AC68U locking up every couple of hours

[VanillaXtract]

This issue started about a week ago. Every night at about 9:30 my router would lock up. All lights on the router and modem would flash as normal. It looked like data was transferring between the two. The router was unresponsive via ethernet, WiFi, and pings. I would have to power cycle the router to access the internet or my network. Yesterday it did it a couple of times in one day, so I upgraded to the latest beta, 378.56 beta2. Then it did it again a few hours later. I then restored to factory defaults. It then locked up within an hour. I don't think it would be a router issue, but it doesn't make sense that something external to the router would cause it to lock up. On this last reboot I have the log level set to debug and to log all entries. Is there a remote server to send it to? Any ideas or help?

 

[martinr]

If you haven't already done so, it might be worth a look through this topic. http://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac87u-keeps-locking-up.27283/page-2#post-207913 just in case there's anything of relevance.

Perhaps one thing you could try, to narrow down the cause, is to disconnect the modem from the router without doing anything else. If the lockups stop you know its some sort of interaction - if you can afford to leave your system down for such a period.

 

[VanillaXtract]

I did see that. I am having the exact same issues. But I don't think I have traffic analyzer active. It is set to real time as I do not see an off. I have installed the latest ASUS firmware and there is still no change. It seems to be getting worse. My router lasts for about 30 minutes before it locks up. I just turned off all of the Network Protection features, but left the Parental Control features active. Hopefully I will see a change with this.

Next, I suppose I will do a factory reset and leave it overnight, to see if it is some setting I have causing it to lock up.

 

[System Error Message]

if factory reset doesnt work and temperatures are fine try changing the PSU

 

[martinr]

You've already tried restoring to factory default without success, so I don't hold out any hope for that. Changing the power supply is a very good idea. You say it also happens around 9:30pm; does your mains supply suffer from brown-outs (noticeable with the old incandescent light bulbs, I'm not sure modern lighting shows it up)? Do you have a heavy load eg electric immersion water heater or underfloor electric heating kicking in around then? Can you run the router power supply unit from a different circuit, not just a different socket on the same circuit? And I do think you should eliminate any possible adverse modem interaction by seeing if it happens with no connection to the modem.

I have a vague recolection of someone having similar problems possibly with a different model, and it appeared the problem was solved with a higher quality power supply unit. But then it's also possible it didn't work and he was too embarrassed to return and say his optimism got the better of him.

 

[VanillaXtract]

It was around 930, but now it is about every hour or so. It has become quite unusable. Before I left for work today, I turned off the AiProtection Network Protection, but left the Parental Controls turned on. It lasted for about 3.5hrs. I will turn off the Parental Controls next to see if that causes an issue. I will try unplugging the modem last to see if that fixes the issue.

As far as a PSU, is there any suggestions for what is considered high quality?
EDIT: I found that the PWR+ laptop-style PSU is recommended. It'll be here tomorrow so I will give that a shot too.

 

[martinr]

My router is also an RT-AC68U. I have all the AIProtection modules (but not parental controls) and I'm using the power supply that came with the router, and all without problem, as indeed do many, many others. Therefore, I wouldn't want you to pin all your hopes on the cause being a dodgy power supply. Do you have a power supply at home you could try? The spec says 19V with max 1.75A current but I'd double check that on both the router and the Asus power supply. (Not sure why "max 1.75A": a minimum current output is relevant). Of course, the connector and its polarity must be double checked before plugging in.

 

[VanillaXtract]

After disabling all of the AiProtection, my router has been running for 13hrs, a new record in recent memory. I already ordered the power supply, so maybe that will clean things up to allow me to enable those features.

On a side note, I noticed my router is sitting at 160MB (65%) of memory used. Is this a normal amount?

 

[martinr]

On a side note, I noticed my router is sitting at 160MB (65%) of memory used. Is this a normal amount?

Good. Let us know how it goes, but, as I say, I run AIProtection without a hitch, and it shouldn't be necessary to disable it to keep the router running.

As for memory, mine shows:
Memory Total. 249.74MB
Free. 101.48 MB

which isn't a great deal different to yours.