5GHZ network not turning on RT-AC87U

[Deihmos]

I upgraded the firmware to 3.0.0.4.378.9460 now today the 5ghz network has stopped working completely. The light isn't turning on for the router and the setting page has channel as either auto or 0. I have reset the router several times and downgraded the firmware but 5GHZ is still not coming on.

Is there anything else I can do?

 

[Deihmos]

Asus warranty support is ridiculous. Return the router for repair. It takes 3 to 6 weeks. No advance replacement.


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[RMerlin]

Turn the router off completely, unplug the power cord, and turn it back on while unplugged to drain any left over power.

Plug it back again, and see if it helps.

 

[Deihmos]

I already did that several times. It just wouldn't turn on.

 

[hggomes]

Nothing new here, Quantenna chip inside...

Probably you didn't noticed but your LAN1 port is not working also.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac87u-5ghz-band-r-i-p.23183/

You should avoid RT-AC87U like plague, i've seen almost a duzen of them now failing with the exact same issue.

 

[RMerlin]

I already did that several times.

Then it's a hardware issue, and you'll have to return it indeed.

Advanced replacements seem to only be available in some countries, but not all of them unfortunately.

 

[Deihmos]

Nothing new here, Quantenna...

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac87u-5ghz-band-r-i-p.23183/

You should avoind RT-AC87U like plague, i've seen almost a duzen of them now failing with the exact same issue.

That is the exact same problem. I just got this router a little over a month ago. I've had my dlink 5ghz router for years without any issue. This is very disappointing.

 

[hggomes]

Read again #5, i've edit it. Check LAN1 port.

You should blame Quantenna, not ASUS. As you can see the router works perfectly fine beside the Quantenna Radio (5GHZ) and the LAN1 port (Quantenna Bridge Port), i used my RT-AC87U some months after this happened, i have a new one now but i know perfectly this is just like a bomb clock, anytime i can see this happening once again.

 

[Deihmos]

Read again #5, i've edit it. Check LAN1 port.

Lan 1 port isn't working either. This router is a piece of shirt.

 

[hggomes]

I wouldn't qualified it like that if the Quantenna chip wasn't there, but it's not the case. Specially for the time it takes to simply boot the router, it's quite painful...

Ask a refund and buy RT-AC68U. You can also buy RT-AC3100, RT-AC3200, RT-AC88U, RT-AC5300 but they are quite expensive, not worth it IMO.

 

[Deihmos]

I wouldn't qualified it like that if the Quantenna chip wasn't there, but it's not the case. Specially for the time it takes to simply boot the router, quite painful...

Ask a refund and buy RT-AC68U. You can also buy RT-AC3100, RT-AC3200, RT-AC88U, RT-AC5300 but they are quite expensive, not worth it IMO.

It is too late. I bought it in November of last year.

 

[hggomes]

Bad luck then, you will need to wait 1 month (maximum) if you are in Europe, or you can ask a refund.

 

[ozzed]

How long would it take before this issue occurs? I bought mine a little over a week ago and so far I haven't had any issues. I have 7 5GHZ devices and it just seems to handle everything I throw at it. Though I have not connected anything to LAN-1 as I immagine the extra wiring would create overhead that could hurt performance, and heat up the 5GHZ-chip unnecessarily. Another thing worth mentioning is that I keep my router vertical and I've never seen temps over 58c on the 5GHz-chip, though it's winter now so that might change in the summer.

But there's USB-ports.. I immagine any heat-issues could be solved by plugging in a USB-fan to one of the ports and aim it at the ventilation holes in the back to encourage extra airflow.

And Asus does give a 3-year warranty.. I doubt they'd be doing that if all Quantenna-chipsets would fail after such short time. I'd be a bad business decision on their part. Lots of administration with returns, bad PR, etc etc.

 

[hggomes]

Theres no answer for that, no one knows. It can fail today, tomorrow, next week, month, year...

Unfortunatelly it's pure reality, my previous RT-AC87U failed and the 5GHZ band was not even turned on 99% of the time, so all those cares about the 5GHZ/LAN1 will not do any difference, it will fail when it has to fail.

PS: Talking about the devil, another RT-AC87U failed today with the same issue "here". (friend)

 

[ozzed]

Theres no answer for that, no one knows. It can fail today, tomorrow, next week, month, year...

Unfortunatelly it's pure reality, my previous RT-AC87U failed and 5GHZ band was not even turned on 99% of the time, so all those cares about the 5GHZ/LAN1 will not do any difference, it will fail when it has to fail.

PS: Talking about the devil, another RT-AC87U failed today with the same issue "here".

There is as far as I know no return rate data on the RT-AC87U, so it's hard to say. According to some, all devices are crap and you shouldn't risk buying one, and according to others, failure rate is low but the voices of the ones with failed devices are loud.. So I don't know.. One can always hope that the apparent hardware failures is due to poorly written drivers that blackouts the chip, and that they will improve the drivers in the future.

 

[hggomes]

Good luck then, the router is almost 2 years now on the market, you really think it's a driver problem when the HW fails?

Connect a serial port cable on it after it fail and i bet you will be surprised with the output.

 

[ozzed]

Good luck then, the router is almost 2 years now, you really think it's a driver problem when the HW fails?

Connect a serial port cable on it after it fail and i bet you will be surprised.

I didn't say that it's definitely the case, but if scrambled dara can brick devices, why not individual chips.

And like you said yourself, the router has been on the market for almost two years, if return rates were bad enough Asus would have either stopped selling it or bumped the hardware version with a more trusty chipmaker.. But it remains to be seen. All I'm saying is there's a lot pointing to that it's a limited issue. Asus has a 3 yeat warranty on it instead of the standard 1 year and so forth..

In my opinion it's a bigger problem that the 5GHZ radio is connected with GMII which is 1000Mbit/s, and they claim the Wuireless can handle 1733Mbit/s.. Plus the LAN-1 port is 1Gbit/s.. so.. If the LAN-1 is fully saturated we will basically not get any bandwidth for the 5Ghz radio if I'm correct.. It's off topic, But I wanted to point it out as it certainly isn't a flawless design even if the 5GHz-radio would have been rock solid.

 

[hggomes]

On my RMA report was this: "Hardware failure / no repair. Replacement new."

 

[Deihmos]

On my RMA report was this: "Hardware failure / no repair. Replacement new."

The replacement has the same chip? They should upgrade the model if it is the same chip. The model has since been discontinued. Asus warranty is very poor imo. I have to pay for shipping.

 

[hggomes]

Maybe you didn't noticed but RT-AC87U was "replaced" by RT-AC88U model now (Broadcom 2.4/5GHZ) no more Quantenna inside, also look at other companys like Netgear R7500 they released R7500V2 also without Quantenna inside, guess why? Pure coincidence? Don't think so...

That's pure theory, reality is a bit different. Can you imagine the implication of ASUS recognizing the "issue" the way you described? What about all the users with it? Replacements. Money involved. etc etc. You must think this way, it's a business.

People on IT market knows about it, all stores, resellers, suppliers know it, based on the high RMA rate, at least in my country it's not new, if you don't have that knownledge of it it's a good sign, it means the RT-AC87U's are different and don't fail in there, even i doubt it.

1733mbit wireless, not wired / cable. There's a configuration done (similar to QoS) on the Quantenna OS to deal with those cases.