Strange 5Ghz problem with RT-AX86U

[Groslol]

Hi everyone,

I hope you're doing well. I have a question, where I can't find the exact same problem as myself on the forum. I recently bought a RT-AX86U which was marvelous. But the past weekend, my girlfriend forgot to turn off the YouTube app on a Xiaomi TV Box, and YouTube (With automatic next video) didn't shutdown, so from Thursday 10 PM until Sunday 5PM (We wasn't at home during this period) YouTube didn't stop playing videos. When we return home, we both experienced WiFi problems, with all of our equipments, so I checked the router and see that the RAM was between 92 and 99% (Usually always between 45-55%) so I thought the RAM usage was the reason (Forgot to check the temperature before the reboot ...). I rebooted the router, everything seems to be ok until 3-4 hours. So I tried to do a factory reset, and even after that, the problem still remain ... So I admitted that the 5Ghz chip burned during the weekend ... As the 2.4Ghz is perfectly ok. I've done a lot of testing, with speedtest and ping tester and the results are here -> At 2 meters from the router without any wall ping can jump from 20 to 900 ms ... Everything is ok with the 2.4Ghz When I test ping directly from the router, no jump appears, so it's not my ISP. The jitter is pretty bad too (Previously between 0 and 10, now between 5 and 200) and I always have packet loss inside Speedtest, which I never experienced before the "YouTube" weekend ... My router settings didn't move either, I didn't restore them after the router factory reset in order to have a clean factory reset, so I manually reentered them. So, now the question:

Do you think my router have a factory default/problem accelerated by the YouTube weekend (Router received on 09/02/21), problem started on 21/02/21. Should I ask ASUS for an exchange?

Thank you very much for your interest Feel free to ask me logs or details, I can do more tests and provide them to you

P.S.: I didn't experienced disconnections, just a very very poor reliability on 5Ghz which I never experienced since the first day (I've checked the router every day, with multiple speedtests everyday too sinc I got it)

P.S.2: I'am on Merlin since day one, latest version (386.1_2), have a separate 2.4Ghz from 5Ghz, 2.4Ghz is on channel 6, 5Ghz on 36, Universal Beamforming disabled. All of these parameters was set during the first usage week, and absolutely no problem before the YouTube weekend

 

[OzarkEdge]

Do you think my router have a factory default/problem accelerated by the YouTube weekend (Router received on 09/02/21), problem started on 21/02/21. Should I ask ASUS for an exchange?

It feels like the router failed the YouTube stress test... which might be a good thing... better now than later.

If you have installed stock Asuswrt firmware, reset it to factory defaults, configured from scratch (try a different 5.0 channel) and still no joy, I would try to exchange it as DOA or else get an RMA from Asus.

OE

 

[Groslol]

It feels like the router failed the YouTube stress test... which might be a good thing... better now than later.

If you have installed stock Asuswrt firmware, reset it to factory defaults, configured from scratch (try a different 5.0 channel) and still no joy, I would try to exchange it as DOA or else get an RMA from Asus.

OE

Sh** I’m so saaaaad, I’ve tried to check channel. I tried another factory reset with channel 40, it seems worse than previously (Channel 36 is the most optimized, as I’m the only one at 36 + 80/160Mhz). I will contact Asus today in order to have an exchange/repair on it! In order to be safe, I didn’t miuse the router? We’re ok to say that a router have to handle the YouTube stress test? As I will probably put a NAS for torrent sharing, if « high » bandwidth usage broke it every time I have to change it for another brand :/

In any case thank you very much for your answer

If anyone has another point of view, I’ll take it! (Maybe @L&LD ?)

 

[L&LD]

@Groslol, I can't add too much to what @OzarkEdge has already said.

You may want to try the following, in the order shown, but don't miss the return/exchange window for the router if it continues showing abnormalities.

• Flash RMerlin RT-AX86U_386.2_alpha1-gc52b410e89 (yes, Alpha, but it is that good).
• [Wireless] ASUS router Hard Factory Reset | Official Support | ASUS Global
• Fully Reset Router and Network
• Flash RMerlin RT-AX86U_386.2_alpha1-gc52b410e89 again.
• Best Practice Update/Setup Router/AiMesh Node(s) 2021

If you can replicate your issues, a return/exchange would seem indicated without further (new) information.

The takeaway from the above is that fully resetting the router (even when 'brand new') and fully 'sanitizing' the network (particularly when moving from an AC to an AX class router) is needed to ensure that the issues being faced are not from user/configuration errors.

Do not 'blindly' put in old settings/options or scripts that worked on an old router (manually, or via restoring a saved backup config file).

To test properly, all the suggestions above should be followed and applied, all, 'in one go'. And not randomly picked/selected and then concluding they did not affect the outcome. As I have previously stated, changing options and reverting them to their 'defaults' has proven many times to not be equivalent to not changing those options at all.

 

[MarkyPancake]

I can't see how continuously streaming back-to-back YouTube videos would fry a router, especially as they were playing one at a time in your scenario.

I've regularly spent hours watching YouTube, Netflix and Disney+, listening to Spotify and SoundCloud, and online gaming, all back-to-back, whilst other people in the house are using the same services at the same time and it hasn't had any adverse effect on my now old 2017 AC86U.

 

[Groslol]

@Groslol, I can't add too much to what @OzarkEdge has already said.

You may want to try the following, in the order shown, but don't miss the return/exchange window for the router if it continues showing abnormalities.

• Flash RMerlin RT-AX86U_386.2_alpha1-gc52b410e89 (yes, Alpha, but it is that good).
• [Wireless] ASUS router Hard Factory Reset | Official Support | ASUS Global
• Fully Reset Router and Network
• Flash RMerlin RT-AX86U_386.2_alpha1-gc52b410e89 again.
• Best Practice Update/Setup Router/AiMesh Node(s) 2021

If you can replicate your issues, a return/exchange would seem indicated without further (new) information.

The takeaway from the above is that fully resetting the router (even when 'brand new') and fully 'sanitizing' the network (particularly when moving from an AC to an AX class router) is needed to ensure that the issues being faced are not from user/configuration errors.

Do not 'blindly' put in old settings/options or scripts that worked on an old router (manually, or via restoring a saved backup config file).

To test properly, all the suggestions above should be followed and applied, all, 'in one go'. And not randomly picked/selected and then concluding they did not affect the outcome. As I have previously stated, changing options and reverting them to their 'defaults' has proven many times to not be equivalent to not changing those options at all.

Hi L&LD,

First, thank you very much for your time, and for the precise answer, as a dev it’s very appreciated to have such detailled answer for question like this. So thank you very much!
I will try all of these as soon as I’m alone in the house (If not ma’am will beat my butt up haha, she prefer unstability instead of nothing ^^’) as this is my first ASUS router I don’t have previous configuration (only my ISP router before). I didn’t touch much in it at the moment, only put it in router mode and adjust some wifi settings, not much more. I will follow all the steps in the good order so, thanks for the tips. Do you ahave any changelog for the alpha version (just curious ) or there is no changelog for alpha? Only commit messages?

Another time, a big thank you for this answer and your time

 

[Groslol]

I can't see how continuously streaming back-to-back YouTube videos would fry a router, especially as they were playing one at a time in your scenario.

I've regularly spent hours watching YouTube, Netflix and Disney+, listening to Spotify and SoundCloud, and online gaming, all back-to-back, whilst other people in the house are using the same services at the same time and it hasn't had any adverse effect on my now old 2017 AC86U.

Hey!

To be honest I don’t see too… but that’s the only thing strange that have veen done during the week end, and just after that 100% ram usage + WiFi problems :/ So I think the first « high usage » may have broken the chip (it probably have a factory defect, triggered by the first « high usage ») I know that all the electronics things can be broken on arrival, shirt happens ^^ So I will try the L&LD things and see if it magically repairs the router, but I’m a little bit pessimist

 

[L&LD]

If you download the zipped file for the router you're interested in, there will be a changelog like I've included below (and for previous firmware too).

Test builds - OneDrive (live.com)

Asuswrt-Merlin 386/NG Changelog
===============================

386.2 (xx-xxx-2021)
- NEW: Added support for the GT-AX11000. Note that VPNFusion, as
well as the ROG-specific features such as the custom UI
are not supported.
- NEW: Added jittertimer-rngd daemon to HND routers. This will
ensure sufficient entropy is generated early on at
boot time, reducing boot stalls caused by insufficient
entropy for the kernel's random number generator,
and also generally improves security related to
crypto operations by the router.
- UPDATED: Openssl to 1.1.1j.
- FIXED: Router could get stuck at boot time after the user
migrated from stock firmware, or just erased his
JFFS partition, requiring a factory default reset.
- FIXED: ATM checkbox could not be enabled on QOS page.

 

[Groslol]

Dear L&LD,

First, sorry for the late answer. I've waited to be alone in order to not bother anyone in the house ^^' I've done everything you mentioned in your previous post but still get ping problems ... It seems to be really random, I've tried unpluging every devices connected on my Router, one by one, but can't make this strange ping behavior stopped, so, if it's not from one of my devices, (let admit it's not from the router) from what it can come from ... As an attachment, you can see my ping problem, it looks like an heartbeat, so spike are pretty constant, with one major peak, and a small one. As I previously said, it is totally random, sometimes I have a perfect connection with a constant ping (Between 23 and 24, so almost no jitter) and sometimes the "Heartbeat" appear... And when it happen, it happen on all my WiFi devices

As you can see, Sometimes, perfect ping curve, and 4 hours later, the ping problem. I know it's not from the site I use as a manual ping give me same results, although, another site give me same results

Thank you very much in advance for all the help

 

[Groslol]

Hey Everyone,

For the next person that will encouter the same issue: I've never managed to really find what cause that problem but have some guess:

- Problem due to radar scanning the area (Which is my top #1 as the problem is sequential when it happens)
- Channel congestion (Less chances for this one, but not completely impossible)

Cheers!