Router temperatures

[WillyTP]

Hello everybody

With this release, temperature of my RT-AC86U has risen again.
It's around 96°c. and logs shows CPU turned off due to excessive heating.

CPU Wait is ENABLED.

Anyone else experiencing this?

Thanks

 

[mromero]

Hello everybody

With this release, temperature of my RT-AC86U has risen again.
It's around 96°c. and logs shows CPU turned off due to excessive heating.

CPU Wait is ENABLED.

Anyone else experiencing this?

Thanks

If you search google, this and other forums you will see numerous overheating reports. The bug was introduced by Asus 386 branch and outside of Merlin's ability to fix. The last good release for the Asus RT AC 86U is Merlin's 384.19 firmware. Consider using that or hanging fans off the router for it to work properly. Right now on my router with 384.19 : Current Temperatures: 47 °C - 53 °C - 74 °C Ambient temp: 27°C

 

[elorimer]

Hello everybody

With this release, temperature of my RT-AC86U has risen again.
It's around 96°c. and logs shows CPU turned off due to excessive heating.

CPU Wait is ENABLED.

Anyone else experiencing this?

Thanks

Yes, I went from 90 to 96, so the fan is back in play. I'm at 66.

Also, this is a difference between .1_2 and .2beta, not related to the kerfuffel around going from .19 to .1, which was the first 10 degree jump.

 

[jerrytouille]

Yes, I went from 90 to 96, so the fan is back in play. I'm at 66.

Also, this is a difference between .1_2 and .2beta, not related to the kerfuffel around going from .19 to .1, which was the first 10 degree jump.

yep, same issue here. .2 beta1 is 2-3dC higher than .1 and .1_2 for me

 

[Wade Coxon]

Hello everybody

With this release, temperature of my RT-AC86U has risen again.
It's around 96°c. and logs shows CPU turned off due to excessive heating.

CPU Wait is ENABLED.

Anyone else experiencing this?

Thanks

There is also the "Energy Efficient Ethernet" (EEE) option that was switched off since the 386.1 firmware.

If you are using more than one of the LAN ports on the ac86U with EEE switched off, then that will led to a significant temperature increase (5+ degrees C).

I have added a command to switch EEE on, and have moved all devices off the router LAN ports and onto an external Ethernet switch and my temps are maintained below 90 degrees now.

 

[WillyTP]

There is also the "Energy Efficient Ethernet" (EEE) option that was switched off since the 386.1 firmware.

If you are using more than one of the LAN ports on the ac86U with EEE switched off, then that will led to a significant temperature increase (5+ degrees C).

I have added a command to switch EEE on, and have moved all devices off the router LAN ports and onto an external Ethernet switch and my temps are maintained below 90 degrees now.

Hi, thanks for advice.
Unfortunately I'm using two of the LAN ports and actually I need them :-/

 

[heysoundude]

There is also the "Energy Efficient Ethernet" (EEE) option that was switched off since the 386.1 firmware.

If you are using more than one of the LAN ports on the ac86U with EEE switched off, then that will led to a significant temperature increase (5+ degrees C).

I have added a command to switch EEE on, and have moved all devices off the router LAN ports and onto an external Ethernet switch and my temps are maintained below 90 degrees now.

ha - the question becomes, then, whether tis better to increase airflow with a fan than to add a switch to the network and NOT use some of the built-in ports on the router.
For some of us, the answer may be "why not both?" Heck, if i were confident in my abilities to add a heatsink to my chips without damaging them like someone did a while ago, I'd even include that as well for a "full meal deal."
Maybe someone from Asus is watching and taking notes for the wifi6e stuff they're undoubtedly working on. Heck, YouTubers have been actively cooling their ARM-chipped RasPis for years now. I'd sooner have it come from the factory that way and give them an extra $20 when I buy it...

 

[Wisiwyg]

Hi, thanks for advice.
Unfortunately I'm using two of the LAN ports and actually I need them :-/

FWIW, I'm using WAN and LAN Port4 for Incoming Link Agg and LAN1 and 2 for Link Agg to my managed Engenious switch. All indicating Gb link, CPU temps staying around 76C. AX88U, 386.2 beta1

 

[MvW]

After reading several reports of higher temperatures I just checked mine and noticed that 386.2 beta 1 has also caused a temperature increase on my RT-AC86U. It is now 91 degrees celcius. I forgot what is was exactly, but after the release of 386.1 final it certainly went below 85 degrees and with 386.2 beta 1 it's hovering between 89 and 91 degrees Celcius. I really don't care, I'm not going to install active cooling as everything works perfectly fine (and I hate the idea of active coolers on the back on my beautiful routers) and I certainly don't want another temperature discussion, but if there's anything I can report on this beta, it's that the temperature on the RT-AC86U (all LAN ports in use) has risen indeed compared to 386.1 final. Now I must confess that I added one additional LAN-cable as an ethernet backhaul for my AIMESH node, but it seems unlikely that that causes a temperature increase of a minimum of 4-7 degrees celsius, as someone suggested.

Out of interest: Is there a way to check the temperature on my RT-AC68U AIMESH node?

 

[Deleted member 22229]

90c is 194f that is almost enough to boil water. That's insane i can not see how that would not shorten the life of any consumer product. Even if the processor claims it's ok the parts near by and the circuit board itself are cooking. My AX58U only runs between 49-50c. Good Luck !!

 

[skeal]

After reading several reports of higher temperatures I just checked mine and noticed that 386.2 beta 1 has also caused a temperature increase on my RT-AC86U. It is now 91 degrees celcius. I forgot what is was exactly, but after the release of 386.1 final it certainly went below 85 degrees and with 386.2 beta 1 it's hovering between 89 and 91 degrees Celcius. I really don't care, I'm not going to install active cooling as everything works perfectly fine (and I hate the idea of active coolers on the back on my beautiful routers) and I certainly don't want another temperature discussion, but if there's anything I can report on this beta, it's that the temperature on the RT-AC86U (all LAN ports in use) has risen indeed compared to 386.1 final. Now I must confess that I added one additional LAN-cable as an ethernet backhaul for my AIMESH node, but it seems unlikely that that causes a temperature increase of a minimum of 4-7 degrees celsius, as someone suggested.

Out of interest: Is there a way to check the temperature on my RT-AC68U AIMESH node?

Point a fan at it. That's all you need.

 

[elorimer]

Point a fan at it. That's all you need.

yes, and even the slightest bit helps. I had wired a 120mm 12v fan to a usb plug and taped it on my 86U and got 66C temperatures. This last time, I just set it standing on its edge about 4 to 5 inches away, not "pointed" at the chip, just towards the router, and that got me the same 66C temps

 

[gattaca]

Point a fan at it. That's all you need.

Several engineers have posted numerous times on various threads WRT router thermals, the pros and cons of adding small fans, added maintenance by cleaning them, etc... This thread is one of the latest examples... search - there are more!

For more examples and details see -> https://www.snbforums.com/threads/asus-rt-ac88u-to-hot.58405/page-3#post-672727

 

[Deleted member 22229]

As a ham radio op and electronic guy for years Asus really needs to stop using thermal pads. These hefty processors need to be physically mounted to a metal heat sink with proper heat sink compound. This would end the massive over heat issues.

 

[goodwin_c]

As a ham radio op and electronic guy for years Asus really needs to stop using thermal pads. These hefty processors need to be physically mounted to a metal heat sink with proper heat sink compound. This would end the massive over heat issues.

You are right, but not 100%. Replacing thermal pads with thermal grease will not do magic, unfortunately. I did this on my 3100 - instead of pads I put copper plates with good expensive thermal grease - that was enough to shrink temperature a little (few celsius), but temp was still hotter than my expectation for long-running hardware. So the decision was to add a fan on top (silent Noctua with lowered rpm). Now I have an average of 55-60 on the CPU - which is more than acceptable.
The thermal interface is bad by design, and usage of thermal pads is just a small part of engineering mistakes.

 

[JohnD5000]

Out of interest: Is there a way to check the temperature on my RT-AC68U AIMESH node?

First, you need to know the address. If you don't, look in your DHCP Leases and you can probably figure it out (mine in 192.168.81.41 for example). When I type that in to the browser, I get the login page for my AiMesh node. When I enter the name/pw it switches me over to my main router. So, I'm not sure if it is possible to get into GUI of node.

However, when I SSH (I use Xshell) and I put in the info, I can get a command line. So, if you know how to look up temp through command line (I don't) then I'd imaging that would work.

Maybe others can give you better info, but this might get you started.

 

[JohnD5000]

@MvW

cat /proc/dmu/temperature

Connection established.
To escape to local shell, press 'Ctrl+Alt+]'.

admin@RT-AC68U-E8D0:/tmp/home/root# cat /proc/dmu/temperature
CPU temperature : 76

admin@RT-AC68U-E8D0:/tmp/home/root#

 

[anonimo]

When looking at the FCC photos for the RT-AC5300 filing, below, the version submitted in May 2015 had a fan positioned over the left side hole in the heatsink. The fan was removed on EUT2 (Rev 1.31). Has anyone retrofitted their RT-AC5300 with this fan? If so, how did it go?

Ref.: ASUS RT-AC5300 Wireless-AC5300 Tri-Band Gigabit Router Reviewed - SmallNetBuilder

 

[mromero]

AC86U. Nothing significant to report after 24 hours.

Upgraded to 386.2 beta 1 from 386.1_2 (dirty upgrade). 386.1_2 had been dirty upgraded from a clean 386.1.
Approx. 15 wifi clients. Only one Ethernet cable pluggedin for the LAN, coming from an 8 port switch.
connmon active. spdMerlin stopped. cake-qos uninstalled before upgrade.

Thank you RMerlin.

Cake gives the A+/A/A+ that I used to get on dslreports with cake-qos.
Note that, just as with cake-qos, I see a discrepancy (up to 10%-20%) between the target bandwidth in the router settings and the experienced bandwidth. My line is 125 down, 7 up (promised and measured); DOCSIS/cable. My cake config is 130 down (not the recommended approach; keep reading please), 6.5 up. My line measures at approx. 115 down with cake. Setting cake at the recommended 90%-95% target results in much lower bandwidth; like 100Mbps down.
When I was using cake-qos with diffserv8 (out of curiosity), I sometimes got weird statistics (like high priority tins with worse figures). The built-in cake, with diffser3 seems to work just as expected.
By the way, I have used a mangle/postrouting rule to tag all my UDP traffic (quite brutal I reckon, but if besteffort works fine anyway; a brutal classification with diffserv3 can't be really bad).
Thank you very much dave14305 for the examples (more refined than my brutal approach).

Temperatures are low.
Temp with 384.16 (or 384.18; I'm doubting my notes; without cake-qos):
46 °C - 53 °C - 76 °C

Temp with 386.1 (with cake-qos diffserv8):
46 °C - 53 °C - 78 °C

Temp with 386.2 beta (with built-in cake); now with all cabled devices connected through an 8 potr switch
46 °C - 49 °C - 75 °C

Take care
Best regards

Ambient temp?

 

[Wade Coxon]

Now I must confess that I added one additional LAN-cable as an ethernet backhaul for my AIMESH node, but it seems unlikely that that causes a temperature increase of a minimum of 4-7 degrees celsius, as someone suggested.

You'd be surprised at the temperature difference between using a single LAN port vs multiple ports when eee is switched off.

Easy to check yourself though. Unplug the Mesh node and see what happens.

In any case, as long as the temperature doesn't get any higher than the 90-91 it is now, you should be fine.