Solved RT-AX88U Is USB NVME SSD Supported?

[El Mariachi]

Hi SNBForums brains trust,

My RT-AX88U keeps killing external drives. My latest being a 500gb WD RED M.2 SATA SSD in an aluminium enclosure for heat dissipation.

With me hitting the end of my patience with SATA based drives I was wondering if the RT-AX88U supported NVME drives?

I am planning to go full ham on a high end external enclosure with thermal pads interfacing into the enclosure body partnered up with a WD RED 500gb NVME M.2 SSD. For obvious reasons I would rather not pull the trigger on such an investment unless I am sure it is supported.

SOLVE 21-6-2023: Enclosure was bad, corrupting drives.

 

[bbunge]

Invest in a NAS for storage. If you run Merlin add ons a 16 GB USB2 thumb drive works well. I use SanDisk.

 

[bennor]

If your router is killing USB flash/pen drive storage devices then you either need to use better USB storage devices (SSD, NvME or mechanical HDD) or use a NAS if trying to run a media server off the router's USB port.

 

[ColinTaylor]

If your router is killing USB flash/pen drive storage devices then you either need to use better USB storage devices (SSD, NvME or mechanical HDD) ...

He said he's already doing that.

My RT-AX88U keeps killing external drives. My latest being a 500gb WD RED M.2 SATA SSD in an aluminium enclosure for heat dissipation.

There's no way your router should be killing an external SSD drive. Is your router and drive located in an exceptionally hot area? I can't see that changing it for an NVMe equivalent would be any better. If anything it's likely to run even hotter. Do you have frequent power interruptions?

 

[L&LD]

Use better quality drives. IME, the WD SSDs ran too hot (returned the next day).

How are you using these drives? How are they attached to the router, specifically?

 

[EmeraldDeer]

Not certain of this, but the router will just see a USB disk. The USB adapter in the enclosure will see a SATA or NVMe drive.

You are doing the right thing using journaled ext4. I would also keep the Entware partition small and enable frequent fsck with tune2fs. I would disable boot time fsck on large partitions.

I have had a Samsung T5 connected to the RT-AX88U USB 3 port for a few years without issue. If I needed a new drive, I would just get the Samsung T7 and be done with it.

I agree with Colin that something else is at play if an external SSD is not lasting.

 

[sfx2000]

I agree with Colin that something else is at play if an external SSD is not lasting.

If OP is using the drives with bus-power (off the USB3 port on the router) - he could be browning out when the drive is actively writing...

Hooking things up to a powered USB hub might be a solution...

@L&LD @ColinTaylor - thoughts here?

 

[avtella]

Trying nvme drives might be even worse going from some odd behavior I noticed from experience from my beta testing days, can't speak for all routers, I tested for Netgear. Think my last test with a nvme drive (960 Pro in a Sabrent enclosure w/ Jmicrom 583 chip) was in the RAX120 (in 2019). I had issues with nVME drives during writes leading to slowdowns/tranfer halts, pretty sure it's due to USB port not supplying enough power as mentioned above. My Samsung T5 never had an issue.

Doubt heat is the issue, most modern drives will throttle. Are you sure the drives aren't just corrupted from power issues and not actually dead. Some very old Crucial drives had detection issues coming from a sudden power loss where it was recommended to disconnect the data cable for like an hour but keep it powered to recover. If drives are truly dying then it could be a bad port as some have said, I also would not throw more drives at it.

 

[El Mariachi]

If OP is using the drives with bus-power (off the USB3 port on the router) - he could be browning out when the drive is actively writing...

Hooking things up to a powered USB hub might be a solution...

@L&LD @ColinTaylor - thoughts here?

Correct, it is running on bus power. Though what originally led me away from this conclusion was that I have two other RT-AX88U's (setup for family members with identical config), with identical enclosures, and with Samsung 860 EVO m.2 SATA 256gb drives that have had zero issues. I went through 2 of these Samsung drives before going for a WD RED on my personal unit. I even RMA'd the unit and Asus came back saying there are no hardware faults with the router.

Could it be that my unit may just have a weak USB power supply circuit vs my other two managed units?

L&LD: How are you using these drives? How are they attached to the router, specifically?

Merlin 388.2, Diversion, Skynet, Scribe, VN stat, UIscribe, UIDivStats, Conmon, SCmerlin, SpdMerlin (all scripts configed to write to USB rather than JFFS, Diversion configered to Cache first rather than direct write). I am not running any QoS as I have sufficient internet speed. Ext4 with Journaling on the drive using a Volans SATA aluminium enclosure plugged into the front USB port in USB 3.0 mode and running on BUS power. When doing intensive loads such as torrenting the drive cuts out completely vs a slow degradation beginning with disconnects/reconnects, read only mode, unmount and ultimately power cut out.

I only use the drive to run merlin. I do not use it as a NAS, I have a separate server for this.

 

[ColinTaylor]

If OP is using the drives with bus-power (off the USB3 port on the router) - he could be browning out when the drive is actively writing...

Hooking things up to a powered USB hub might be a solution...

@L&LD @ColinTaylor - thoughts here?

I'd be very surprised if it's a power issue. Obviously I don't have the same model router or SSD, but the Asus PSUs can easily supply way more power over USB than the 3.35W maximum stated for his drive. But anything is possible.

Maybe it's a problem with the enclosure rather than the drive itself. But it would a remarkable run of bad luck to have all these failures.

 

[sfx2000]

Correct, it is running on bus power. Though what originally led me away from this conclusion was that I have two other RT-AX88U's (setup for family members with identical config), with identical enclosures, and with Samsung 860 EVO m.2 SATA 256gb drives that have had zero issues.

It's one of those things where the ticket buys the whole seat, but you only need the edge...

Get some power on the drive - doesn't need to be a powered hub, could be a Y-cable to add some power on the bus...

 

[sfx2000]

'd be very surprised if it's a power issue. Obviously I don't have the same model router or SSD, but the Asus PSUs can easily supply way more power over USB than the 3.35W maximum stated for his drive. But anything is possible.

I'd tend to agree - but you and others have sorted out potential SW issues...

If the drive were directly powered - that's one thing, but it's getting power from the router itself...

 

[sfx2000]

Merlin 388.2, Diversion, Skynet, Scribe, VN stat, UIscribe, UIDivStats, Conmon, SCmerlin, SpdMerlin (all scripts configed to write to USB rather than JFFS, Diversion configered to Cache first rather than direct write). I am not running any QoS as I have sufficient internet speed. Ext4 with Journaling on the drive using a Volans SATA aluminium enclosure plugged into the front USB port in USB 3.0 mode and running on BUS power. When doing intensive loads such as torrenting the drive cuts out completely vs a slow degradation beginning with disconnects/reconnects, read only mode, unmount and ultimately power cut out.

Bingo - power issues...

 

[L&LD]

High heat output (vs. other drives) and the high(er) power required go hand in hand.

The WD drives I used in laptops were removed immediately because the case was hot, and the batteries were depleted at a much, much higher rate.

Just badly engineered examples. Samsung has been performing exceptionally well. It is a much better drive, period.

 

[Tech9]

When doing intensive loads such as torrenting the drive cuts out completely vs a slow degradation beginning with disconnects/reconnects, read only mode, unmount and ultimately power cut out.

What else is in the system log? Intensive USB transfers can make the whole router unstable.

 

[El Mariachi]

What else is in the system log? Intensive USB transfers can make the whole router unstable.

I get a combination of daemon restarts and eventually I/O block write errors.

Bingo - power issues...

Assuming it is power issues do you feel the drive itself is now dead/unstable and requires a replacement?

I'd be very surprised if it's a power issue. Obviously I don't have the same model router or SSD, but the Asus PSUs can easily supply way more power over USB than the 3.35W maximum stated for his drive. But anything is possible.

Maybe it's a problem with the enclosure rather than the drive itself. But it would a remarkable run of bad luck to have all these failures.

This one router unit has eaten 7 USB sticks, 2 Samsung 860 EVO SSDs and now this WD Red. Granted the three SSD's have been in the same enclosure.

 

[azagramac]

Hi SNBForums brains trust,

My RT-AX88U keeps killing external drives. My latest being a 500gb WD RED M.2 SATA SSD in an aluminium enclosure for heat dissipation.

With me hitting the end of my patience with SATA based drives I was wondering if the RT-AX88U supported NVME drives?

I am planning to go full ham on a high end external enclosure with thermal pads interfacing into the enclosure body partnered up with a WD RED 500gb NVME M.2 SSD. For obvious reasons I would rather not pull the trigger on such an investment unless I am sure it is supported.

You are better off buying a NAS, you could use Link Aggregation with the AX88U.

 

[Tech9]

I get a combination of daemon restarts and eventually I/O block write errors.

Your router may be getting low RAM condition and corrupting the drive. If you regularly do intensive transfers you better get a NAS.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I get a combination of daemon restarts and eventually I/O block write errors.

Assuming it is power issues do you feel the drive itself is now dead/unstable and requires a replacement?

This one router unit has eaten 7 USB sticks, 2 Samsung 860 EVO SSDs and now this WD Red. Granted the three SSD's have been in the same enclosure.

After these SSDs have been "killed" what happens if you connect them to a PC? Can you see/format them there or are they completely undetected?

 

[L&LD]

If the drives are actually dead, the enclosure is my first suspect, not the router.