What's new

AC88U - 2.4G Network Not Working

  • SNBForums Code of Conduct

    SNBForums is a community for everyone, no matter what their level of experience.

    Please be tolerant and patient of others, especially newcomers. We are all here to share and learn!

    The rules are simple: Be patient, be nice, be helpful or be gone!

Steve ORourke

Occasional Visitor
Hi All,
First post here, which I guess is a good thing, means I haven't had any issues up until now.
Ive been running a AC88U for the last 6 weeks. On FW - 3.0.0.4.380_1354..Not a single issue, router ran flawlessly.

In the last 2 days. my 2.4ghz network no longer has any stability. As of right now, I cant even connect to it.
In the last 2 hours, I was able to connect to it. But the internet on 2.4g was spotty at best. Would work for 10 mins, then drop, then maybe come back. Very sporadic.

The 5g network, flawless. Wired to the router, no problem. only 2.4g network has become pretty much unusable.

Ive tried reverting back to .858 firmware - No Worky
Let it upgrade again to .1354 firware - No Worky

I have noticed and not sure if anyone else has noticed, that this router runs very hot. So much so, I had to put a laptop cooler pad under it to cool it down.

Ive uploaded my most recent syslog file for anyone that knows more about these then I do.

Im at my wits end and just want my router working the way the 300 dollars says it should.

I have attempted to contact support at ASUS, and got back from them. Do a hard reset. Well thanks support. BTW, Ive done the hard reset on the router after each FW change...

Any help would be much appreciated.
 

Attachments

  • syslog.txt
    32.5 KB · Views: 508
Last edited:
My AC-3100 took a dive sometime between last night and this morning. Not entirely sure why but it's definitely a paperweight. I hope you are not having similar issues. I got mine in January.
 
I picked mine up on Feb 5 2016...The 5G network is fine, wired is fine. My 2.4 is what is not working at this moment. Completely unstable. And have no clue what is causing the issue.
 
So i switched to Merlins 380.57 load, and couldn't connect to the 2.4g network at all. Even with it in OPEN status..So I have now switched over to .1681 fw. I am able to connect with it in OPEN (security) however the internet is on the 2.4g is completely unstable. Lasts for approx 8-10 minutes then drops for a few minutes, then sometimes picks back up ., sometimes it doesnt. The 5g network, while all this is happening has no issues at all. Internet works great, connectivity works great.....

Any thoughts from forum?
 
Ive had it with this router. Ive emailed ASUS and am requesting a new router in return for this 1. 6 Weeks, 300 dollars. For that price, this thing should last a lot longer. Ive spent far less on devices and had them last years.. And are still in good working order.
 
After each FW upgrade - downgrade - i did a hard reset. to bring it to factory defaults.
And then touched nothing. I left as is, with Open Security. Connection is sketchy at best on 2.4g network.

Then i went thru and tried different things, Turned off beam forming, changed rts threshold, changed bandwidth, changed channel, set to legacy only, n only. enabled security. disabled it. turned off QOS, changed outlets. Shut down unplugged for 30 seconds. Tried 380.57 , .858. 1354 , 1681. Went thru all the same steps.

The 5g network is great. 2.4 unusable. When I have been able to connect to it in the rare occasion, the internet on 2.4 only drops away every few minutes. While 5g and wired work perfectly.

Thanks for the Link though, that is some useful advice there.
 
You may simply have a defective router. It wouldn't be a bad idea to try a new one. Many are extremely happy with theirs.
 
Ive been extremely happy with mine right up to 4 days ago. Its been amazingly fast.

I honestly think this unit over heated some how.

When I had Merlin on it, the temps were the following 2.4 - 106F , 5g - 115 F, CPU - 170 F. Now keep in mind this is with a laptop cooler pad sitting under it blowing cool air on it, and i dont know how accurate the readings are from the software in Merlin, but given his work , Ill assume they are pretty accurate. Prior to that, it was hot to the touch, as in touching the stove top burner while it is on medium. The device sits in my home office in an air conditioned environment. Im 5 feet away from it as well. Its not like Im a gamer, or doing anything all that intensive with the device. Its basically providing wifi for my wife and I...

Im going to submit an RMA and let ASUS deal with it. It ran great for 6 weeks. then nothing..
 
With it running that hot, I am convinced it is a hardware issue at fault.
 
Make sure it's not something in your environment. The 2.4 GHz band is overloaded with interference sources, as a lot of home devices share the same band. Microwave ovens also emit EMR within that frequency range. Could be something as odd as your neighbour next door setting up a baby monitor that uses the 2.4 GHz band. Or someone nearby decided to jack off his wifi output to 1W because he needed to be able to get wifi while sitting on the loo, and didn't care about the interference he was generating.
 
Make sure it's not something in your environment. The 2.4 GHz band is overloaded with interference sources, as a lot of home devices share the same band. Microwave ovens also emit EMR within that frequency range. Could be something as odd as your neighbour next door setting up a baby monitor that uses the 2.4 GHz band. Or someone nearby decided to jack off his wifi output to 1W because he needed to be able to get wifi while sitting on the loo, and didn't care about the interference he was generating.

Yeah, I thought of all that. I setup a WIFI "SNIFFER" to see what wifi signals are around me. Nothing showing all that powerful.
I dont think its a baby monitor. And I would suspect that I would see a really hot signal if someone jacked up their wifi power some ridiculous amount.

yet on top of that, I am literally sitting next to the router when attempting to connect. So the strongest signal is my router. Not saying something isn't interfering, but it better be a telescope array to do what my router was exhibiting. LOL..

Also another note - I set back up my R6300 Netgear. Guess what, 2.4 works like a charm..no issues..
I got the RMA and Ill be sending this back and hopefully getting another one from ASUS. I really like the product, WHEN it works as advertised.

@ngerasimatos - Yeah, my readings are about the same while it is on the laptop cooler, significantly hotter when not on the cooler. So much so, its hot to the touch. I would keep yours on the cooler if your figures are in the same range as mine are on the cooler. I would guess you put it on their because you noticed it being excessively hot?
 
Well, here is the latest update. The old netgear was working fine for a bit and then boom. Down goes NETGEAR. 2.4g network crapped out. So back to trouble shooting.

I decided to move the netgear to a different room and run a long ethernet cable to my modem. Guess what, 2.4g worked like a champ. Connected immediately. So I took the AC88U out of the box, brought it over to that room and connected it up same fashion. Guess what, Connected immediately. Actually Im sending this note on the 2.4g network. Granted Ive only been up for a short amount of time. But this is more than I have gotten in the last few days.

So I broke out the volt meter. I checked the voltage in the room that I had the router originally. 110 on the outlets, some at 109. I checked the outlets in the room it is currently setup in, 117 or so. Another note, the router is running cooler on its own. I also noticed when I booted up the netgear router it got hot quickly.

So Im wondering if all of my issues are with the power in the room where my office is..
 
Well, here is the latest update. The old netgear was working fine for a bit and then boom. Down goes NETGEAR. 2.4g network crapped out. So back to trouble shooting.

I decided to move the netgear to a different room and run a long ethernet cable to my modem. Guess what, 2.4g worked like a champ. Connected immediately. So I took the AC88U out of the box, brought it over to that room and connected it up same fashion. Guess what, Connected immediately. Actually Im sending this note on the 2.4g network. Granted Ive only been up for a short amount of time. But this is more than I have gotten in the last few days.

So I broke out the volt meter. I checked the voltage in the room that I had the router originally. 110 on the outlets, some at 109. I checked the outlets in the room it is currently setup in, 117 or so. Another note, the router is running cooler on its own. I also noticed when I booted up the netgear router it got hot quickly.

So Im wondering if all of my issues are with the power in the room where my office is..

This is one reason why I recommend to my customers to always run their network/NAS hardware off an UPS.

https://www.cyberpowersystems.com/products/ups/desktop/cp850avrlcd
 
This is one reason why I recommend to my customers to always run their network/NAS hardware off an UPS.

https://www.cyberpowersystems.com/products/ups/desktop/cp850avrlcd


Agreed,and I had it plugged into a ups. And I had 117 there. But at the wall I had 109. Im not an electrician, but something was causing that router to run really hot. Whether there is something that suddenly decided to interfere with the router or what, but moving the router to another room, has it working like the 300 dollar router it is.

After almost an 60 minutes of up time, the router feels as cool as if i just turned it on out of the box. And that is with no laptop cooler pad under it. Something was causing the router to work over time in that office room. And not just that one, the netgear heated up with almost 15 minutes of plugging it in. So not sure what is going there, but Im happy everything is working the way it should, now just need to get my office computer fed with some internet and what not..

But if anyone is having an issue, do yourself a favor, check your power at your wall and your ups. Not saying it is the problem but its an easy check. Just wish I did this a few days ago..
 
Curious what UPS you are using?
 
I remember one user who resolved his RT-N66U issues by replacing the old power bar he was using with a brand new one.
 
I'm no electrical engineer but I dabble and that still seems off to me. The AC88U spec page rates the device from 110 to 240V at 50-60hz. Your volts were in spec and the supplied transformer should be able to properly power the device at 110 volts. Unless that room isn't at 50-60hz I'd throw that issue back on ASUS. The router may be fine but the supplied transformer might be wonky. You'd need an oscilloscope to test the frequency of your wall power.
 

Latest threads

Sign Up For SNBForums Daily Digest

Get an update of what's new every day delivered to your mailbox. Sign up here!
Top