AC68U stops responding.

[TomT]

Twice in the last 2 days my ac68u has suddenly stopped responding to anything, WiFi or LAN. LAN clients show as disconnected and WiFi has dropped.

I've had to power off and on again.
Tonight I've done a nvram backup..
But is there anyway to see why it stopped ?

CPU temp is showing at 84c which seems high. The router has never been overclocked and is running merlin firmware 378.54_2

Any ideas ?

 

[martinr]

Believe it or not, 84C isn't extraordinary. Some of us have taken steps to add cooling and improve thermal transfer. But before I looked into it, my RT-AC68U was running at around 81C and must have done so happily for over a year. So, whilst overheating might be the problem, don't jump to conclusions too soon. Of course you won't know the temp just before it shut down. If possible, move it away from other heat sources or to somewhere cooler, but don't be surprised if it makes no difference at all.

If I'm not mistaken, you have been posting quite a bit recently, so it might help others if you simply list any tweaks or scripts or settings changes just in case that is of relevance.

 

[GG7]

CPU temp is showing at 84c which seems high. The router has never been overclocked and is running merlin firmware 378.54_2

Any ideas ?

I would say that 84c is higher than normal, but not too hot to cause the router to shut down or stop functioning over heat issues.

My 68U rev. B1 runs at a relatively constant 72c, with occasional rises up to 75c but it has never gotten hotter than that. Although we are in the middle of winter and our home's internal temp hovers around 65 degrees F. I have only had my 68 for a few weeks, so no idea where its average operating temp will be during the summer when our place can get into the mid 70s during the day with our AC on full blast.

Have you tried flashing back to the previous Merlin release to compare temps and overall stability? The one before the version you are using now? Odd that you are having stability issues with this version since I have tried out several release versions so far an found 378.54_2 to be the best overall Merlin version, and is the version I have running on my 68U right now. And because of all the major problems I can't resolve with the latest release, 378.54_2 will likely be my permanent firmware installation on this 68U B1.

 

[TomT]

Believe it or not, 84C isn't extraordinary. Some of us have taken steps to add cooling and improve thermal transfer. But before I looked into it, my RT-AC68U was running at around 81C and must have done so happily for over a year. So, whilst overheating might be the problem, don't jump to conclusions too soon. Of course you won't know the temp just before it shut down. If possible, move it away from other heat sources or to somewhere cooler, but don't be surprised if it makes no difference at all.

If I'm not mistaken, you have been posting quite a bit recently, so it might help others if you simply list any tweaks or scripts or settings changes just in case that is of relevance.

Thanks for the reply.

I've been playing with iptables but have removed the rules I added so its now back to its default setup.

I'll see how it is tomorrow when in normal use with out any additional rules added.

Thanks

 

[TomT]

Happy New Year
My router seems to be fine since the last reboot.

No hanging etc.. I'll start testing iptables again and see if that has any issues.

 

[richto]

My AC-68U keeps ceasing to respond to WiFi on the current firmware as well. Roughly once a day it needs a power cycle.

 

[TomT]

Mine has done it again, and I've not made any changes on it at all in since I started this tread.

No response from Wifi, Guest Wifi or LAN. Looking at the LED's it all looked normal.
The system log via the GUI shows entries upto Dec 25 20:03:00 and then again at
Jan 1 00:00:21 syslogd started: BusyBox v1.20.2 When I rebooted it.

Not sure why there is nothing from the 25th until today...

Any way to enable logging to USB or the router so I can see what it shows if this happens again ?
Any other ideas ?
Thanks

 

[martinr]

Hi Tom
To answer a minor part of your post: the date defaults to 1 Jan whilst it reboots

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac68u-with-378-55-stops-working.27796/#post-213092

Sod's Law has it that today just happens to be 1 Jan anyway, otherwise I guess you'd have spotted that..

 

[martinr]

"Any way to enable logging to USB or the router so I can see what it shows if this happens again ?
Any other ideas ? "


See Merlin's answer here:

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/newbie-guidance-router-logs.28253/#post-218017

 

[TomT]

Thanks for the replies.. It's just gone off again.

Taken the opportunity to blow some air thought itand give it a dust..

I'll check out the threads and see if they help.
I may default it tomorrow and see how it goes.

 

[martinr]

Thanks for the replies.. It's just gone off again.

Taken the opportunity to blow some air thought itand give it a dust..

I'll check out the threads and see if they help.
I may default it tomorrow and see how it goes.

"Default" i.e restore to factory default settings? If so, good move.

 

[TomT]

Factory reset but using my current merlin firmware is the plan. I may reload my settings or start a fresh..

Only issue I have starting fresh is the number of devices go add back to the WiFi and LAN for static addressing.

I work from home full time so have lots of hardware connecting..

I'll see how it goes tomorrow.

 

[martinr]

I suppose you could take the easy route and reload your settings (web gui restore settings or John's facility?) with fingers crossed that whatever the problem is, it doesn't migrate across with the reload. And then, if the problem remains, you could then start "afresh", i.e. manually inputting your settings, this time with fingers crossed that the problem isn't something that survives that process.

Whatever you decide, do have a read through of L&LD's guide at http://www.snbforums.com/threads/no...l-and-manual-configuration.27115/#post-205573 It's something I intend to follow in future when restoring to factory default status and starting afresh.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

Ac68u can reach 90-95c without problems

That is extreme 95C is 203F thats only 9 degrees less then boiling water. If you think that is safe then it's time to think again..

 

[TomT]

The router has frozen again tonight. I've not had a chance to default it, but I will tomorrow.

One thing I have noticed that is strange. When I reboot it the syslog shows the date as Jan 1st until the date and time update, this I understand.. But the previous log entry is always Dec 25 20:03:00

What has happened to the log entries from then until now when I rebooted ? I've got a few days of entries missing! Why always show the entries from the 25th ? Going back in the syslog imcan see entries back until the 14th including some reboots..

Any ideas ?
Thanks

 

[eddiez]

That is extreme 95C is 203F thats only 9 degrees less then boiling water. If you think that is safe then it's time to think again..

So it's safe as long as you don't add any water...
My i7 also can work under these conditions, the router SOC does have 125 C as the max. temps.
But it is not normal. Either there is a malfunction , the ambient temp is way too high where you located your router or you are blocking all airvents.

 

[eddiez]

The router has frozen again tonight. I've not had a chance to default it, but I will tomorrow.

One thing I have noticed that is strange. When I reboot it the syslog shows the date as Jan 1st until the date and time update, this I understand.. But the previous log entry is always Dec 25 20:03:00

What has happened to the log entries from then until now when I rebooted ? I've got a few days of entries missing! Why always show the entries from the 25th ? Going back in the syslog imcan see entries back until the 14th including some reboots..

Any ideas ?
Thanks

You need a good nvram reset (don't say this to a woman )

 

[TomT]

Thanks
What's the best way to do this ?
Power off
Hold down WPS button while powering on
Release after 5 second ?

Can you remind me when it's defaulted what the IP and login details will be.

Thanks

 

[martinr]

Thanks
What's the best way to do this ?
Power off
Hold down WPS button while powering on
Release after 5 second ?

Can you remind me when it's defaulted what the IP and login details will be.

Thanks

Tom, have a read of Merlin at:

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/faq-nvram-and-factory-default-reset.22822/

The internal IP address should be 192.168.1.1 and admin/admin should be the default username and password.

And have a read of L&LD at

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/no...l-and-manual-configuration.27115/#post-205573

Even if you don't want to follow it to the letter, I think it's good, useful background knowledge.

If you can afford to, I like to build it back up over at least a couple of days so that if glitches appear there's a chance you know it worked before you introduced such-and-such. For example, I can live without SSH and OpenVPN for a few days, so I add them last. And you can take config backups along the way. Do it all in one sitting and, if there's a problem, you end up wiping the whole lot and that's a copule of hours wasted, at least.

 

[TomT]

Thanks martinr

I plan to add back my Port Forwarding, IP Reservations, DHCP Scope and QoS rules.
Thats it for now... these are needed as I work from home and need that to work.