RT-AC68U temperatures

[chris2kari]

These temperatures seems high to me. Are these normal?

Yes that is too hot.

The observed temp of course varies with workload & ambient temp but side by side in identical config/ambient conditions I have observed a big variation in running temps.

I purchased to 2 x 68u's in January. Side by side on a bench one runs at close to 100 centigrade & the other MUCH less. They are in a non airconditioned office area of sub tropical Australia. Ambiet air temps here are 25-30 centigrade.

Under load the router was definetly overheating and failing but how to prove it when it will be most likely tested in a nice airconditioned service area and under no load???

Unfortunately I live in Australia where obtaining warranty service is very difficult due to weak consumer laws.
I did email Asus support with this very specific query regarding the two routers temp variation and of course got fobbed off with a non commital answer & an assurance that I woud be paying all expenses if they deemed it to be not faulty...

My solution was to get a large case fan (PC) and solder a usb connector to its power input from an old usb cable. The fan is fixed to the outside of the router with rubber double sided tape (quiet & easily removed if needed), the usb connector plugs into the USB 2.0 jack on the router to get power for the fan (the USB 3.0 jack is in use for an external HDD).
The overheating router now runs at 50 degress instead of 100 centigrade!
Tested with sucking/blowing air direction, no significant difference in temps observed.

 

[VANT]

These temperatures seems high to me. Are these normal?

it's normal temp. RMerlin says same, and for me its enough.

 

[snakebite3]

it's normal temp. RMerlin says same, and for me its enough.

80C is normal.

 

[FauDrei]

...small closed storage room... cable modem, router, laptop (acting server), two external USB HDDs, laser printer and UPS...





4x4cm 5V 0,9W fan soldered to USB A plug, powered from AC68U USB 2.0 port and fixed with four small triangles of thick double adhesive tape (blowing in)... radio temperatures went down from 55-56° C to 45-47° C, CPU temperature went from 84-86° C to 65-67° C...

I think this is quite good return from 6€ and 20 min. work investment. Makes me wander about possible achievements of replacing stock AC68U thermal pads between main heatsink and metal shielding boxes underneath with some good quality thermal paste...

 

[L&LD]

...small closed storage room... cable modem, router, laptop (acting server), two external USB HDDs, laser printer and UPS...

View attachment 3643

View attachment 3644

4x4cm 5V 0,9W fan soldered to USB A plug, powered from AC68U USB 2.0 port and fixed with four small triangles of thick double adhesive tape (blowing in)... radio temperatures went down from 55-56° C to 45-47° C, CPU temperature went from 84-86° C to 65-67° C...

I think this is quite good return from 6€ and 20 min. work investment. Makes me wander about possible achievements of replacing stock AC68U thermal pads between main heatsink and metal shielding boxes underneath with some good quality thermal paste...

Thermal pads cannot usually be replaced with paste because the gap between the materials is too thick.

 

[FauDrei]

Thermal pads cannot usually be replaced with paste because the gap between the materials is too thick.

...aw... that's most probably the answer to my question. Thanks.

 

[hank81]

...small closed storage room... cable modem, router, laptop (acting server), two external USB HDDs, laser printer and UPS...

View attachment 3643

View attachment 3644

4x4cm 5V 0,9W fan soldered to USB A plug, powered from AC68U USB 2.0 port and fixed with four small triangles of thick double adhesive tape (blowing in)... radio temperatures went down from 55-56° C to 45-47° C, CPU temperature went from 84-86° C to 65-67° C...

I think this is quite good return from 6€ and 20 min. work investment. Makes me wander about possible achievements of replacing stock AC68U thermal pads between main heatsink and metal shielding boxes underneath with some good quality thermal paste...

Those are awesome temps for such a small fan, moreover if it's blowing directly on the radio chips instead of SoC as it seems.

Regarding thermal paste, I remember reading somewhere a test with AC68U where the guy was replacing thermal pads for MX-4 thermal paste.
Results for cpu were poor: -2 ºC with fan added and +1 ºC without fan. Of course there are much better pastes than MX-4, however imho it doesn't seem worth it.

 

[ChuckT]

ASUS should pay more attention to this issue. We are in south central Florida eastern US and Temps are always high.

 

[FauDrei]

Those are awesome temps for such a small fan, moreover if it's blowing directly on the radio chips instead of SoC as it seems.

Regarding thermal paste, I remember reading somewhere a test with AC68U where the guy was replacing thermal pads for MX-4 thermal paste.
Results for cpu were poor: -2 ºC with fan added and +1 ºC without fan. Of course there are much better pastes than MX-4, however imho it doesn't seem worth it.

Thanks hank81... I was surprised too - my temperature drop expectations were ≈ 5° C for radios and ≈ 5-10° C for CPU. As for positioning the fan - I wanted it near power regulators, but I have been mainly guided by the grill openings on the back of AC68U. Since the results are beyond expectations - I will not experiment further with fan position optimization (beside, perhaps, adding "wife's stockings" dust filter sometime in near future).

Thanks also for thermal paste results info. It helped with the suppression of my inclination towards opening a new AC68U and voiding its warranty in the process.

 

[hggomes]

Read post #8:

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac87u-5ghz-band-r-i-p.23183/#post-170563

 

[Chrysalis]

my new ac68 today in the middle of june is running at 77C.

Definitely hot compared to a desktop cpu, but I am pretty sure its within spec, different components get different ratings and these are likely fine at these temps.

I cannot compare to my ac66 as that never showed the cpu temp in the gui. But I know touching the front of the router the ac68 feels cooler than the ac66.

with that said, these usb fans do indeed look handy so may get one, like this maybe.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00JUK0UDS/?tag=smallncom-21

 

[taterman]

I have a RT-AC68R and it runs extremely hot and have a WD My Book 3T hooked to the 3.0 USB. The USB on the front screen has a red circle around it and the health scan says:

Cannot allocate memory

Checking cluster allocation ...

ERROR(12): Failed to setup allocation bitmap: Cannot allocate memory

Syncing device ...


But when I connect my 3T up directly to my computer and run the WD Drive Utilities for Windows it checks out as fine. I have no idea what is wrong with it and I’m starting to think my router is shot

 

[RMerlin]

I have a RT-AC68R and it runs extremely hot and have a WD My Book 3T hooked to the 3.0 USB. The USB on the front screen has a red circle around it and the health scan says:

Cannot allocate memory

Checking cluster allocation ...

ERROR(12): Failed to setup allocation bitmap: Cannot allocate memory

Syncing device ...


But when I connect my 3T up directly to my computer and run the WD Drive Utilities for Windows it checks out as fine. I have no idea what is wrong with it and I’m starting to think my router is shot

Hard disk is too large, the router doesn't have enough memory to do a filesystem scan like it regularly tries to do. Just ignore it.

 

[taterman]

Hard disk is too large, the router doesn't have enough memory to do a filesystem scan like it regularly tries to do. Just ignore it.

That totally makes sense and thanks for replying. One last thing. The tempatures I posted, would they be the cause of my 3T hdd doing a network disconnect randomly? I've had the router for about 8 months with same settings and it only started doing this the last few months.

Thanks again..

 

[hggomes]

4TB drives connected here and no issues at all.

 

[taterman]

4TB drives connected here and no issues at all.

I can't tell if it is my 3T or my RT-AC68R that is not acting right. I use to never have a red circle around the 3.0 USB on the Network Map page like I do now and my average temps of 2.4 GHz: 55°C - 5 GHz: 57°C - CPU: 93°C seem very high as well.

 

[hggomes]

4TB from WD and Hitachi here, it works perfectly fine without any issues.

 

[taterman]

4TB from WD and Hitachi here, it works perfectly fine without any issues.

I am on the newest Asuswrt-Merlin firmware. Where does one get the Hitachi fw for the RT-AC68R?

 

[L&LD]

I am on the newest Asuswrt-Merlin firmware. Where does one get the Hitachi fw for the RT-AC68R?

Hitachi fw? Where did you see that for the RT-AC68?

 

[taterman]

Hitachi fw? Where did you see that for the RT-AC68?

That's what I'm wondering. I've been asking about RT-AC68R and just responded to what hggomes was stating.