RT-AX88U has a serious bug with firmware 3.0.0.4.384.9566 (random reboots)

[RMerlin]

So faulty equipment simply doesn't exist?

Again, just because your router is faulty does not mean that every single RT-AX88U will also be faulty and nobody should be buying them.

 

[Blacklistedcard]

Got my new AX88 today. Installed merlin firmware in 5 minutes up and running. No issue with any devices and no reboots.

 

[Vimes]

Got mine also yesterday the AX88U installed fine, using my 86U in AI Mesh mode, and updated it to the latest recently released firmware. All seems fine and enjoying a working AI Mesh.
Just wished that it had VPN Fusion as std, and not just the GT (?) router.

 

[Tommy Grace]

So faulty equipment simply doesn't exist? All consumer products from covid China are perfect actually

Are you OK?

 

[sanke1]

So faulty equipment simply doesn't exist? All consumer products from covid China are perfect actually

Some RT-AX88Us are manufactured in Vietnam FYI. TBH I had port forwarding issue with my RT-AX88U and their customer care worked with me and fixed it within a week. Why don't you hop on to 386 RC2 Beta6 branch and check if your issue is fixed or not. RC2-B6 is working stunningly well for all the 3 of my RT-AX88Us. Zero reboots or disconnects since 1 week of installing.

Link here

386 rc2-6 - Google Drive

drive.google.com

Make sure you reset nvram by issuing ssh commands. Correct procedure:
1. Update the 386 RC2-B6 firmware manually using router GUI.
2. Login to router using ssh in windows powershell: ssh admin@192.168.50.1
3. Enter login password
4. Enter this command nvram erase
5. Power off the router from mains (from wall socket and not through GUI)
6. Turn it back on
7. Set it up as new and default IP address is 192.168.50.1

Bonus:
8. Think twice before passing snide remarks on a reputed member and god forbid a moderator at that. Hehe

 

[Vimes]

Some RT-AX88Us are manufactured in Vietnam FYI. TBH I had port forwarding issue with my RT-AX88U and their customer care worked with me and fixed it within a week. Why don't you hop on to 386 RC2 Beta6 branch and check if your issue is fixed or not. RC2-B6 is working stunningly well for all the 3 of my RT-AX88Us. Zero reboots or disconnects since 1 week of installing.

Link here

386 rc2-6 - Google Drive

drive.google.com

Make sure you reset nvram by issuing ssh commands. Correct procedure:
1. Update the 386 RC2-B6 firmware manually using router GUI.
2. Login to router using ssh in windows powershell: ssh admin@192.168.50.1
3. Enter login password
4. Enter this command nvram erase
5. Power off the router from mains (from wall socket and not through GUI)
6. Turn it back on
7. Set it up as new and default IP address is 192.168.50.1

Bonus:
8. Think twice before passing snide remarks on a reputed member and god forbid a moderator at that. Hehe

With my AC86U the hard reset method was to use the WPS key....

[Wireless Router] ASUS router Hard Factory Reset - Method 1 | Official Support | ASUS Global

I see that they also suggest this now for the AX88U....

[Wireless Router] ASUS router Hard Factory Reset - Method 2 | Official Support | ASUS UK

www.asus.com

do you know if doing what you suggest for as reset of the NVRAM the same as doing the WPS reset...?

I have not needed to do a reset of my newly bought AX88U.
Do you also happen to know, long shot, that if the RC2-B6 release contains the types of fixes applied for the very recent firmware update for the AX88U, for stability fixes. Or would those not be needed for the different code base...?
Great that yours have been so stable with the 386 based firmware.
So far my 88U and 86U have been great with the AI Mesh Mode utilised.

I do miss policy based routing (VPN Fusion in the std firmware for the ROG range) for the VPN client. When we get a Merlin firmware for the 386 base I'll be able to try that.

 

[1ceLaz0r]

Had china 1.0 and Vietnam 1.1 hardware versions, both unstable, I don't mess with merlin. Sold them months ago and sticking with AX86u

 

[RogerSC]

Had china 1.0 and Vietnam 1.1 hardware versions, both unstable, I don't mess with merlin. Sold them months ago and sticking with AX86u

Bad luck, the AX88U that I've had for a few months now has been great, and the XT8 that I've added as an AP has also been stable. The AX88U is on RMerlin firmware, the XT8 is on Asus firmware. Hope that the AX86U continues to work for you.

 

[Vimes]

Bad luck, the AX88U that I've had for a few months now has been great, and the XT8 that I've added as an AP has also been stable. The AX88U is on RMerlin firmware, the XT8 is on Asus firmware. Hope that the AX86U continues to work for you.

Considering the discount that Amazon had for the AX88U on their Prime days I decided to buy one. Along with the rebate offered by Asus it worked out cheaper as a AX86U is currently.
But, in the UK, it seems that AX86U are pretty rare on the ground.

The AX88U has been great for me on the latest std firmware coupled with a AC86U in Node mode for AI Mesh.

Using a custom QOS and Traffic Analyser and all is well.

I do wish that Asus would extend their VPN Fusion to models other than the ROG routers.

 

[RMerlin]

I do wish that Asus would extend their VPN Fusion to models other than the ROG routers.

Make sure to let them know through the Feedback page on your router.

 

[Vimes]

Make sure to let them know through the Feedback page on your router.

I have given that feedback both on my AC86U and also AX88U, otherwise they will not be influenced by their customers, if that is taken into consideration.

Thanks for the reminder though. Perhaps if enough people request it they might consider it worth doing, especially for those routers that support AES-NI instructions.
Not sure why they thought that their policy based routing implementation should be prioritised on their ROG routers, with the emphasis on gaming.

 

[Spartan]

Some RT-AX88Us are manufactured in Vietnam FYI. TBH I had port forwarding issue with my RT-AX88U and their customer care worked with me and fixed it within a week. Why don't you hop on to 386 RC2 Beta6 branch and check if your issue is fixed or not. RC2-B6 is working stunningly well for all the 3 of my RT-AX88Us. Zero reboots or disconnects since 1 week of installing.

Link here

386 rc2-6 - Google Drive

drive.google.com

Make sure you reset nvram by issuing ssh commands. Correct procedure:
1. Update the 386 RC2-B6 firmware manually using router GUI.
2. Login to router using ssh in windows powershell: ssh admin@192.168.50.1
3. Enter login password
4. Enter this command nvram erase
5. Power off the router from mains (from wall socket and not through GUI)
6. Turn it back on
7. Set it up as new and default IP address is 192.168.50.1

Bonus:
8. Think twice before passing snide remarks on a reputed member and god forbid a moderator at that. Hehe

I upgraded to this firmware but when I enter that SSH command I get:

PS C:\Windows\system32> ssh admin@192.168.50.1
ssh: connect to host 192.168.50.1 port 22: Connection refused

FWIW, my router is made in China not Vietnam

Another thing I noticed, if I am using ESET NOD32 Antivirus as my Antivirus the connections happen, now that I switched to VIPRE Antivirus the disconnections stopped. I don't know how in the world that may be related, NOD32 has a very aggressive HTTP scanner though, not sure if this can affect the router in any way but now it's fine without NOD32.

 

[hakster]

Hi all,

Apologies if this is not an appropriate place for this question. I currently have an Asus RT-AC88U. It has great range, stability and performance. But, even though it is only 1.5 years old, the latest stock firmware logs a message every 4 seconds, which I think is written to flash every minute (I think merlin has fixed this bug on his firmware). Possibly as a result of this, I noticed today that I could not logon to its web interface (though router functions are still working). I SSHed, and it hangs if you do an ls on the /jffs directory - I wonder if the flash has worn out?

Anyway, I am reluctant to reboot, in case it does not come back, so am looking to purchase the RT-AX88U as an upgrade. I don't need wifi 6 performance, but need excellent range and stability. My current AC88u has an uptime of 100 days and no disconnects. Is the AX88U similarly stable with good range, with the latest stock 3.0.0.4.384.9579 firmware? If it is, can someone also confirm that the stock firmware for this router, unlike the 385 variants on the AC88U, does NOT spam the syslog every 4 seconds?

Any insight appreciated!

 

[theslug]

Hi all,

Apologies if this is not an appropriate place for this question. I currently have an Asus RT-AC88U. It has great range, stability and performance. But, even though it is only 1.5 years old, the latest stock firmware logs a message every 4 seconds, which I think is written to flash every minute (I think merlin has fixed this bug on his firmware). Possibly as a result of this, I noticed today that I could not logon to its web interface (though router functions are still working). I SSHed, and it hangs if you do an ls on the /jffs directory - I wonder if the flash has worn out?

Anyway, I am reluctant to reboot, in case it does not come back, so am looking to purchase the RT-AX88U as an upgrade. I don't need wifi 6 performance, but need excellent range and stability. My current AC88u has an uptime of 100 days and no disconnects. Is the AX88U similarly stable with good range, with the latest stock 3.0.0.4.384.9579 firmware? If it is, can someone also confirm that the stock firmware for this router, unlike the 385 variants on the AC88U, does NOT spam the syslog every 4 seconds?

Any insight appreciated!

Stability hasn't been my experience. Like the original poster, I've been experiencing random reboots for months now, both on stock firmware and Merlin builds. Range and speed are excellent (especially on 5 Ghz, the difference from my AC68U is night and day), but router reboots tend to interrupt my work calls at least every few days. They're infrequent enough that I didn't notice during the return period (every 2-10 days; average max uptime before reboot maybe 2-4 day range). Never any warning, nothing in the logs. Of course I've tried resetting every which way possible, restoring all settings manually, turning off all things I don't use (inc. WiFi 6), etc. After the 386.xx firmware didn't change anything, I finally bit the bullet and initiated an exchange with Asus. It seems I'm not the only one, but I'm at my wits end as to what the problem could be. Some people report great uptimes with the same software, so I have to assume I have a HW problem (although it could be something that's very hard to track down, what devices connect to Wi-Fi.... who knows? Since nothing ever shows up in the logs, anything is possible...) For the time being, I can't recommend this router if stability is a top priority. I had an AC68U since 2013 and never had this issue.

 

[hakster]

Thank you very much for your detailed reply - much appreciated. Let me add my own findings. In the end, I did purchase the AX88U a month ago to replace the AC88U. I have been running it since at stock 3.0.0.4.384.9579 (the 386 came out a week after I bought it, and I haven't moved to it yet). I can confirm that speed and range are great, much like the AC88U. I haven't had the random reboots you mention - my uptime is currently 29 days. As you suggest, yours could be flaky HW, or a combination of client devices and/or your config. Without a log entry, very difficult to troubleshoot - frustrating for sure.

I did turn off the AX HE frames - the 2 AX capable devices on my network (2 Iphone 11s) would stop passing traffic every 24 hours or so, and only start working again when I disconnected and reconnected them. That has definitely been resolved by turning off the AX. There are still compatibility issues here, and honestly, for my use case, I didn't need the AX speed - mainly interesting to see how high a link speed you can achieve rather than real-world benefits. For many, the RT-AC88U is perhaps better value for money.

I am running a fairly simple setup on my AX88U - mainly defaults, but AX and airtime fairness turned off (no AI mesh). I can confirm that the log does not spam every 4 seconds like the AC88U did, which is very nice.

 

[theslug]

Thank you very much for your detailed reply - much appreciated. Let me add my own findings. In the end, I did purchase the AX88U a month ago to replace the AC88U. I have been running it since at stock 3.0.0.4.384.9579 (the 386 came out a week after I bought it, and I haven't moved to it yet). I can confirm that speed and range are great, much like the AC88U. I haven't had the random reboots you mention - my uptime is currently 29 days. As you suggest, yours could be flaky HW, or a combination of client devices and/or your config. Without a log entry, very difficult to troubleshoot - frustrating for sure.

I did turn off the AX HE frames - the 2 AX capable devices on my network (2 Iphone 11s) would stop passing traffic every 24 hours or so, and only start working again when I disconnected and reconnected them. That has definitely been resolved by turning off the AX. There are still compatibility issues here, and honestly, for my use case, I didn't need the AX speed - mainly interesting to see how high a link speed you can achieve rather than real-world benefits. For many, the RT-AC88U is perhaps better value for money.

I am running a fairly simple setup on my AX88U - mainly defaults, but AX and airtime fairness turned off (no AI mesh). I can confirm that the log does not spam every 4 seconds like the AC88U did, which is very nice.

Thanks for the feedback - hopefully I'll be in the same boat after this exchange. I'm also not running AI mesh (which some people seem to have found to be the culprit), and like you have a fairly basic setup. I've also tried running without AI protection and QoS (to no avail). I've also tried different power outlets, and even a UPS for the router just in case. Still seeing reboots. Looking at the Amazon reviews, it seems the rebooting problem isn't all that isolated, but it's good to hear you haven't encountered it. I've never seen anything near a month of uptime. More than 4 days is rare, but I've seen 11. Genuinely curious as to what's going on.