RT-AC3200 randomly resets. Temps?

[Thomas Szücs]

Hi

Recently my RT-AC3200 has started to reboot randomly. I'm running Merlin firmware and thought it was caused by bugs. Now I have discovered this. Could the issue be caused by my router reaching 90 degrees?

Kind regards
Thomas

 

[Grisu]

yes sure, much too hot IMO! Mine 68U had about 75° and 86U ~70°C, so 90° way too much.
Open it and reapply heat sink for proper position and contact to the chips.

 

[RMerlin]

This is indeed abnormally hot. Make sure there is sufficient airflow under and around the router. Try putting something under its feet to raise it a bit if necessary, to increase airflow underneath it.

 

[Thomas Szücs]

Placing the router on a couple of small boxes lowered the temperature 2 degrees. For the last 24 hours it has not rebooted a single time. It is placed centrally in my house on top of a closet.

But is is still running quite hot. I will try to take it apart at re-fit the coolers at change the thermal paste.

 

[Grisu]

there are pads between CPU and cooler, sometimes they are badly positioned or cooler is bent up, additional cooling paste can be used to close a small gap. Once on an RT-AC68U I had to carefully bend the cooler a little bit.
It has to come down to 75° or at least considerably below 80°C.

 

[Thomas Szücs]

It is now tanken apart. Pads looks nice. One of the spacers fell off. Is the CPU the middle one?

 

[Thomas Szücs]

Not a good idea to try to replace the pads between shielding and with paste.

Several of the spacers were loose when loosening the screws. I will try to resolder and reenforce all of them.

 

[Thomas Szücs]

Router is up and running again. With the top part of the case taken of it idles at 77 degrees. It will probably be 10 degrees hotter it I put the case back together.

 

[RMerlin]

Consider installing a laptop cooler under the router. Quality ones are very quiet, and they do make a good difference in temperature.