[Help needed] GT-AX6000 cannot enable 2.4Ghz radio/band

[thupig]

I took advantage of the recent GT-AX6000 sale and bought one to replace my old router. Received yesterday and set it up immediately. However, the configuration page seems to be a little confusing to me. I can not see 2.4Ghz band on the Wireless - General page. See pics. There are only a "5Ghz-1" and "5Ghz-2" options in the drop-down. And the LED indicator on my router for 2.4GHz is off/grey. And even though I have two ssid enabled (one "xxx" for 5Ghz-1 and one "xxx_5G" for 5Ghz-2), when I search the wifi ssid, I can only see and connect to "xxx". My smart connect is off. I am not sure if this is normal, or there is some hardware issue with this unit. Tried many hours today to enable the 2.4Ghz, but no success. Can someone with more knowledge of the Asus router please give me some help? If you also have a GT-AX6000, what does your setup page look like? Do you have a 2.4Ghz band option? Thank you very much.

 

[Dr Mono]

No idea. Firmware version? Did you try a hard factory reset? https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1039074

 

[Tech9]

Something is messed up with this router's firmware. It doesn't have 2x 5GHz radios. Hard factory reset and start over.

 

[thupig]

No idea. Firmware version? Did you try a hard factory reset? https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1039074

Thank you for your suggestion. Firmware is the latest, which is Firmware Version:3.0.0.4.388_23012. I did the firmware update yesterday trying to solve the issue, but it didn't help.

I haven't tried the hard factory reset, will give that a shot and let you know if that works. So the 2.4GHz band doesn't show up isn't really normal, right?

 

[Tech9]

So the 2.4GHz band doesn't show up isn't really normal, right?

Definitely doesn't sound normal to buy a dual-band router with no access to one of the bands settings.

 

[thupig]

No idea. Firmware version? Did you try a hard factory reset? https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1039074

Something is messed up with this router's firmware. It doesn't have 2x 5GHz radios. Hard factory reset and start over.

Thanks to you both! After a hard reset, the router seems to work normally. 2.4Ghz is back, and only one 5Ghz band is shown on the setting page. I didn't need to config SSID after the hard reset, which is kinda surprising to me. It just worked right after the reset.

 

[Tech9]

I didn't need to config SSID after the hard reset, which is kinda surprising to me. It just worked right after the reset.

This also doesn't sound normal. After reset the default SSID is usually ASUSxx (some number). Otherwise the router was not reset properly.

 

[endeebee]

I've got exactly the same issue as OP, right down to the very last detail.

However, rebooting, factory resetting etc still won't fix my issue.

I've even tried upgrading (as well as downgrading) the firmware in case it's buggy, but it won't let me do that either - When the GUI asks me to manually reboot, I do that and all that comes back on is the power LED, so I spend the next 10 min power cycling and inevitably factory resetting it again. And it still doesn't change the firmware lol.

I'm really at a loss. As with OP, I can only see two "5Ghz" bands in the wireless settings and absolutely no indication of how to switch on the 2.4gz band. The LED on the router for the 2.4Ghz band also refuses to light up.

It's almost like the router and software have forgotten that 2.4ghz exists.

Any other suggestions other than what's above? Cheers.

 

[L&LD]

The routers by the posters above are not stable and definitely not in a good/known state.

To further verify if the hardware is faulty, I suggest following the post below to better determine if the hardware is the issue (or not).

RT-AX86U slow WiFi, no settings have improved it. Is this normal performance?

Needed a new router and read good things about the Merlin compatible devices, saw good reviews for the AX86U. Setup was very simple, and I only had a few issues that were resolved by disabling Smart Connect. My biggest issue is that my WiFi is slower than I'm used to, and wired upload is a bit...

www.snbforums.com

I would repeat the above 'nuclear reset' as many times as I could, varying the reset process used until I was satisfied that the reset was actually successful, or, just keeps failing.

 

[Crimliar]

I have SmartConnect enabled (it works for me) so my GT-AX6000 is not going to be showing quite the same, but the channel width is also different to what I see!
*This couldn't be a hardware variant the same as one of the Netgear routers with 2x 80Mhz 5GHz channels rather than a single 160MHz (capable) channel?

 

[ColDen]

Here is what you should be expecting to see for the 2.4 and 5GHz bands:

From the OP comments its seems that the displayed page contains mixed informations from both bands, which is definitely weird.

 

[thupig]

I've got exactly the same issue as OP, right down to the very last detail.

However, rebooting, factory resetting etc still won't fix my issue.

I've even tried upgrading (as well as downgrading) the firmware in case it's buggy, but it won't let me do that either - When the GUI asks me to manually reboot, I do that and all that comes back on is the power LED, so I spend the next 10 min power cycling and inevitably factory resetting it again. And it still doesn't change the firmware lol.

I'm really at a loss. As with OP, I can only see two "5Ghz" bands in the wireless settings and absolutely no indication of how to switch on the 2.4gz band. The LED on the router for the 2.4Ghz band also refuses to light up.

It's almost like the router and software have forgotten that 2.4ghz exists.

Any other suggestions other than what's above? Cheers.

Sorry I forgot to update my post. In my case, the factory reset that i mentioned in the post did not help. It brought back the 2.4GHz channel in the GUI (it made me think that problem was solved), but my devices (laptop/smart phones) can not connect to that channel even though it was there. So this approach did not work.

In the end I return that router, and ordered a new unit. The second one worked out of the box. So my guess is that the first one had some bad hardware not only messed up firmware. I would suggest you try return yours if it’s still in return window.

 

[thupig]

I've got exactly the same issue as OP, right down to the very last detail.

However, rebooting, factory resetting etc still won't fix my issue.

I've even tried upgrading (as well as downgrading) the firmware in case it's buggy, but it won't let me do that either - When the GUI asks me to manually reboot, I do that and all that comes back on is the power LED, so I spend the next 10 min power cycling and inevitably factory resetting it again. And it still doesn't change the firmware lol.

I'm really at a loss. As with OP, I can only see two "5Ghz" bands in the wireless settings and absolutely no indication of how to switch on the 2.4gz band. The LED on the router for the 2.4Ghz band also refuses to light up.

It's almost like the router and software have forgotten that 2.4ghz exists.

Any other suggestions other than what's above? Cheers.

Did you use HARD factory reset or just factory reset in the GUI?

Though it didn’t make a different to the final outcome in my case, but at least the hard factory reset brought back the 2.4Ghz in the GUI. If you also did the same but couldn’t see 2.4ghz back, then our cases are a little bit different…

 

[endeebee]

Did you use HARD factory reset or just factory reset in the GUI?

Though it didn’t make a different to the final outcome in my case, but at least the hard factory reset brought back the 2.4Ghz in the GUI. If you also did the same but couldn’t see 2.4ghz back, then our cases are a little bit different…

Thanks for all the responses.

Yeah, I tried both the hard reset using the GUI, and also the hardware reset method i.e. using the WPS button. Still no luck, only showing the two 5ghz options, no sight of 2.4ghz band anywhere.

I'll think I'll call the store in the morning, see if I'm still in the return window.

 

[Indi]

Some users reported that enabling the guest network borked the 2.4ghz channel