WARNING - router is in manufacturing mode, and can behave unexpectedly (did you mess with your bootloader?)

[jamesp10]

I recently upgraded to Merlin for my RT-AC86U. Immediately after doing so I get this message mentioned previously, every 30seconds:
WARNING - router is in manufacturing mode, and can behave unexpectedly (did you mess with your bootloader?)

I have tried the Nvram commands as discussed in a very old thread with reboot that have been referred to previously but it does not stop the message, either before or after the reboot. It reports ATEMODE being 1 after reboot always, although after running the commands before reboot it does report that as 0 after running the commands to reset it to 0.
Has anyone experienced the same problem after upgrading to merlin?

Do I need to factory reset and start from scratch? (and will this then happen again anyway?)

Thanks

 

[atkinsom]

When in doubt factory reset. That's always the way to go and get to a base level.

 

[Analog-1]

Others have had the issue and it was defective hardware.

 

[jamesp10]

For what its worth I did the factory reset. Merlin remained on the router after doing so which was what I expected. Unfortunately the message still continues
I did not have this message prior to switching to Merlin, so while I can't discount faulty hardware that doesn't seem to make any sense (to me) in this case.
For what its worth however the router is far more functional with Merlin than ASUS' pathetic excuse for firmware, even if it means I now get an annoying log message.
So many bugs that were never patched despite years passing, but fixed as soon as I switched to Merlin. Still interested if anyone ends up finding a solution of course.
Its a real shame because hardware wise it is an excellent router with features otherwise extremely rare.

 

[bennor]

For what its worth I did the factory reset. Merlin remained on the router after doing so which was what I expected.

Try, if you haven't done so already, flashing stock ASus firmware back to the router (and do another hard factory reset after stock flash) and see if the issue persists.

 

[eibgrad]

^^^ In fact, try several, old and new, of the OEM firmware.