[AC-66U B1] Do these fail/go bad after 3 years?

[lindros2]

TL;dr - do AC-66U B1's go bad? Or just corrupt?

Long-time user, dumb question.
This is my fourth AC-66u (I had two originals, and now two B1's). This was manufactured in 2017 - HW version B2.
I use two of them as extenders (AC5300 is my main). One B1 is feeding an outdoor camera and my kids rooms.
After three years, the B1 in my home office started to go bad. I've factory reset it three times, changed software from Merlin-384.16 to 384.14_2 to the original Asus software. Nothing solves it.
[Note: it's had difficulty for some time re-connecting to the the main router after changing settings, or power outages, firmware updates, etc.]
Example - I'll be on a Zoom meeting, and all sound stops and video freezes. Or I'll be unable to go to a site on a browser from my Win10 box.
Unplugging my Mac and going wireless (to the main router across my house) gets me back on, but this isn't a good solution.
So again, the question is - do these go bad? NVRAM? CPU degradation? something else (malware)?

Finally, I did buy a replacement - I don't have a lot of patience - but just want to know. And the new one is also HW B2 - they didn't have any C1's.

 

[L&LD]

The original RT-AC66U was not a very robust model in my experience. Many failed after 1 year (i.e. the warranty) had expired.

The RT-AC66U_B1 (don't know the HW version) have all been reliable so far.

After flashing the firmware you want to test, are you loading saved backup config files? If so, that is probably your issue right there.

What year is your Mac? What firmware are you running on the RT-AC5300? How big is your home in SqFt per floor and how many floors/levels? Why do you need 3 WiFi AP's in your home?

When was the last time you did a full reset on all the routers simultaneously?

Does trying to use a new SSID help? Does forgetting the network on the affected devices and then rebooting and re-associating to the router help?

The M&M Config and ideally the Nuclear Reset guides should be able to get your routers and networks back to a stable and good/known state.

If following the steps above don't help, then the next router for you should not be an RT-AC66U_B1.

HTH.

 

[lindros2]

Thank you. Thought I posted - but I lost connection (not funny)...
Turns out something is up with the AC5300. The new AC66U_B1 is top notch, but it too is dropping. (thanks to Dropbox to be the early indicator of network issues; before Win10 shows the Globe of Hell).
So at this point, I've got to reset the AC5300. It power cycled this morning (not my doing) due to a power outage.

To be safe (or stupid), I purchased an AX11000, but am trying to not open it (which ... has incompatibility issues w/ AC66U_B1 and other "WiFi 5" routers...)

 

[L&LD]

@lindros2 don't open that AX11000... no RMerlin support!

Let's see if we can get your current equipment back to shape.

 

[lindros2]

@lindros2 don't open that AX11000... no RMerlin support!

Yeah - and Asus firmware is totally f'ed on these, from what I've read.

 

[dlandiss]

So again, the question is - do these go bad? NVRAM? CPU degradation? something else (malware)?

Try swapping the power supplies between one that is working well and one that is not. Our experience has been that the power supplies are the weakest link in the chain.

 

[lindros2]

i think - i THINK - it's related to QoS... with the revised version of Zoom (one of the 50 pushed out in the past month).

 

[Lee MacMillan]

I bought a refurbished B1 from Newgg two years ago and it has been trouble-free. I've never even done a reset after multiple (Asus) firmware updates. Hope I didn't just jinx myself!

2 days later: I guess I did jinx myself. Last night for no apparent reason, the router lost all its connections including the wired ones. I had to pull the plug and restart it. That reminded me that the same thing happened a week or so ago. Should I be worried?

 

[lindros2]

update #50 - it's related to my AC5300, not the 68u.
After shutting off QoS, the AC5300 <> AC68U_B1 dropping continued, but came back quickly.
I made two changes - apparently I was saving logs to NVRAM instead of RAM, and I was not flushing cache regularly...
Let's see...