AC87U randomly dies

[Thorton]

This started happening last week while using 380.62_1. Upgraded to 380.64 today, but problem still exists.

Here's the problem: device just dies 2-3 times a day. First, warning sign is displayed in WiFi icon on PC, indicating that Internet connection is not available. A second later, it disconnects and "New connections available" message appears. After one more second, no connections are available at all. At this moment, router only has Power and WAN leds on. No matter how long I wait, no other leds become active and router remains totally unresponsive. The only way to fix the issue - perform a hard reboot, and router works again for several hours.

Here's the log before router dies:

http://pastebin.com/2mhnDFwD


Then log continues, but its date is August 1:

http://pastebin.com/R9bCJt9v

P.S. Had to use Pastebin for logs because forum blocked me because of "security issues" every time I did copy/paste of logs into forum.

 

[FJ40Dan]

Ditto me too.

 

[Zirescu]

Have you performed a reset back to factory settings and manually added your settings back in?

 

[Thorton]

How would that help?

 

[Thorton]

I noticed problem only occurs when Wifi is used. If router is used via LAN cable (my TV and Xbox are connected via LAN cables), it simply works. However, once I turn on my PC (which has Asus PCE-AC56 Wireless 802.11ac 2X2 Dual-band PCI-E card) via 5GHz Wifi, router stops working about 10 minutes later every single time. No downloads, no torrents, just very light browsing...

 

[Zirescu]

If you have some settings that are no longer used or incompatible causing you issue. Most problems are fixed by doing a factory reset after doing a firmware update when problems pop-up. Manually entering the values again saves you from importing bad values back into the system.

 

[AndreiV]

P.S. Had to use Pastebin for logs because forum blocked me because of "security issues" every time I did copy/paste of logs into forum.

You can't enter logs or code into forums for security reasons. Look at the toolbar at the top of the posting pane. The sixth box in from the left , last icon is "INSERT" . That will drop down a menu , choose "code" for any logs or code snippets.

 

[Thorton]

If you have some settings that are no longer used or incompatible causing you issue. Most problems are fixed by doing a factory reset after doing a firmware update when problems pop-up. Manually entering the values again saves you from importing bad values back into the system.

Well, I don't think this urban legend (like you need to manually enter each new value after upgrade, keep device powered off for X minutes before flashing, always charge battery 24 hours before first use, etc.) will help. And because the problem started with old firmware (I upgraded just to see if that helps) I don't think it has anything to do with old/new values.

P.S. developing software for 15 years myself, I would never ever re-enter the same values that are already stored because that simply doesn't make any sense.

 

[RMerlin]

Well, I don't think this urban legend (like you need to manually enter each new value after upgrade, keep device powered off for X minutes before flashing, always charge battery 24 hours before first use, etc.) will help. And because the problem started with old firmware (I upgraded just to see if that helps) I don't think it has anything to do with old/new values.

P.S. developing software for 15 years myself, I would never ever re-enter the same values that are already stored because that simply doesn't make any sense.

What he means is that by doing the factory default reset, you will clear out a lot of legacy settings that either no longer exist, or are not user-visible and automatically handled by the firmware. The settings you configure through the webui are only a small percentages of what's stored in nvram. What this procedure does is take care of all those settings you cannot change.

A specific case occured last year. For a few release, there was a bug in Asus's firmware (carried on in mine) that would store an invalid nvram value. At one point, Asus made a change where the firmware started using that value to determine if your router had a 5 GHz radio or not. People with that corrupted value were suddenly no longer seeing their 5 GHz radio, even after the original bug got fixed. That's because you still carried the corrupted nvram setting. You needed to either manually fix it over SSH, or do a factory default reset, which would put back a correct value.

Think of it like reinstalling a fresh copy of Windows, and reinstalling your applications and customizing your settings. It will still take care of all the crud accumulated/corrupted at the registry level.

 

[Thorton]

Well, I was using old version for a month or two, and problem started just last week, so I really don't think it has something to do about settings? No settings were modified for a long time.

 

[Pierino]

Well, I was using old version for a month or two, and problem started just last week, so I really don't think it has something to do about settings? No settings were modified for a long time.

Why not rule that out? At the very least people will stop suggesting it to you.

 

[Xentrk]

Well, I was using old version for a month or two, and problem started just last week, so I really don't think it has something to do about settings? No settings were modified for a long time.

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

 

[sfx2000]

With the 87U, there was a rash of HW failures... I'd have to dig up comments, but hggomes did indicate as much..

Contact Asus Support and see about an RMA...

 

[joegreat]

This started happening last week while using 380.62_1. Upgraded to 380.64 today, but problem still exists.

Here's the problem: device just dies 2-3 times a day ... After one more second, no connections are available at all. At this moment, router only has Power and WAN leds on ... The only way to fix the issue - perform a hard reboot, and router works again for several hours.

Hi,

Some time ago I had a similar situation after a "dirty" firmware update. My solution was to factory reset the router, do a minimal config and re-flash it again (not sure if I did this once or even twice) and then manually reconfigured the router (or used John's fantastic backup/restore script - again not sure).

After the re-flash and re-entering the router was back to normal and runs since then like a charm!
I suspect that in my case the Quantenna Firmware had a issue as I saw strange entries in the syslog file.

In your case it still could be a hardware failure, but you can try the above procedure before you give it for repair!

With kind regards
Joe

PS.: I saw that you run transmission on the router - make sure you have a swap file enabled as transmission will demand more memory the the tiny router has available!

 

[Thorton]

Why not rule that out? At the very least people will stop suggesting it to you.

Well, my post started with "This started happening last week while using 380.62_1"... Well, maybe I had to explain more clearly that I used this version for a long time, but though that such information will be enough.

 

[Thorton]

Hi,
PS.: I saw that you run transmission on the router - make sure you have a swap file enabled as transmission will demand more memory the the tiny router has available!

I have Transmission running, but it doesn't download anything (the list of Torrents is empty). I suspected hardware failure too, will try debugging a few more days. Thanks for your input.

 

[Thorton]

Status update: now router doesn't die completely, it just reboots itself. This happens every time after ~20 minutes when I turn on my PC. No downloads or similar stuff. Then it continues working as long as PC is turned on. If I turn it off and turn on again, another router reboot after ~20 minutes again. The strange thing is that I didn't install/update any software on PC for weeks, so I'm not sure if it's software or hardware related.

If I browse via phones, router works perfectly.

 

[joegreat]

Status update: now router doesn't die completely, it just reboots itself. This happens every time after ~20 minutes when I turn on my PC. No downloads or similar stuff. Then it continues working as long as PC is turned on. If I turn it off and turn on again, another router reboot after ~20 minutes again. The strange thing is that I didn't install/update any software on PC for weeks, so I'm not sure if it's software or hardware related.

Samba Sharing issue? Try to turn off Samba on the router...

 

[Thorton]

Yes, Samba is on.

 

[Zirescu]

Awhile back I discovered that some virus scanning software would fire off on a clients computer and knock out the router when doing vulnerability tests at a customer site. I want to say it was Trend Micro but might have been Norton, ended up disabling that test.