s.

 

[jernau]

Most Ac3200 people on this forum, including myself, went back to 384.3 and many reported good results (2.4GHz wireless working again). Now my question is whether 384.5 is going to be good on our AC3200s.

My experience on 384.5 alphas was no different with 2.4ghz disconnects etc on the AC3200 unfortunately

 

[jerry6]

My experience on 384.5 alphas was no different with 2.4ghz disconnects etc on the AC3200 unfortunately

Don't think most , I have 3 3200 that run fine , it was one 384. beta that OI had trouble with 2.4 band , other than that stale 3844.2 forked well and 384.5 Alpha works great , no problems in over 4 days

 

[mcouture]

384.3 on my AC3200 has quite unstable.
384.4 (_2) on my AC3200 has been very stable

With all this talk, I'm scared to move now ...nah! I'm just waiting for 384.5 to go GA.

 

[DonnyJohnny]

384.3 on my AC3200 has quite unstable.
384.4 (_2) on my AC3200 has been very stable

With all this talk, I'm scared to move now ...nah! I'm just waiting for 384.5 to go GA.

Come on... we need adventurous people to test... don’t scare...
Please be frontline tester for us... of coz provided you have the time to have fun with it.

 

[jerry6]

384.3 on my AC3200 has quite unstable.
384.4 (_2) on my AC3200 has been very stable

With all this talk, I'm scared to move now ...nah! I'm just waiting for 384.5 to go GA.

works well , no problems in 4 days+ running it /

 

[Armand Plarina]

I just finally got around to trying plugging in my USB stick. I had formatted it FAT32 and also used the WEBUI from asuswrt to format it too.

All is good .. so far (it has been 10 hours).

I'm running 384.4_2 and before I believe I was running 384.4 so maybe the new firmware revision might be the key to all these issues with AC3200.

 

[jernau]

I just came across something weird. Have been running 384.4_beta3 for 4 days on my AC3200 without issue but had to turn it off owing to having to change some wiring. When I rebooted no 2.4Ghz wireless at all. Tried reinitialize to factory, still no 2.4 wireless and even flashing to 385 alpha, still nothing even with just a basic open wifi config (not restoring my old saved config). I then removed the usb harddrive plugged intot he USB 4 port and rebooted at which point 2.4Ghz wireless was back. Flashed back to 384.4_beta3 and plugged my usbdrive into the USB2 port and all working fine. Wondering if there is any connection to the wirless issues some people are having on 384 on the AC3200 and using the USB 3 port?

 

[Nigel Jones]

Things seem to be stable for me this week on the 384.5 alpha2 for the AC3200

I DID do a reset when I was on an earlier 384 build, AND I have disabled STP - though that could be specific to my local network.

I have > 20 clients, many on 5 Ghz, but a few on 2.4 Ghz and they are working fine. Speeds as expected and seemingly reliable. I'm using the trend micro firewall addition, FreshJR QOS, a local VPN server, time machine support, samba

 

[jayjayuk]

Hi guys,

I was getting an issue with 384.4 however i have found the problem and fix for wifi ( my issues at least )

My issue was that all 3 radios would turn off as soon as i plugged in a USB 3 device in the front usb port, i had to go into each channel professional menu and enable them again. Even a reboot of the router wouldn't switch them back on, had to do it manually? very odd, seems deliberate?

Anyway, after re enabling the radios i found that i had to enable the option 'Reducing USB 3.0 interference' or my wifi was very flakey and sometimes would claim my password was wrong, and frequent disconnects.

 

[Nigel Jones]

Ok so it was stable for a week until just now. Lost all connectivity. upstream looked ok but no router connected devices (wifi or ethernet) could get anywhere. After 10 mins or so I rebooted...

:-(

I *DO* have a USB-3 disk connected (mostly apple time machine, also ad0-hoc file sharing). Yesterday I did DISABLE 'reduce USB-3 interference', as I was under the impression that was slowing down the file access. I had thought only 2.4Ghz wifi might be affected but I guess I am wrong! I did also enable disk hibernation (10 minutes)

Going to leave as-is for now and see if fails again. If it does I'll re-enable the 'reduce USB3 interference'

 

[bearever]

Ok so it was stable for a week until just now. Lost all connectivity. upstream looked ok but no router connected devices (wifi or ethernet) could get anywhere. After 10 mins or so I rebooted...

:-(

I *DO* have a USB-3 disk connected (mostly apple time machine, also ad0-hoc file sharing). Yesterday I did DISABLE 'reduce USB-3 interference', as I was under the impression that was slowing down the file access. I had thought only 2.4Ghz wifi might be affected but I guess I am wrong! I did also enable disk hibernation (10 minutes)

Going to leave as-is for now and see if fails again. If it does I'll re-enable the 'reduce USB3 interference'

I have exactly same issue as you except that I don’t have USB drives attached. My model is AC86U.

I lost internet connectivity for all interfaces every 2 or 3 days with 384.4_2 and 384.5 alpha builds. I tried enable/disable Spanning Tree Protocol, AiProtection, parental controls and firewall but still could not resolve the issue.

Today I reverted FW to 384.3 and will monitor the situation.


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[Nigel Jones]

I have exactly same issue as you except that I don’t have USB drives attached. My model is AC86U.

I lost internet connectivity for all interfaces every 2 or 3 days with 384.4_2 and 384.5 alpha builds. I tried enable/disable Spanning Tree Protocol, AiProtection, parental controls and firewall but still could not resolve the issue.

Today I reverted FW to 384.3 and will monitor the situation.


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Which build do you think was last stable for you. I think for me it was one of the.4 betas


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[bearever]

Which build do you think was last stable for you. I think for me it was one of the.4 betas


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My internet connection is very stable with 384.3 for the last 72 hours. STP is on.


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