Bizarre 2.4GHz Guest Network Issue

[Zim]

On the Asus AXE16000 router I am having a weird issue. While I think it may a hardware issue and I may need to RMA the router, thought I'd post the question here in case someone has other ideas. Someone was having a similar issue on a different router last year, but a solution for it was not posted.


I'm running Merlin firmware 3004.388.8_2. To troubleshoot, I factory reset the router holding down the WPS button while powering on the power and flashed the default Asus firmware: 3.0.0.4.388_24374. The issue is happening on both firmware BTW, and in completely fresh setup (no scripts, no fancy routing etc). I've also tried clearing NVRAM by issuing command "nvram erase" in SSH terminal.

With all guest networks off, I am able to connect to the 2.4GHz band, 5GHz-1, 5GHz-2 and 6GHz.
When I turn on the guest network and setup Guest Network 1/2/3 with no authentication, I am able to connect to Guest Network 1/2/3 and 2.4GHz.
When I turn on the authentication, then I can not connect to Guest Network 1/2/3 AND the 2.4GHz band! Connection fails, it can't authenticate.
The correct password is copy/pasted (have tried it a 100 times and with different passwords).
Oddly, the devices that were previously authenticated using the same password connect to Guest Network 1/2/3, but it won't allow any new devices to connect.

All other Guest Networks (apart from 2.4GHz 1/2/3) are working fine.

Is this really a radio/hardware issue? Should I be RMAing the router?

 

[Zim]

For anyone coming across this - turns out the 2.4GHz was over crowded and preventing other devices from connecting.

Reducing the number of clients on 2.4GHz helped.