How can you tell if a router is dying (having issues with an R7000)?

[ppilot]

So as of late I've been noticing some significant decreases in wireless performance on my R7000 and I am not really sure what to do about it.

Here's my current setup"
2000 Sq ft two story house
Cable Modem - Motorola SB6141
Two R7000's (main one is one on the second floor, second one is a Wireless bridge downstairs in our living room. ) One R7000 is about three years old and the other about two.
Cable Provider - Comcast 75mb connection

So the issue initially arose when my WMC Extender (Xbox 360) started dropping our periodically which may or may not be related to wireless speed issue. Anyway I hard reset the main router and unplugged the modem for about three minutes and the wireless speed didn't improve and may have gotten worse. Streaming last night was a little choppu and my wife had a Skype appointment this afternoon and she said that it was really struggling.

I am bringing my work laptop home tonight to see if there any channel interference, but does anybody else have any ideas?

 

[sfx2000]

Check the wall adapter - symptoms you describe are suggesting that the ac adapter is going soft...

 

[ppilot]

Check the wall adapter - symptoms you describe are suggesting that the ac adapter is going soft...

How would I test this? Buy another power supply? If so where would be the best place to do so?


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[TonyH]

How would I test this? Buy another power supply? If so where would be the best place to do so?

You have two already swap them around to prove one is flaky. Any DC adapter. 12V, 3.5 Amp or so will work, just make sure connector is same(size, polarity). eBay is a good place for such thing.[/QUOTE]

 

[ppilot]

Just to provide an update, I bought another R7000 as a test and everything was fixed, including the WMC extender disconnect issue. I didn't have time to test the power supply on the old unit as the wife was getting antsy but I will probably do that tomorrow.

Update: Using the new R7000's power supply I've had no problems (including zero WMC extender disconnects), so you guys absolutely nailed the issue. Out of curiosity, which of my problems pointed you in the direction of the power supply?


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[sfx2000]

Out of curiosity, which of my problems pointed you in the direction of the power supply?

Basically the board support package - for the devices, between WiFi handshakes and the CPU validating - it's enough power draw to makes things unstable.. Many of the Consumer Grade Router/AP's include a AC adapter that is basically at the limit as it is with a bit of margin - as the adapters age out, they get soft...

The router HW is usually fine - one might find some SW/Config corruption perhaps, but the first sign of an adapter going back is DHCP associations...

 

[e38BimmerFN]

Helps to keep a volt meter on hand as well to test power adapters for quick troubleshooting as you might not have a spare adapter on hand to test with. Suggestion.

 

[CaptainSTX]

Helps to keep a volt meter on hand as well to test power adapters for quick troubleshooting as you might not have a spare adapter on hand to test with. Suggestion.

The voltage can be just fine on a failing adapter. You need to be able to test the adapter's power output which requires more than a volt meter.

 

[e38BimmerFN]

And for adapters that are failing with bad voltages, can be done with a volt meter. From my experiences and knowledge, 9 times out of 10, this is usually the case on these adapters. Doesn't hurt to have one on hand though. Glad this user found the cause with out to much hassle.

 

[RMerlin]

Ideally, test the voltage under load.

 

[ppilot]

Sorry to drag this old thread up, but I bought the following power supply off of Amazon to fix the above issues (which it did, but it wasn't as good as the stock power supply that came with the R7000 I was testing). Here's the link . Well things start spiraling again with it getting to the point where I couldn't even watch TV on our WMC extender. So i tried out another R7000 power supply (yes I am a terrible consumer, but I almost never return things 99% of the time), and immediately the issue was fixed which means the replacement power supply was not up to par.

Can somebody point out a replacement for me, because I am apparently incapable of doing so myself.

 

[ppilot]

Another update on this. So wireless performance, especially 5g, has deteriorated again to the point where I can't watch live TV in our living room any more and this is even with the test power supply. This leads me to believe that router is definitely the issue now.

So right now I am trying to decide whether I buy another R7000 (currently $120 at Costco) or decide to go with a more seamless option like Orbi that should have a lot fewer potential issues. Thoughts? Let me know if I should move this last question to the buying advice area.