My 87u keeps hanging, any suggestions

[jmone]

My 87u (running Merlin's latest including a factory reset and manually entering all details) will hang a few times a week. I lose Internet Access and can not log into the router at all, having to manually reboot it each time. All the lights on the unit however seem fine. I've never had issues like this with my other ASUS routers as they stayed up for many months. So far I've tried isolating the issue by turning off features (including just using it as a router with Wifi turned off).

I've read similar posts but not found any suggestions. I can repurpose one of my other ASUS routers to replace it, but any suggestions?
Thanks
Nathan

 

[Haggster]

My 87u (running Merlin's latest including a factory reset and manually entering all details) will hang a few times a week. I lose Internet Access and can not log into the router at all, having to manually reboot it each time. All the lights on the unit however seem fine. I've never had issues like this with my other ASUS routers as they stayed up for many months. So far I've tried isolating the issue by turning off features (including just using it as a router with Wifi turned off).

I've read similar posts but not found any suggestions. I can repurpose one of my other ASUS routers to replace it, but any suggestions?
Thanks
Nathan

You will need a laptop cooler and place the RT-AC87 on top of it. You can power the laptop cooler via using the RT-AC87's USB socket in the back.

You have performed factory resets and you cannot log into the router at all - only a reboot fixes it, meaning that it completely crashes in these cases. This is a clear case of overheating, causing the hardware to fail. No matter what your room temperature seems to be; get a laptop cooler. (I assume you are using an up-to-date firmware e.g. 378.53 and no dodgy jffs-scripts)

 

[jmone]

Correct, 378.53 and no dodgy jffs-scripts. I find it hard to believe that additional cooling should be required.... unless there is a design fault with these units.

 

[Haggster]

Correct, 378.53 and no dodgy jffs-scripts. I find it hard to believe that additional cooling should be required.... unless there is a design fault with these units.

Yes, unfortunately the thermal design is less than optimal. ASUS tried to improve some aspects and apparently the 87 even gets less hot than the previous model on paper, however the problem is the thermal sensitivity of Quantenna chip in particular - it runs hot fast and at the same time it's sensitive to high temperatures. This usually causes the 5GHz wi-fi to fail first or at least to become unreliable, but as the other components can run quite hot too, too much heat seems to be causing the whole router to freeze as well in some cases. As with all modern microchips, the sensitivity regarding heat can differ a lot between two chips of the same type, so while one RT-AC87 unit might work without problems in a hot environment, another one might already fail in the same situation. They should honestly consider integrating active cooling elements into those routers if you ask me.

 

[Chrysalis]

You can try disabling features, one by one, and if its still unstable with as much turned off as possible I would consider it a hardware issue.

I used to have random reboots on my nt16 with merlin, but when I got my ac66 its been fine since. So I concluded my nt16 had some faulty hardware.

 

[jackyloh]

I am having the same issue as OP, I have a cooler right beneath the router running at low temp, but it still hangs few times a week. Using merlin 378.53 as well, pretty annoying

 

[hggomes]

Yes, unfortunately the thermal design is less than optimal. ASUS tried to improve some aspects and apparently the 87 even gets less hot than the previous model on paper, however the problem is the thermal sensitivity of Quantenna chip in particular - it runs hot fast and at the same time it's sensitive to high temperatures. This usually causes the 5GHz wi-fi to fail first or at least to become unreliable, but as the other components can run quite hot too, too much heat seems to be causing the whole router to freeze as well in some cases. As with all modern microchips, the sensitivity regarding heat can differ a lot between two chips of the same type, so while one RT-AC87 unit might work without problems in a hot environment, another one might already fail in the same situation. They should honestly consider integrating active cooling elements into those routers if you ask me.

Active cooling on a router is non-sense, look what happen to RT-N66U REV.A and WRT1900AC V1.

What manufacters should do is applying better passive cooling soluctions instead of just put basic ones running on the temperature limits in some cases, it wouldnt cost anything having bigger heatsinks with double size for example, that would avoid high temperatures for sure.

Netgear routers have alot better temperatures using the same board/chips as ASUS routers, that means something...

 

[Haggster]

I am having the same issue as OP, I have a cooler right beneath the router running at low temp, but it still hangs few times a week. Using merlin 378.53 as well, pretty annoying

I'd honestly demand my money back in that case. The process is annoying, but I guess it's worse to spend big money on new but faulty hardware...

 

[Haggster]

Active cooling on a router is non-sense, look what happen to RT-N66U REV.A and WRT1900AC V1.

What manufacters should do is applying better passive cooling soluctions instead of just put basic ones running on the temperature limits in some cases, it wouldnt cost anything having bigger heatsinks with double size for example, that would avoid high temperatures for sure.

Netgear routers have alot better temperatures using the same board/chips as ASUS routers, that means something...

Right. I also wonder why they keep using these ineffective pads to connect the heatsink to the CPUs instead of using proper thermal paste. Even that would be a big improvement. Are Netgear routers really running cooler? I've never had one but I might be looking at one if my RT-AC87 needs to be replaced.

 

[TonyH]

Correct, 378.53 and no dodgy jffs-scripts. I find it hard to believe that additional cooling should be required.... unless there is a design fault with these units.

87U seems to run pretty warm compared to NG R7500. One more thing to keep in mind is possible flaky AC adapter.
87U is pretty warm(almost hot) to touch vs. R7500 is just luke warm.

 

[RMerlin]

Right. I also wonder why they keep using these ineffective pads to connect the heatsink to the CPUs instead of using proper thermal paste. Even that would be a big improvement. Are Netgear routers really running cooler? I've never had one but I might be looking at one if my RT-AC87 needs to be replaced.

I assume it's cheaper/simpler from an assembly line's point of view. Those pads are what's most commonly used.

 

[RMerlin]

87U seems to run pretty warm compared to NG R7500. One more thing to keep in mind is possible flaky AC adapter.
87U is pretty warm(almost hot) to touch vs. R7500 is just luke warm.

Different CPU, and also Asus's RGMII implementation of the Quantenna SoC is apparently less power efficient than a PCIe implementation like Netgear used.

 

[TonyH]

Different CPU, and also Asus's RGMII implementation of the Quantenna SoC is apparently less power efficient than a PCIe implementation like Netgear used.

Also I noticed ASUS has thermal pad under the HS, not thermal paste.

 

[ccf8782]

So I am having the same issues with my Asus 87R with the latest Merlin build with no dodgy scripts running. Basic default stuff. My 5G Wireless just flakes..So is the next step opening a ticket with Asus or what? I really haven't seen a solution this issue. I to am rebooting this stupid router atleast once a week. This is getting really tiresome...any thoughts ?

 

[RMerlin]

So I am having the same issues with my Asus 87R with the latest Merlin build with no dodgy scripts running. Basic default stuff. My 5G Wireless just flakes..So is the next step opening a ticket with Asus or what? I really haven't seen a solution this issue. I to am rebooting this stupid router atleast once a week. This is getting really tiresome...any thoughts ?

Make sure you disable beamforming, and also that you've done a factory default reset the first time you went with a FW newer than 378.51.

 

[Haggster]

My 5G Wireless just flakes..So is the next step opening a ticket with Asus or what? I really haven't seen a solution this issue. I to am rebooting this stupid router atleast once a week. This is getting really tiresome...any thoughts ?

As Merlin wrote above: disable beamforming as the first step. I've only done this after already having used the router for months... and it makes a big difference. My Asus Nexus Player for example, which has 802.11ac wi-fi, will keep disconnecting and only be able to connect to my hidden 5GHz wi-fi again if I pull the plug (not even a reboot of the player is enough to make it reconnect). But after having disabled beamforming I'm getting no such problems anymore.

The second thing: using any merlin firmware 52_2 and higher solves basically all 5GHz stability problems for me, except those than can only be fixed via disabling beamforming as described above.

Last thing: as discussed in this thread, keep the router cool, as the Quantenna chip is sensitive to high temps.

If you take care of all of the above and the 5GHz spectrum is clean in your place then you should get no problems. If u still get disconnects after that, then your client devices seem to have serious problems...

 

[jmone]

As mentioned I've even turned off all WiFi completely and it still hangs.....

 

[RMerlin]

As mentioned I've even turned off all WiFi completely and it still hangs.....

You two are talking entirely different problems. Our replies were to the user experiencing 5 GHz issues.

This is why thread hijacking is always a bad idea.

 

[Haggster]

One thing I forgot (regarding 5GHz reliability): You might want to set "Network Key Rotation Interval" to "0" in order to remove the last potential source of any 5G connection instability issues.

I've to say that all devices that ever had 5G connection problems were mobile devices plus my Asus Nexus Player. Whereas all "real" computers (Windows laptop connected via Intel wi-fi card, Chromebook, etc.) never had any problems as far as I remember. Not even when I had beamforming still enabled. Especially that Lenovo Windows 7 business laptop that I'm using for work has a 5G connection which is as stable as if I'd be using an Ethernet cable (8hrs per day connected to a corporate VPN via the AC87's 5GHz wi-fi - more than once per week and always absolutely zero disconnections during that time).

 

[Gill]

My 87u (running Merlin's latest including a factory reset and manually entering all details) will hang a few times a week. I lose Internet Access and can not log into the router at all, having to manually reboot it each time. All the lights on the unit however seem fine. I've never had issues like this with my other ASUS routers as they stayed up for many months. So far I've tried isolating the issue by turning off features (including just using it as a router with Wifi turned off).

I've read similar posts but not found any suggestions. I can repurpose one of my other ASUS routers to replace it, but any suggestions?
Thanks
Nathan

Having the same issues. Just recovered from that actually by manually rebooting it. Suddenly everything stops working and even the telnet doesn't work so have to manually reboot the router. I got 87u as well on Firmware 378.53http://192.168.1.1/Advanced_FirmwareUpgrade_Content.asp