[Solved] USB 2.0 not working on Merlin 384.5 - AC68U infused TM-AC1900

[Lord Lovaduck]

For the TM-1900AC, only threads discussing conversion are not allowed. This thread isn't.
Either answer the OP's question or don't. But stop debating whether the question is allowed.

@Grisu: We've discussed this in PM. You're free to go elsewhere if you don't like this forums rules. But if you post here, you'll abide by the rules.

Thanks for your response, and sorry this question opened such a can of worms!

 

[Ronald Schwerer]

Wow, I guess Amazon should lawyer-up. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075GYWPCJ/?tag=snbforums-20
They even say it includes AiProtection with Trend Micro

 

[Lord Lovaduck]

Wow, I guess Amazon should lawyer-up. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075GYWPCJ/?tag=snbforums-20
They even say it includes AiProtection with Trend Micro

I bought it exactly from this seller and followed the firmware update procedure mentioned there. I understand the validity of the argument of the forum owners, though. The moderation rules are fair as well. No need to get into a legal fight, they are not Amazon who's lawyer team is undoubtedly very large and powerful.

 

[sfx2000]

Using asuswrt, merlin's or not, on a TM-branded router is illegal under U.S. copyright law because a license has not been paid to the relevant owners of the included copyrighted materials (e..g. Trend Micro).

The T-Mobile devices run AsusWRT - it's written by, and licensed to T-Mobile for use by their customers (and people that they choose to sell it to) - running 3rd party CFE/Firmware is out of scope perhaps, but otherwise, with factory firmware and CFE, then it's totally cool to support users here on the forum.

Anyways, let's try to help out OP, understand some folks concerns

 

[wyldstallyn]

FWIW, I have a similar issue with my 1900P from Best Buy...

USB 2.0 thumb drives (sandisk, lexar) don’t work on the 2.0 port. Work perfectly on the 3.0 port. They are formatted ext2 as I am using for SkyNet/ABS.

I noticed this a few months ago so don’t recall if it was on 380 or 384 fw and not sure if there was the same or any error message in the logs. It was like the USB didn’t exist. The USB indicator light on the front of the router did not turn on, so I don’t believe there were any logs. I tried other drive formats for the sake of troubleshooting and nothing worked so I’m guessing it’s a bad port. I don’t recall if I tried a USB 3.0 stick in the 2.0 port.

They are working perfectly on my 68u 2.0 and 3.0 ports.

I discovered this as I was swapping which router was main and which was AP. In the end I just decided to use the 3.0 port on the 1900 and call it a day. I know this might not be the answer you’re looking for, but just chiming in that you’re not the only one with this issue.

 

[Ronald Schwerer]

Anyways, let's try to help out OP, understand some folks concerns

My TM-AC1900 manual says I should contact ASUS support for information on USB formats and devices supported. In fact - pretty much all technical information and links in the manual refer to ASUS tech support. That also includes firmware updates.

 

[cybrnook]

Can you hook up the USB thumb drive to another PC and completely wipe the partition and formatting? See what happens when you plug in a virgin USB thumb drive.

If it detects it okay then, we can go to the next step and try and format the drive from the router itself.

 

[FreshJR]

So much hate. You don't have to go on a full blown witch hunt when someone asks a simple question.

We already have clarification from mods that discussion is allowed, but the conversion process is not.

Merlin said he simply doesn't support the TM-AC1900. That means any potential bugs/bricks all happened at your own risk. He also doesn't want to waste time helping you since it is outside the scope of the projec.t Any negative results all happened at your own risk since it isn't an officially support/tested configuration.

Back on topic.

@Lord Lovaduck, I also have a TM-AC1900 but its still running 384_4_2.

I will be sure to respond in the future of 384_5 breaks USB 3.0.

Currently, I have no issues with USB 3.0 but I use the USB 2.0 port since the routers CPU cannot utilize USB 2.0 speeds and simply using USB 3.0, even though it operated within USB 2.0 speeds, can cause degraded 2.4ghz performance due to interference.

I simply view it as router 1rst, NAS 2nd.

As others have stated. Try downgrading and see if actually is a hardware problem.

 

[Lord Lovaduck]

FWIW, I have a similar issue with my 1900P from Best Buy...

USB 2.0 thumb drives (sandisk, lexar) don’t work on the 2.0 port. Work perfectly on the 3.0 port. They are formatted ext2 as I am using for SkyNet/ABS.

I noticed this a few months ago so don’t recall if it was on 380 or 384 fw and not sure if there was the same or any error message in the logs. It was like the USB didn’t exist. The USB indicator light on the front of the router did not turn on, so I don’t believe there were any logs. I tried other drive formats for the sake of troubleshooting and nothing worked so I’m guessing it’s a bad port. I don’t recall if I tried a USB 3.0 stick in the 2.0 port.

They are working perfectly on my 68u 2.0 and 3.0 ports.

I discovered this as I was swapping which router was main and which was AP. In the end I just decided to use the 3.0 port on the 1900 and call it a day. I know this might not be the answer you’re looking for, but just chiming in that you’re not the only one with this issue.

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience! This is exactly what I was looking for, somebody who was in the same boat.... Maybe the problem is the same I had. Please read my next post, it explains what I found and how I solved the issue.

 

[Lord Lovaduck]

First, many thanks to all who responded.

The problem has been solved now. I did some more googling and found some comments. This post (https://paulphilippov.com/articles/how-to-fix-device-not-accepting-address-error) and some responses here gave me a strong indication that the problem was hardware related. And it was not the flashdrive or HDD problem, it was the router USB port itself.
I decided to try to open the router case, but before doing that I inspected the USB 2.0 port receptacle itself. Looking with a very good light I saw one of the contacts was bent. With the aid of some small tweezers and a paperclip I managed to put it back into relatively straight shape, but it was still very flimsy looking. Nevertheless, with some patience I got my thumb drive to go in and then I plugged the router power back in and started it. Voila!!! It recognized the drive just fine.

So, Mr Philippov was very right. You need to look very closely at the hardware.

Again, thanks to all and I consider this issue now bypassed successfully. For now the thumb drive stays put, as it contains a swap and some partitions I want to use for permanent storage. I have the other (USB 3.0) port available for plugging other devices when I need them.

 

[skeal]

My TM-AC1900 manual says I should contact ASUS support for information on USB formats and devices supported. In fact - pretty much all technical information and links in the manual refer to ASUS tech support. That also includes firmware updates.

I don't own one and this may be true, however the router was shipped with T-Mobile firmware. They would support the router in its native configuration.

 

[Grisu]

I don't own one and this may be true, however the router was shipped with T-Mobile firmware. They would support the router in its native configuration.

I see, great support (no single file found): https://www.asus.com/us/supportonly/TM-AC1900/HelpDesk_Download/

first version has been TM-AC1900_3.0.0.4.376_2827-g566ef60 and last 3004_376_3001-g008ae95 or 3.0.0.4.376_3002-gdf2ee45

 

[skeal]

I see, great support (no single file found): https://www.asus.com/us/supportonly/TM-AC1900/HelpDesk_Download/

first version has been TM-AC1900_3.0.0.4.376_2827-g566ef60 and last 3004_376_3001-g008ae95 or 3.0.0.4.376_3002-gdf2ee45

Yes it would seem they just walked away from it and expected T-Mobile to support it,however they never did. Great price these units but your hooped if you want Merlin on it.

 

[FreshJR]

Yes it would seem they just walked away from it and expected T-Mobile to support it,however they never did. Great price these units but your hooped if you want Merlin on it.

Did you expect tmobile to write router firmware updates for the ASUS product? In the same line of thinking, do you expect tmobile to write Apple/iOS updates for those devices on their network aswell?

Security patches should of been pushed by Asus.

If T-Mobile wanted to test the patches before pushing them, that was between them.

 

[skeal]

Did you expect tmobile to write router firmware updates for the ASUS product? In the same line of thinking, do you expect tmobile to write Apple/iOS updates for those devices on their network aswell?

Security patches should of been pushed by Asus.

If T-Mobile wanted to test the patches before pushing them, that was between them.

Agreed. However Asus should have kept the router up to date and let T-Mobile distribute the updates. Thus keeping the source for help with T-Mobile the ISP. Obviously Asus had no intention of keeping it up.

 

[RMerlin]

Agreed. However Asus should have kept the router up to date and let T-Mobile distribute the updates. Thus keeping the source for help with T-Mobile the ISP. Obviously Asus had no intention of keeping it up.

Depends what are the details of the contract between Asus and T-Mobile. Asus isn't going to devote time, resource and money unless it's requested by T-Mobile in the contract.

Ultimately, this is a business dealing with another business. Both are doing so strictly for the financial benefits: one sells devices at a very deep discount, the other buys a large quantity of them, and request some specific changes made to the operating software. Neither of these are doing anything for free. Details would be in a contract, as well as who does what, and who pays what.

 

[skeal]

Depends what are the details of the contract between Asus and T-Mobile. Asus isn't going to devote time, resource and money unless it's requested by T-Mobile in the contract.

Ultimately, this is a business dealing with another business. Both are doing so strictly for the financial benefits: one sells devices at a very deep discount, the other buys a large quantity of them, and request some specific changes made to the operating software. Neither of these are doing anything for free. Details would be in a contract, as well as who does what, and who pays what.

Absolutely!!

 

[Lord Lovaduck]

I found somebody who bought a TM-AC1900 and had a similar problem with the faulty USB port connector, so I guess this issue can be a manufacturing problem. Here's a small clip from photo taken from this site (small enough to be fair use and not copyright violation...). The article is titled "great deal on a good router asus tm 1900". The port receptacle can be replaced but it can take more work than expected, as this gentleman discovered!

 

[Grisu]

I found somebody who bought a TM-AC1900 and had a similar problem with the faulty USB port connector, so I guess this issue can be a manufacturing problem. Here's a small clip from photo taken from this site (small enough to be fair use and not copyright violation...). The article is titled "great deal on a good router asus tm 1900". The port receptacle can be replaced but it can take more work than expected, as this gentleman discovered!
View attachment 13696

Or first bend connectors a little bit better to left side and straighten them with a small screw driver and put in gently an adapter cable with 20cm cable which you let pluged in permanently then.

 

[Lord Lovaduck]

Or first bend connectors a little bit better to left side and straighten them with a small screw driver and put in gently an adapter cable with 20cm cable which you let pluged in permanently then.

Well, Grisu, what you suggest is pretty much what I did (described in my final resolution, or better said, final "by-pass" post). I simply straightened this poor thing with a paper clip and tweezers and semi-permanently plugged a USB thumb drive with swap, and EXT2 formatted space for Entware. In my case the connectors where bent 180 degrees and flattened. Not good at all.... I will eventually replace the whole thing as I am a perfectionist .
BTW, your screen name (Grisu) is the name of a very old disco club here where I live.... Been there a couple times!