has anyone experienced this with their router, my old asus 3100 just got some type of HARD reset to not working

[etrin]

2 weeks ago I update merlin to the new one for my router386.14-2 but don't believe this had anything to do with it.
3 days ago my router just quit, lights and everything worked but I could not connect anything to it, computer network said no network.
After a few reboots I finally saw unidentified network still no web interface would not show up. Next day it was left running all night and a reboot and I finally got router name on network. Web came up and I logged in with old name/password and they worked. Tried to click on a menu item and it just locked up.few more reboots and another day of just sitting after a hard reboot next day. Web gui came up logged in and it would let me do things. Checked wi fi and it was blank but my tablet could connect ????? the only device connected it could list was my computer hard wired into it.
DHCP was blank showing nothing.
today I connected and it showed 13 devices connected and all was well....WHAT?
Does anyone have any idea what happened? This is an original 3100 4 port router and I am wondering is it time to replace it? I purchased it in 2018.
I have my house wired in cat 6 so the only things using wi-fi is phones, tablet and a laptop when its not hard wired to the lan

 

[Tech9]

Does anyone have any idea what happened?

Something is failing there, may be ranging from power supply to internal component. Test with latest available stock firmware and if the same issues happen better replace the router with something fresher. This one is not worth saving too much, End-of-Life now.

 

[etrin]

I don't know much about the new stuff. I looked at 3 possible replacements
Asus RT-BE86U
ASUS RT-BE92U
ASUS RT-BE88U
looking at some reviews most say the 2.4ghz is worse, but the 5ghz is better. I don't have anything with wi-fi 7 so its just there.
not sure why but did asus just give up on 2.4 and nothing more than a placeholder now. My tablet in the back yard works on 2.4 but can't even detect the 5ghz signal from the old 3100 and its rated as one of the best for signal strength

 

[Tech9]

I know nothing about your place, use case, number of clients, expectations or budget and can't recommend replacement hardware. If your old single router was enough perhaps a new similar class single router will be also enough. From the models above RT-BE88U is the latest 88-series hardware with similar to yours 4-stream 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios.