RT-AC88RU 5G gone, GUI lagging, constant disconnects.

[s4mpson]

Running 380.63 (I'm fairly certain though I do not want to connect to the router as it will lock-up for 3-4 minutes and drop all connections, were running this at a business and I cannot afford that to happen), middle of the night last night it reset, log reports nothing special at all.

After this last reset the router is virtually unusable, 5G wifi is gone (channel 0, no led), the GUI is obscenely slow causes lockups and drops connection. I've power cycled all hardware several times and now I'm at a point where I have internet connection, but the above issues still exist and I'm wary about connecting to the router due to complete device failure for minutes at a time.

Is this a situation where I need to factory reset and reconfigure and hope it remains stable for a few weeks? I'm praying this isn't a hardware failure as a mail return is a raging PITA, if even possible.
I've looked through the threads on the forum and checked most settings, everything is set for the most stability that I can see, nothing has changed from working flawlessly to being a total disaster.. except the sun setting and rising. There have been wan resets every so often and an issue obtaining an IP for whatever reason (we have a static 5 block), but it came back within minutes and I attribute it to the service provider (time warner business class).

Kind of a noobish thread but the knowledge available on this forum runs deep. Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Zirescu]

Do you have a USB drive attached? If so, disconnect it and reboot. I'd suggest a factory reset and manual setup again to see if it fixes the issue but if it is a hardware failure it probably be useful to have a spare on hand. Do you have the router attached to the battery side of a UPS?

 

[s4mpson]

There is no USB drive attached, nor has there ever been. The router IS on a UPS battery line, which hasn't seemed to cause an issue, though I can switch it to a surge only port on a UPS in the closet. I really don't have any space on direct wired outlets unless I'm plugging two UPS in chain, which is sketchy. On the UPS the router is connected to it is the only device on a battery port, which I was unaware of until now (and have no idea why the guy who set this place up did it like that). I do have a spare router on hand which I will likely be swapping out for a bit while I work on this. Currently I'm still connected to the 88u with internet running at full speed, 5G down and I have not logged into the router for a while as that could cause issues.

I basically knew a factory reset is needed from the first sign of an issue, I just wanted to pretend it was possibly something else. What is the most stable merlin firmware currently, I'm on 380.63.2?
Is a reflash necessary or just go with the factory reset/config?

 

[RMerlin]

Reflashing the current firmware never has any effect. You are basically just rewriting the exact same binary content to the flash.

 

[s4mpson]

That's what I figured. I'm in the process of a factory reset and I guess I'm going to stay on the 63.2 for now. I'm reading the .64 thread and see a bunch of issues, unless its worth a shot while I'm doing this.

This all happened virtually at the same time I was dealing with sending a file to a company that creates proprietary office management software. They use a built-in function in their server software that sends a file via ftp, or at least through ftp ports, to their servers etc. I was having a hell of a time getting it to work, the connection kept dropping after 15-25mb or so of a 212mb file. I opened all the ports, added it to the windows firewall (even though its disabled), setup everything that could possibly cause an issue. The only change on my end was the router. Long story short it even failed with the original router, so I'm thinking there is some issue with this time warner business class static service. Right after I had this file xfer issue the router took a dump the next day. When trying to make any config changes the WAN/internet light would go out or go to the purple-ish color.

The system log on the ac88ru showed some issues obtaining an ip, or associated error, even though I have a static block (I don't have the log available to me right now). TWC did give me an Arris DG860 AF2 and set it to RouterNoNAT (not in full bridge mode). The Arris has dhcp enabled in the WAN settings, but the router and the cisco 2800 VoIP router use IPs from our 5 block just fine. Getting deep into time warner for routing issues is a project in itself.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.