RT-AX89X

[vig1116]

All good points. You might be better off waiting for the parts to repair the 89X. They offered me that but I am on my backup router and chose the replacement model.

Which UniFi system did you get?

They've yet to contact me about the replacement. Hopefully it's because it's a direct replacement of the 89x? we'll see.

I got the dream machine pro, flex AP, nanoHD AP, and 4 8 port switches around the house. (I wish I had been able to run all cat6 cable to one spot in the house, but that wasn't possible. So I ran to where I could and will just use smaller switches where needed.). I'm also adding Unifi cameras little by little to replace my Arlo wireless cameras.

 

[sheatsley]

Interesting developments. Not quite sure how this is possible, but it appears that my desktop is actually inducing the reboot loop. I haven't had the router reset for 3/4 days now, then, as soon as I started up my main desktop (haven't used it in 3/4 days), the router rebooted. I am at a loss for how this is possible. My wireless card (integrated with my mobo) is a Qualcomm Atheros QCA61x4A. It's actually two NICs: one for 802.11ac and the other for 802.11ad.

I have 15+ other devices on my network and none have induced a reboot from the 89X. There is nothing in the system logs when it reboots -- all I see the initial logs from May when I first received the router.

 

[vig1116]

I thought My external hard drive was causing my reboot issues, and it may have been a few times, but that wasn't the real issue. Maybe a coincidence, or maybe the router caused the hard drive (or desktop in your case) to be an issue. Obviously my real issue is with the router because my RMA status as we speak is "Service center has arranged to exchange your device."

 

[sheatsley]

I thought My external hard drive was causing my reboot issues, and it may have been a few times, but that wasn't the real issue. Maybe a coincidence, or maybe the router caused the hard drive (or desktop in your case) to be an issue. Obviously my real issue is with the router because my RMA status as we speak is "Service center has arranged to exchange your device."

Certainly possible. It's rather strange because I have 2 other desktops that behave just fine with the router. It's only one particular desktop that has issues. I suspect it has something to do with the NIC... I'm going to hardwire it and see if the reboot is induced.

 

[nanochip]

Hi guys, the reboot issue with this beta product seems to stem from certain ethernet cables. It appears to be a combination of the cables used for the 10 gbps and WAN port.

I had a 15m cat 6 cable hooked up to my Aquantia 10 gbps NIC on my pc, and a old long cat5e cable hooked up to the WAN port. And invariably, the router would reboot whenever I turned on the pc. Didn’t matter the OS, Linux, windows, or macOS, this beta router would crash once I used the 10 gbps port.But plugging the same cable (from the 10 gbps) into a 1 gbps port fixed the crashing issue.

So I replaced ALL cables, used cat 7 on the 10 gbps, and it no longer crashes anymore. Perhaps this might be of use to others experiencing the same issue.

 

[vig1116]

it's possible, but I tried many cat6, and cat7 cables and they were all doing it. How long have you switched cables? I'd like to see if the reboot comes back after a little while. Like I said earlier, I thought my usb drive was the cause of my reboot. It was good for a short time after removing drive, but then reboots came back worse....

 

[nanochip]

it's possible, but I tried many cat6, and cat7 cables and they were all doing it. How long have you switched cables? I'd like to see if the reboot comes back after a little while. Like I said earlier, I thought my usb drive was the cause of my reboot. It was good for a short time after removing drive, but then reboots came back worse....

it’s been over a week.

I wasn’t having any issues at all for months (with the original cabling I used). but I relocated the router in September and used different cabling and that’s when the problems started. I cable managed and zip tied the ethernet cables together and that’s when the nightmare started. I don’t know if it was interference or what, but when I undid all that and used other cabling, it’s been stable for over a week.

The problem for me was definitely the 10 gbps port. Tried it with Aquantia, Intel (2.5 gbps and 1 gbps) and the router would crash under load. Repeatedly. I tried jumbo frames, decreasing the port speed, all to no avail. The 10 gbps crashed the router, period. But when I unplugged the cable from the 10 gbps port and plugged it into a 1 gbps lan port instead, there was no crashing under sustained load. I tried both the rj45 and sfp+ port and it crashed period. (As an aside, I’ve heard that 10gbps sfp+ to rj45 converters cause stability issues on other routers)

When the router was crashing, sometimes using a higher fan speed (medium or high) tended to help for a while, but even then sometimes it’d crash. Curiously, placing an external fan under the worked.

all in all, it seems that ASUS’s 10 gbps implementation is broken, and it’s better to just use a 10 gbps switch for 10 gbps ethernet. In fact, just for kicks and giggles, I tried a cheaper ax82u and it provides much better signal coverage (in the same channel) at 5Ghz than the Ax89x. I even got better wifi6 speeds (Speedtest.net) on my iPhone using the cheaper Broadcom-based ax82u than on the 89x. Very disappointing ordeal.

I returned the ax82u and am waiting on Wi-Fi 6E to hit the scene, and have learned a valuable lesson: Just because ‘reviews’ of an ASUS router are favorable doesn’t mean the router isn’t a piece of poo. The reviews dont tell you that signal coverage is worse than cheaper routers, or that the 89x outputs a 5ghz signal at a lower power than cheaper routers. They also don’t tell you about the 10 gbps port causing crashes. And ASUS’s tech support is atrocious. Completely bad.

But I got a managed 10 gbps switch, learned about vlans and link aggregation, port trunking, and all that cool jazz, and I’m quite happy with it. At this price point, we shouldn’t have these issues.

 

[vig1116]

wondering how many with issues use the 10g port. I never used it and had major reboots. interesting

 

[Starrbuck]

Since you were seeing reboots not using the 10g port, the "solution" proposed above is clearly only anecdotal.

 

[sheatsley]

The correct process is flash the latest firmware, then do a full reset to factory defaults, then do a minimal and manual configuration (M&M Config, see the link in my signature below).

To fully reset the router and network, the link below may be useful too.

ax88 packet loss

Hi, I recently upgraded to the ax88 router and have been having connectivity issues (laggy, jittery connections). i checked, and see anywhere from 20% to 50% packet loss, when measured with ping 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1 from multiple clients. this happens if client is connected to router via wifi...

www.snbforums.com

So I'm back after a couple days of trying this process. I've followed the instructions exactly and it appears to have mitigated (but not solved) the issue. Looks like booting my desktop may have just been exacerbating the true underlying issue -- It does not reboot now in response to any action I take with any of my devices, but it does reboot still.

From my estimates, the router uptime is bound by ~4/5 days. As it approaches that timeline, it's sure to reboot (it has rebooted twice since October 3rd when I followed the instructions above).

Interestingly, when it does reboot, it does it twice. It shuts off, starts the boot process, then after a couple seconds, reboots again and finishes the boot process.

This is pretty frustrating for such an expensive router. I'm going to try to downgrade the firmware to see if the issue persists.

 

[L&LD]

@sheatsley, if those instructions were followed properly, I would be looking for a replacement router. Regardless if an older firmware works better or 'fixes' the problem completely for you. Running older firmware isn't an option in today's world. At least, not if security is important to you.

 

[sheatsley]

@sheatsley, if those instructions were followed properly, I would be looking for a replacement router. Regardless if an older firmware works better or 'fixes' the problem completely for you. Running older firmware isn't an option in today's world. At least, not if security is important to you.

Yeah, I agree. I think I'll opt for a replacement. I just tried to log into it a couple minutes ago to read some the logs, and it rebooted on log-in. It has been extra spotty today. Looks like configuring the router beyond its defaults just accelerates the reboot issues -- it definitely has some problems even with the base configuration.

Shame. I had purchased this back in May with no issues, but since late August, it has been incredibly unstable.

Edit: Yeah, it's particularly unstable today. Probably rebooted 4 times in just the last couple hours.

2nd Edit: Yeah, there's definitely some timing thing that's happening. Right now, I can't keep it on for longer than 10 minutes. Asus customer support has been disappointing with their RMA responses. I think I'm going to go back to searching for the older firmware. I understand the risks, but I need something usable if I have to sit on this for a couple weeks while I wait for a replacement.

3rd Edit: Well, I was able to downgrade the firmware and the reboot issue still persists. Since I purchased the router, I upgraded my internet plan from 50 mbps to 300 mbps (I never had these issues under the 50 mbps plan). Turns out, on both the old and new firmware, if I'm downloading something large over (like a 10gb+ game) an extended period of time (maybe 5 minutes) at 300 mbps, the router will reboot. I am wondering now if this data rate is somehow the issue. Seems nonsensical, but that's the behavior I'm observing. I've been using stock settings since October 3rd.

 

[ddarko]

My AX89X reboot once yesterday - I was hoping it was a fluke but it went crazy today, five reboots in 30 minutes, one right after another. I think it would have continued to reboot for the rest of the day but I pulled the plug and restarted my computers, ethernet switch and ONT. It's been 7 hours and counting and no reboots since. I did not reset the router to stock settings or do anything other than power off and on all the equipment in the chain. I don't know if older firmware is necessarily a fix - my AX89X firmware is version 3.0.0.4.384_81377, the original firmware it shipped with.

 

[martijn00]

I've got the same problems. Lots and lots of random reboots. Tried at least 4 different firmwares with factory reset and everything, but it doesn't help. Logs show nothing, changing settings doesn't help. It's been months with those sort of bugs! Why doesn't Asus fix their stuff?

 

[#TY]

I don't understand how they release such a product that is clearly nowhere near ready for use outside a private test group. This sounds like a very expensive headache! I think I'll wait until Merlin gives it the seal of approval. Hopefully, the price will have dropped a little. It does look super cool though lol.

 

[Starrbuck]

The RT-AX89X is a bust. Stay away.

 

[doc octopus]

When is the sale in europe expected ?

 

[Frederic_L]

When is the sale in europe expected ?

We don’t even know wether it will be released in Europe.
I am considering getting the Qnap Wifi
6 router with dual 10G ports :

News - QNAP QHora-301W Wi-Fi6 Router

RMerlin tipped me to this. https://nascompares.com/2020/09/14/new-qnap-qhora-301w-wifi-6-10gbe-router-revealed/ Google has links to U.S. product pages, but they come up 404.

www.snbforums.com

 

[Starrbuck]

I would love this! I just got a QNAP QSW-M408-2C switch and I love it!!

 

[kinoka2k]

Folks I had this exact problem with the rt-ax89x. I spent hours tinkering with settings moving things around replacing cables etc. I found that after ripping apart the heat shroud (if you can even call that cheap piece of metal a shroud) and attaching a thermal sensor to each of the chips it was covering it was apparent that one of the chips was getting extremely hot 80C+ suspect I went into the thermal settings of the router and turned the fan from Auto to FULL and low and behold I have not had a reboot in 4 days and this was after a week or so of multiple hourly reboots or consecutive reboots. I am curious if anyone else changes this setting if they get similar results. Should folks come back with similar results ill end up going into the router and modifying it with a bigger fan as it has a dinky 7mm fan I believe (like a raspberry pi fan). Let me know!