RT-N66U overheating and terrible WAN-LAN throughput

[ChilliBYTE]

Hi,

My RT-N66U has started to show it's age. The unit is starting to overheat with avg temps between 60-65 deg C. The wireless (low bandwidth stuff) seems to be ok, but as soon as I start to stream a movie, or the wireless camera is switched on, the unit seems to really overheat and shuts down and then restarts. Sometimes it gets stuck in a boot loop and I have to switch it off for 30 mins and then only will it start up.

In December, I was on the latest Merlin fw and have kept up since, but the problem persists.

The unit is out of warranty now also.

I had a black out and I think that when the power came back on there was a surge as the power supply had died. I am not sure if that would have caused a surge inside the device as well and possibly damaged the hardware.

I read in these forums that the voltage regulator can get damaged, I am not sure how I could check this.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[mstombs]

There are multiple internal voltage regulators some are FR9888, and they are not easy to replace - but if any fail I doubt it would work at all - mine had clearly "let the magic smoke out". The Asus RT-N16 has internal electrolytic capacitors that fail - these have a finite lifetime which shortens with temperature.

Are you using a genuine Asus 19V DC PSU? I recommend wall mounting so you get good air flow over the big heat sink.

 

[antdes45]

Can you try a fan blowing on the rear vents?

The included power supply is junk. You'll find many failure reports on the net. Mine started turning off randomly and making weird noises. I switched to an Asus EEE 19V power supply which runs a lot cooler and should last a lot longer.