5gHz disables itself

[scottegos2]

I have an intermittent but very annoying problem. Sometimes, like right now for instance, the 5gHz radio shuts down and won't come back up. I tried a router reboot, I tried explicitly disabling then re-enabling 5gHz, but no luck. I don't see anything interesting from dmesg or in the system log. It shows the half-enabled wifi symbol.

Am I missing something obvious? I'm using an RT-AC66u with 3.0.0.4.270.26, since my three laptops all use Intel 6300 clients and 5gHz - if I read the discussions right, this is not a winning combination for the 354 series firmwares.

 

[nubyOz]

Hi,

2 suggestion: try factory reset, a quick search will show you how and re-enter all settings manually, dont restore.
Also try alternative firmware just in case, maybe factory or 260B, just in case.
Have a look at the 5GHz radio temperature, can't remember menu item, should be around 50C to 55C.
If those suggestion dont work your 5Ghz radio my be damaged.

Cheers

 

[scottegos2]

Thanks for the ideas. I'd actually done a factory reset after the last time, on an older firmware, so I doubt that's it. This time -- like, I think, the last time, a cold boot seems to have helped.

Your idea about thermal issues hast merit, though: My 5gHz radio consistently runs at 60 or higher. I turned off the 2.4gHz radio for now, to see how that goes.

 

[RMerlin]

60C is normal. Mine usually runs around 63C during the summer.

 

[jlake]

I had the same thing happening. I don't remember if I was using stock or Merlin, but it was 354 when the 5G would disappear. I've only had the N66U for a week so I haven't had time to play around with it too much. To resolve the issue, I flashed stock 270 and then reset to factory defaults. Additionally, I uninstalled my Linksys/Broadcom AE2500 wireless adapters from Windows device manager on two computers (and rebooted the computers) to make sure the AE2500's were running on their default driver settings (they probably weren't).

It's been three days on 270 stock, and I haven't noticed the problem again. Wireless adapters still on default. I updated to stock 354 a few hours ago and it seems to be working great too. I should also mention that I removed the wireless profile(s) from Windows and created new ones after the stock 354 update (which I do out of habit when updating firmware on a router).

I'll update to Merlin 354 this weekend and see what happens.

 

[scottegos2]

Something to do with cold booting, AFAICT. Went through the pain of going to 354 today (factory resets, etc) but the same thing happened, and didn't get fixed until I power-cycled the router. Back on 270 now, since 354 didn't work well for me on 5 gHz (as expected). I imagine something in the warm boot process doesn't fully reinitialize whatever goes south.

 

[bluepoint]

5 GHz radio in 354 stock or Merlin's comes up a little later than the 2.4GHz radio from a boot. You have to give it time to come up but eventually it will.

 

[jlake]

You're probably right. Your theory would line up with my situation too.

 

[scottegos2]

Some new info that probably helps (someone) a lot: When my router gets into this state (which it did again just now after I decided to try the new beta fw again), mousing over the wireless icon says "5G: Channel Undefined". What does that come from. I did try changing the 5g channel, though I generally want it on channel 149.

 

[jlake]

Interesting. I tried both 354 stock and 354 Merlin again and haven't had the disappearing problem. The problem that I have is I only get 108 Mbps link speed with the 354 wireless driver. I finally threw in the towel and am staying with 270.26b until Asus fixes 354.

 

[vdemarco]

Interesting. I tried both 354 stock and 354 Merlin again and haven't had the disappearing problem. The problem that I have is I only get 108 Mbps link speed with the 354 wireless driver. I finally threw in the towel and am staying with 270.26b until Asus fixes 354.

With My network (all apple stuff), the speed drops slowly over a week, then rebooting the router fixes it again. Went to 270.26b. Also hope that asus fixes 354 soon.

 

[egarretsen]

No 5ghz visible

I also have a lot of issues with my ASUS RT AC66u router.

The 5ghz frequency is not visible / seen by clients or the 5ghz network disappears after some time. The 5ghz is active according to the router setup page and the LED on the router, The only way for me to connect / see the 5ghz network again is by booting the router in recovery mode and then restarting it and boot normally again. I've posted a complaint to ASUS and i urge everyone experiencing this problem to do so too, so that they can fix the firmware.

Detailed problem solving instructiions:

- turn of the router with the power button.
- keep the reset button pressed and turn on the router with the power button.
- as soon as the power led start blinking (very slowly ca. once every few seconds), you can release the reset button, but give the router some time to fully boot in recovery mode.
- once the router is fully booted in recovery mode just power it off by pressing the power button again.
- once turned of just turn it on again by pressing the power button.

After this procedure i can once more see (and connect to) the 5ghz signal again. This procedure has to be repeated every time the 5ghz network is invisible.

Please tell me if this procedure works for you to, so we can collect information on this issue and have it fixed by ASUS.

Keywords:
RT AC66u,
can't connect to 5ghz,
no 5ghz signal,
5ghz issues
5g not visible
5g hidden
ASUS USB AC53
5ghz network not seen

 

[RMerlin]

I also have a lot of issues with my ASUS RT AC66u router.

The 5ghz frequency is not visible / seen by clients or the 5ghz network disappears after some time. The 5ghz is active according to the router setup page and the LED on the router, The only way for me to connect / see the 5ghz network again is by booting the router in recovery mode and then restarting it and boot normally again. I've posted a complaint to ASUS and i urge everyone experiencing this problem to do so too, so that they can fix the firmware.

Detailed problem solving instructiions:

- turn of the router with the power button.
- keep the reset button pressed and turn on the router with the power button.
- as soon as the power led start blinking (very slowly ca. once every few seconds), you can release the reset button, but give the router some time to fully boot in recovery mode.
- once the router is fully booted in recovery mode just power it off by pressing the power button again.
- once turned of just turn it on again by pressing the power button.

After this procedure i can once more see (and connect to) the 5ghz signal again. This procedure has to be repeated every time the 5ghz network is invisible.

Please tell me if this procedure works for you to, so we can collect information on this issue and have it fixed by ASUS.

Have you tried setting a static channel rather than leaving it to Auto? I've seen cases where the router could sometime switch to a channel that the client's wireless card didn't properly support. Manually setting a channel on the router would usually resolve the issue. This can happen if, for example, your router and your wireless clients aren't configured for the same region, so they don't support the same channels.

I suspect that your procedure seems to resolve the issue not because it did anything (in fact, there is nothing in the steps you describe that could directly lead to any change in behavior, all Recovery Mode does is interrupt the boot process before the kernel gets loaded, and wait for a firmware to be provided), but probably more because you simply ended up having your router wireless disabled for 1-2 minutes, and back up again, at which point it ended up picking a different channel that happened to work with your wireless client. I suspect you would reach the same result just by turning the router off for 2 minutes.

I've had this router for almost a year now, and use it daily on the 5 GHz band, and never experienced any disappearance of my 5 GHz signal.

 

[fableman]

Have you tried setting a static channel rather than leaving it to Auto? I've seen cases where the router could sometime switch to a channel that the client's wireless card didn't properly support. Manually setting a channel on the router would usually resolve the issue. This can happen if, for example, your router and your wireless clients aren't configured for the same region, so they don't support the same channels.

I suspect that your procedure seems to resolve the issue not because it did anything (in fact, there is nothing in the steps you describe that could directly lead to any change in behavior, all Recovery Mode does is interrupt the boot process before the kernel gets loaded, and wait for a firmware to be provided), but probably more because you simply ended up having your router wireless disabled for 1-2 minutes, and back up again, at which point it ended up picking a different channel that happened to work with your wireless client. I suspect you would reach the same result just by turning the router off for 2 minutes.

I've had this router for almost a year now, and use it daily on the 5 GHz band, and never experienced any disappearance of my 5 GHz signal.

I have this problem to... it nothing about channel or anything... in the software the 5G looks ON but on the router itself the 5G LED just goes OFF and 5G is gone.
Its more of a driver crash that the GUI cant see or understand.

I am RT-AX88U

 

[fableman]

And the only thing that fix it for me is to change channel in 5G settings and then save, turn off, start.

 

[ColinTaylor]

@fableman You're replying to a thread from almost 7 years ago about a router with completely different hardware running a completely different firmware.

 

[RMerlin]

Locking this.