I recently replaced my 66 with an 86 and upgraded stock firmware with the latest from Merlin, which I have been using for years. I started having the same issue described above with wireless clients disconnecting randomly and even wireless adapters uninstalling on windows machines. When investigating, I noticed the Associate/Dissociate activity in the logs and issues in the Windows Event Manager (WHEA-Logger errors). I've tried updating adapter drivers and going between stock and Merlin firmware on the wireless router without an improvement. I recently returned and replaced the 86 with another 86, upgraded stock FW to 45149 as requested, and continue to have the issues.
I also followed the suggestions in this thread on the wireless settings (beamforming, mimo, etc), forgetting networks, and using different names for my networks on the 86 than I did on the 66. I have seen improvements with apple devices , chromebooks, and Kindles, but not with windows devices. Windows devices still regularly disconnect from wifi and if left unused for a time, the adapters uninstall altogether (power mgmt is disabled). Assume the adapter uninstall is coincidental with the router change but none of this occurred before I swapped out the wireless APs from 66 for 86.
My setup is: fiber modem >> ac66 wired router (merlin 384.9) with wireless disabled and 4 wired clients with no issues >> ac86 wireless router (asus 45149) with no wired clients but wireless clients have issues.
I've spent two weeks trying to figure out what the deal is and I am at the end of my ability to resolve technical and mechanically. Would appreciate any help this board can provide.