RT-AC86U 2.4GHz problems

[Preskitt.man]

Interesting - back in early June 2019, I bought from Amazon a "renewed" AC86. It was fine except for the tiny detail that 5GHz clients would only connect when there was no WPA2 security. If WPA2 security was enabled, it would not connect. 2.4 clients were fine. If I entered a bad password, it failed with a bad password message. But if the password was good, after a long pause, it returned with couldn't get an IP address. Tried a number of things, but always the same results. Sent it back to Amazon a week later and bought a new unit. It has worked fine without issues

 

[noluck4]

I literally got hit with this this weekend. 2.4 kicks everyone and drops to channel 0. I have been having sporadic problems but now only a reset or reboot solves it. I thought about installing Merlin but figured it 2 different firmware's don't work, this wont either. I have set up an RMA, awaiting the email that may never arrive.
I am tempted to just go get whatever POS is passing for a router from my ISP.

 

[L&LD]

@noluck4, you give such little evidence of the issues and any steps taken to solve your problems.

You also underestimate what RMerlin firmware can offer, along with a full reset to factory defaults and a minimal and manual configuration to secure the router and connect to your ISP.

The links in my signature below may help? The M&M Config and possibly/additionally the Nuclear reset too.

I hope the RMA goes through if that is what you really want. Either way, with your existing or replacement router, the above links are highly recommended to get your router, network and client devices to a good/known state.

 

[noluck4]

@noluck4, you give such little evidence of the issues and any steps taken to solve your problems.

You also underestimate what RMerlin firmware can offer, along with a full reset to factory defaults and a minimal and manual configuration to secure the router and connect to your ISP.

The links in my signature below may help? The M&M Config and possibly/additionally the Nuclear reset too.

I hope the RMA goes through if that is what you really want. Either way, with your existing or replacement router, the above links are highly recommended to get your router, network and client devices to a good/known state.

I was not aware I needed to give evidence with so many posts stating the same thing. Downgrading firmware to what it came with did not help. Upgrading firmware did not help. Full resets with both do not help.

I do not see how adding third party firmware to something that should literally work out of the box untouched for longer than 5 months, would be a benefit other than voiding the warranty and giving me a $150 brick. Bad hardware is bad hardware. The best way to get everything to a working state is something that works as intended.

 

[L&LD]

@noluck4, you misunderstood what I meant.

Flashing RMerlin firmware, coding, btw, which Asus implements into their official firmware as their own (eventually), has never bricked an Asus router as far as I know. As a matter of fact; bricking an Asus router with what RMerlin offers us is nigh impossible.

The best way to get everything to a working state is to draw on and use the experience of others (as I have done to summarize the steps of the giants that have walked this way before me).

 

[noluck4]

@noluck4, you misunderstood what I meant.

No, I fully understand. Your solution is not the right solution for me.

@noluck4, Flashing RMerlin firmware, coding, btw, which Asus implements into their official firmware as their own (eventually), has never bricked an Asus router as far as I know. As a matter of fact; bricking an Asus router with what RMerlin offers us is nigh impossible.

Bricking is NOT the issue. The issue is I am 5 months into a 2 year warranty. Installing third party software onto said router voids said warranty. That is in the fine print of the warranty. I have experience with Merlin, OpenWRT, and DDWRT. Not drawing on the experience of reading the fine print and weigh the possible consequences only serves to turn a aggravating problem into an expensive lesson. Whether or not ASUS implements it into their firmware is moot. Whether its nigh impossible is moot. What matters is the warranty and what it exists for. Installing said firmware would only give me a brick as I would then have a $150 router that I cannot do anything with as the warranty is thus void and it would still not work. In essence it is then a brick.

@noluck4,The best way to get everything to a working state is to draw on and use the experience of others (as I have done to summarize the steps of the giants that have walked this way before me).

The errors I am getting, research into the forums and steps I have taken indicates a hardware problem. The ONLY and best way to fix bad hardware is to replace the hardware. It would be pointless, let alone reckless to band-aid bad hardware that is only going to stop working again at some point, when a viable inexpensive warranty solution is available.

 

[ligeza]

On main router AC86U (which worked without any problems) I restored firmware default and setup again. I didn't setup Aiprotection and any QoS, only basic settings. After that my node (second AC86U) is working since few days without any problems. So maybe the problem with 2.4GHz is no always hardware related. Before that I was loosing 2.4 Ghz every 1-2 days.


edit
I was happy to soon. I again lost 2.4GHz on node ac86u.

 

[Grisu]

You wont loose warrenty with Merlin's firmware, it is worldwide accepted by Asus, we never heard or read about problems with Merlin on the router.
If you buy a laptop or something else you can often read warrenty loss even if you make necassary BIOS updates, just forget it, not worth the paper or space on screen!

 

[L&LD]

@noluck4 I wish you lots of luck getting your issues fixed since you don't seem too keen on allowing help from where help is freely available.

 

[noluck4]

@noluck4 I wish you lots of luck getting your issues fixed since you don't seem too keen on allowing help from where help is freely available.

I did not post soliciting help. Just saying same issue.

 

[oldelpaso]

2.4ghz issue started for me few days ago. My rt-86u is more than 2.5years in use. I dont even use 2.4ghz band 24/7, but only switch it on when needed. So few days ago I switched it on as usual and immediately started getting crackling noise from pc subwoofers (which are placed above router). Also 2.4.ghz clients was getting disconnects all the time. Previously all was fine. There was no router placement changes or any updates to anything done prior this started to happen. Also I noticed that http (!) access to webUI started to time-out... I did reboot router, restart httpd few times but it did not help. After I enabled https on default port 8443 and using that. https works. Its very strange, becouse I read in forum here that ppl often have problems with https access to webui, not http.

Later, to try to fix issue with 2.4ghz I did update merlin fw after from 384.13 to 384.18 but it did not solve anything. Entered google and found out that 2.4ghz is faced for many ppl.
So I ended up disabling 2.4ghz band and will now rely to use 5ghz (which works stable as before). No annoyuing crackling sound in subwoofers.

 

[cooloutac]

2.4ghz issue started for me few days ago. My rt-86u is more than 2.5years in use. I dont even use 2.4ghz band 24/7, but only switch it on when needed. So few days ago I switched it on as usual and immediately started getting crackling noise from pc subwoofers (which are placed above router). Also 2.4.ghz clients was getting disconnects all the time. Previously all was fine. There was no router placement changes or any updates to anything done prior this started to happen. Also I noticed that http (!) access to webUI started to time-out... I did reboot router, restart httpd few times but it did not help. After I enabled https on default port 8443 and using that. https works. Its very strange, becouse I read in forum here that ppl often have problems with https access to webui, not http.

Later, to try to fix issue with 2.4ghz I did update merlin fw after from 384.13 to 384.18 but it did not solve anything. Entered google and found out that 2.4ghz is faced for many ppl.
So I ended up disabling 2.4ghz band and will now rely to use 5ghz (which works stable as before). No annoyuing crackling sound in subwoofers.

have you checked what it says in the syslog? Have you tried disabling qos, ai protection, and traffic analyzer as above user said worked for him? I would do this after a reflash and factory reset.

 

[oldelpaso]

@cooloutac: hmm, I think there was nothing unusual in syslog. qos, ai protection and traffic analyzer was (and is) disabled always on my setup. I dont use such things My router mainly works as NAS as private download station for me. I did not factory reset after merlin fw update (from 383.13 to 384.18). Was not in a mood to rewrite all setup by hand.

 

[essco]

I have the same problem since 2 weeks ago. It lose 2.4 Ghz band and I have to unplug and plug again.
Serial number: KBINH.... Year: 2019
Reflash with full reset - nothing! The problem still present.

 

[cooloutac]

@cooloutac: hmm, I think there was nothing unusual in syslog. qos, ai protection and traffic analyzer was (and is) disabled always on my setup. I dont use such things My router mainly works as NAS as private download station for me. I did not factory reset after merlin fw update (from 383.13 to 384.18). Was not in a mood to rewrite all setup by hand.

Started having same issue on ac86u man after numerous other issues and I returned it lol. I went back to an ax58u I used previously which never had an issue. Have seen similar complaints with the ax86u and ax88u. I also have read recently the latest 386 firmware fixes that issue for some people. So maybe its a firmware problem. Curious if you have upgraded to the latest firmware recently and are still having the same problems?

 

[oldelpaso]

@cooloutac : I have not updated to latest firmware due to laziness (using 384.18), also I dont think it will fix this issue. More likely its hardware related. Unlikely that suddenly something software related could go bad if it worked fine prolonged period of time before.

 

[cooloutac]

@cooloutac : I have not updated to latest firmware due to laziness (using 384.18), also I dont think it will fix this issue. More likely its hardware related. Unlikely that suddenly something software related could go bad if it worked fine prolonged period of time before.

I would assume the same. but ya never know its worth a shot. People have said as much in the forums anyhow which made me curious. But I agree its doubtful. Do you use trend micro? that constantly updates. You say you use your router as a nas? Have you changed the usb maybe? Even though seemingly unrelated to wifi issues again ya never know. People suggest to make a swap on it. Things do get corrupted sometimes and reflash or factory reset might not be a bad idea to clean out the cobwebs..

I myself wasn't taking the chance. I was running a vpn client on it with trend micro and was having all sorts of errors and nightmares for 30 days before my worst fear started happening lol. Once I started having to reboot the thing to get the 2.4 ghz working the thing went immediately back in the box.

 

[oldelpaso]

Not using microtrend.
Yes, using as NAS.
USB was not changed.

p.s. Just logged in and saw these weird dump console entries in log. Never seen them before. No idea what dump console even mean.

Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE:
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 000000.000 srom rev:0
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 000000.000 initvars_srom_pci, SROM CRC Error
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 000000.000 initvars_srom_pci, Using external nvram
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 000000.000 Setting clocks to 800/400/200
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 000000.000 si_set_bb_vcofreq_frac: only work on 4360, 4350
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 000000.000 Enabling D-cache
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.568 gic_dist_init max_irq 64
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.568 Start deadman timer
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.569 c_init: Watchdog reset bit set, clearing
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.569
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: RTE (PCIE-MSG_BUF) 10.10.122.20 (r683106) on BCM43666 r4 @ 40.0/200.0/800.0MHz
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.569 nvram_init: called again without calling nvram_exit()
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.570 initvars_cis_pci: Not CIS format
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.602 srom rev:0
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.602 initvars_srom_pci, SROM CRC Error
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.602 initvars_srom_pci, Using external nvram
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.602 allocating a max of 511 rxcplid buffers
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.602 pciemsgbuf0: Broadcom PCIE MSGBUF driver
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.602 nvram_init: called again without calling nvram_exit()
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.602 initvars_cis_pci: Not CIS format
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.634 srom rev:0
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.634 initvars_srom_pci, SROM CRC Error
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.634 initvars_srom_pci, Using external nvram
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.634 wlc_ucode_download: wl0: Loading non-MU ucode
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.635 reclaim section 0: Returned 216 bytes to the heap
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.635 initvars_cis_pci: Not CIS format
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.667 srom rev:0
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.667 initvars_srom_pci, SROM CRC Error
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.667 initvars_srom_pci, Using external nvram
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.667 wlc_bmac_attach, deviceid 0x43c4 nbands 1
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.668 ipxotp_init: mapping otpbase at 0x18007000 to 0x18007000
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.676 ipxotp_init: mapping otpbase at 0x18007000 to 0x18007000
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.677 wl0: wlc_bmac_attach: chiprev 4 corerev 65 cccap 0x58400009 maccap 0xf0018705 band 2.4G, phy_type 11 phy_rev 33
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.677 enable 1: q0 frmcnt 0, wrdcnt 0, q1 frmcnt 0, wrdcnt 0
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.677 enable 1: q0 frmcnt 0, wrdcnt 0, q1 frmcnt 0, wrdcnt 0
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.678 ipxotp_init: mapping otpbase at 0x18007000 to 0x18007000
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.678 wl0: wlc_stf_txcore_shmem_write: No clock
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.678 wl0: wlc_ap_attach dynamic_ed_thresh_enable = 0
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.679 wl0: wlc_ampdu_tx_set: AGG Mode = MAC+AQM txmaxpkts 512
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.680 wl_eventq_dup_event: wl_eventq not initialized
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.680 wl_eventq_dup_event: wl_eventq not initialized
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.680 wl0: Broadcom BCM43666 802.11 Wireless Controller 10.10.122.20 (r683106)
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.680 SPLITRX_MODE_2 enabled : tcmsegsize 160
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.680 TCAM: 512 used: 256 exceed:0
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.680 reclaim section 1: Returned 180632 bytes to the heap
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.681 ThreadX v5.6 initialized
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE:
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.809 wl0: wlc_enable_probe_req: state down, deferring setting of host flags
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026738.810 wl0: wlc_enable_probe_req: state down, deferring setting of host flags
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026905.774 wl0: wl_open
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026905.789 wl0: invalid chanspec 0x1000
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026905.792 wl0: wlc_ampdu_tx_set: AGG Mode = MAC+AQM txmaxpkts 512
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026905.805 wl0: wl_open
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026905.808 reclaim section ucodes: Returned 108592 bytes to the heap
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026905.808 wlc_ucode_download: wl0: Loading non-MU ucode
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026905.824 wl0: CORE INIT : nfifo 32 mu_tx_enab 0
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026905.825 wl0: CORE INIT : mode 2 pktclassify 1 rxsplit 0 hdr conve 0 DMA_CT Enabled
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026905.839 reclaim section postattach: Returned 114064 bytes to the heap
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026905.840 wl0: wlc_enable_probe_req: state down, deferring setting of host flags
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026905.840 enable 1: q0 frmcnt 0, wrdcnt 0, q1 frmcnt 0, wrdcnt 0
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026906.191 wl0: link up (wl0)
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026906.841 pciedev_send_ltr:Giving up:0x302
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026906.895 flow_create : bitmap_size=512 maxitems=512
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026906.918 bcm_pack_xtlv_entry: no space tlv_buf: requested:28, available:8
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026907.840 wl0: wlc_lq_chanim_update: WLC_CHANIM upd blocked scan/detect
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026907.840 wl0: wlc_watchdog: WLC_CHANIM upd fail -25
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 026934.870 flow_create : bitmap_size=512 maxitems=512
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 028607.143 wl0: wl_open
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 028607.154 wl0: invalid chanspec 0x1000
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 028607.157 wl0: wlc_ampdu_tx_set: AGG Mode = MAC+AQM txmaxpkts 512
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 028607.169 wl0: wl_open
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 028607.170 wlc_ucode_download: wl0: Loading non-MU ucode
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 028607.186 wl0: CORE INIT : nfifo 32 mu_tx_enab 0
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 028607.186 wl0: CORE INIT : mode 2 pktclassify 1 rxsplit 0 hdr conve 0 DMA_CT Enabled
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 028607.199 wl0: wlc_enable_probe_req: state down, deferring setting of host flags
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 028607.199 enable 1: q0 frmcnt 0, wrdcnt 0, q1 frmcnt 0, wrdcnt 0
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 028607.572 wl0: link up (wl0)
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 028608.190 bcm_pack_xtlv_entry: no space tlv_buf: requested:28, available:8
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 028608.199 wl0: wlc_lq_chanim_update: WLC_CHANIM upd blocked scan/detect
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 028608.199 wl0: wlc_watchdog: WLC_CHANIM upd fail -25
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 028608.199 pciedev_send_ltr:Giving up:0x302
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 028609.199 wl0: wlc_lq_chanim_update: WLC_CHANIM upd blocked scan/detect
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 028609.199 wl0: wlc_watchdog: WLC_CHANIM upd fail -25
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 028626.633 flow_create : bitmap_size=512 maxitems=512
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: FWID 01-157f5da0
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: flags 330005
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: TRAP 4(2a9c08): pc 27d454, lr 20087c, sp 2a9c60, cpsr a00001d3, spsr a00000f3
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988 dfsr 5, dfar 842301b1
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988 r0 800000d3, r1 842301b1, r2 4, r3 2008fc, r4 46ac599, r5 43dc18, r6 2ace30
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988 r7 46ac599, r8 0, r9 0, r10 2a9ab0, r11 0, r12 b9fcf7d5
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: sp+0 002a0c34 002ace30 80000013 00000000
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988 sp+10 00000000 0020d90d 002a0c34 002ac0f8
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE:
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988 sp+14 0020d90d
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988 sp+24 0020d5d5
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988 sp+2c 0027ce25
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988 sp+94 0020d7a1
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988 sp+a4 0027d099
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988 sp+b8 0027ca05
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988 sp+108 0020d529
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988 sp+1744 00221097
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988 sp+175c 002210e1
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988 sp+17b4 0002f101
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988 sp+17bc 0002f101
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988 sp+17c0 00002007
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988 sp+1804 0002f101
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988 sp+1844 0002f101
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988 sp+184c 00279aed
Dec 13 15:28:01 kernel: DUMP CONSOLE: 656774.988 sp+1874 002791b1

 

[cooloutac]

Jeez no idea. when googling it though I ran into another thread where the last post claims the "issue" is fixed in the latest firmware for the ac86u. Asus AC86U 5ghz switched to channel 0, all clients dropped, everything else working fine. | SmallNetBuilder Forums (snbforums.com) Guy gets a dump console errors. Its definitely worth a shot. I can tell you don't like to upgrade firmware but ya never know.

IF I was you I would update the firmware and then do a do a hard nuclear reset and start from scratch again. maybe something got corrupted over time because of bad firmware. Maybe the sooner you factory reset the better before the thing possibly bricks itself or kills the wifi chip. I'm the type who feels I should upgrade my firmware as fast as possible, not just so someone else can't hurt the router, but so it doesn't hurt itself. At least you will know for sure if its a hardware problem or not.

 

[DarkKnight75]

No issues with my ac86u after factory reset from .386 back to .384...54 days up and counting.