RT-AC66R/U random hang and partial factory reset

[thenew3]

Hoping someone can help.

I've got a RT-AC66R, been using it for about a year. Over the last 2 to 3 months, its been randomly hanging.

When it hangs, I can still access the web GUI (192.168.1.1) and login to view/change settings. But I can't get any traffic through to the internet.

If I reboot the router (either via GUI or power switch) 50% of the time it will start working fine again for a few hours/day then hang again. The other 50% of the time it seems to do a semi-factory reset. Some of the settings revert back to factory settings while other settings stay set at what I had it configured to.
(username/pw reset to factory, wireless SSID revert to factory but encryption phrase stays set to what I had, DHCP reservations disappear but clients will continue to get same IP as what the reservations were etc).

I've tried doing a manual factory reset, and tried ASUS official firmware (last 5 revisions) as well as Merlin's last 5 releases. They all seem to be doing the same.

Plus I'm seeing issue with connectivity on the 2.4ghz band with intel adapters (5100, 5150, 5300, 6100, 6205, 6300, 7260). They will randomly disconnect while Dell adapters (mostly broadcom chipset or realtek) do not have any issues on the 2.4ghz band. 5ghz gets virtually no range. Once you step out of the same room where the router is, you get virtually no signal on the 5ghz band regardless of which adapter you are using.

Is this a common issue or do I have a bad unit? Is there a way to fix this without replacing it? It's a pretty expensive piece of hardware and I'd hate to have to replace it so soon.

Thanks!

 

[bbsc]

Looks like a hardware problem.
Maybe overheating?
Is it positioned vertically or horizontally?

 

[thenew3]

Looks like a hardware problem.
Maybe overheating?
Is it positioned vertically or horizontally?

Its positioned vertically on a open shelf. Room temp about 65 to 68 degrees F, according to the GUI the system 2.4g is 50 degrees C while 5g is 54 degrees C.

Not sure if that is high or not. doesn't feel warm to the touch.

If its failing hardware, that's kind of disappointing. Less than 1 year in service and already failing? First ASUS router. Previously always used Cisco/Linksys. Still have a few Linksys/Cisco router/AP that are 5 or 6 years old and still works fine.

 

[Hawk]

it appears your might be defective, my friend is using for quite some time in horizontal position and it has been working fine.

On a side note your router cpu runs quite hot, recommend using stand and place horizontal position to see if it solves your problem.