ASUS RT-AC68U CPU 100% with video files on USB disk

[Cupax]

Hello.

I've got an ASUS RT-AC68U (Merlin 384.7_2) with a 6GB disk (NTFS) hooked over USB3 port.
The disk is mounted and shared and I can access it with a PC over home network.
I can browse all the shares normally as long as they don't include any video files.
If I try to open a shared folder, with a video file inside, both CPU on the router would rise to 100% and stay there forever.

I've already tried to use a swap file to increase the RAM but it didn't fix the problem.

Any ideas?

 

[Stardust]

Hello.

I don't know if it helps you, but you might try upgrading to Merlin 384.8 first and try again.
I just did and i also have AC-68U like you. Just a thought...

 

[bbunge]

4 TB is the largest drive your router will support. Reformat to two partitions of 3 TB each. Set the USB 3 port to use USB 2.

Edit: corrected to TB vs. GB.

Sent from my SM-T380 using Tapatalk

 

[dave14305]

Are we talking of Terabytes instead of Gigabytes?

 

[Cupax]

Yes, 6TB, my typo.
Today I updated to FW 384.8, no difference.
I did some tests:
- the problem exists with MKV video files, H264 (maybe also H265?)
- if there is only one file in the folder (or maybe 2, 3) I can still access it and run it. On play the router would peak at 100% for about 20-30 seconds but at the end it would play the file and the CPU would drop at about 5%. Even with 15GB 4K movie.
- if there are lots of MKV files in one folder the CPU just hangs at 100% forever.

I guess the router is doing some kind of indexing and has troubles decoding MKV files? Or maybe just troubles processing files that big?

I also own a Linksys WRT3200ACM and the same 6TB drive on it just flies, no troubles at all (if we don't consider router's WiFi troubles, but that's a different story).

 

[Cupax]

Ohh... right. It supports partitions up to 4TB on NTFS. I'll try to make two 3TB partitions and see.
https://event.asus.com/2009/networks/disksupport/

 

[ColinTaylor]

Ohh... right. It supports partitions up to 4TB on NTFS. I'll try to make two 3TB partitions and see.
https://event.asus.com/2009/networks/disksupport/

It would be worth trying that but I doubt that is your problem. Simply because, despite what that pages says, you have already proved that the router supports a partition size of 6GB 6TB. Moreover that page also says that the maximum NTFS file size is 8GB but you have stated that you can play a 15GB movie. I think the supposed limits are more of a "safe minimum" given the router's limited RAM and CPU rather than an absolute maximum (other than for FAT).

I guess the router is doing some kind of indexing and has troubles decoding MKV files?

I suspect it's more a case of how Windows tries to pre-scan files in destination directories, together with how Samba/NTFS is implemented on the router.

If you don't have any luck with the smaller partition sizes you could try using ext4 instead of NTFS. Linux filesystems tend to play nicer with Samba.

 

[Cupax]

Colin, there's been a mixup in units: when I'm talking about partitions I mean TB, when I'm talking about files I mean GB.
Anyway, yesterday I formatted the 6TB disk with two 3TB NTFS partitions. Even this way, the router has some troubles with them. Scanning the freshly formatted and completely empty drive it still reports errors, while Win10 doesn't. When I try to write on the disk (hooked up to the router) from LAN, Win10 is reporting all kinds of strange errors - ex. "You don't have permissions to create a folder", but then I press F5 and the folder was actually created.

I believe the router has troubles using NTFS partitions. I could try with ext4 but I have no knowledge of Linux.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Colin, there's been a mixup in units: when I'm talking about partitions I mean TB, when I'm talking about files I mean GB.

Yeah, sorry that's what I meant as well. (I've correct my previous post)

 

[dfranco]

4 TB is the largest drive your router will support. Reformat to two partitions of 3 TB each. Set the USB 3 port to use USB 2.

Edit: corrected to TB vs. GB.

Sent from my SM-T380 using Tapatalk

I have the RT-AC88U running 384.8 with a Seagate expansion 8TB HD connected to the USB 3.0 port. After tons of trial and error, I finally got the HD mapped on my PC, Mac, and Fire TV. The only issue I am having is it shows only 1.27TB available on any of the 3 devices. However, on Merlin, it recognizes the full 7.4TB. Any suggestions?

 

[bbunge]

I have the RT-AC88U running 384.8 with a Seagate expansion 8TB HD connected to the USB 3.0 port. After tons of trial and error, I finally got the HD mapped on my PC, Mac, and Fire TV. The only issue I am having is it shows only 1.27TB available on any of the 3 devices. However, on Merlin, it recognizes the full 7.4TB. Any suggestions?

4 TB is the largest drive partition supported on your Asus router!

See https://event.asus.com/2009/networks/disksupport/

Partition your 8 TB drive into 2 - 4 TB partitions and it might work. Also use USB2 as USB3 is unreliable. Search this forum... you will see what I say is right!

 

[ColinTaylor]

Search this forum... you will see what I say is right!

If you search the forum you will see that there are plenty of people successfully using disk partitions larger than 4TB. For example:
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/i...-shared-with-samba-with-asuswrt-merlin.46049/
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/ac5300-migrated-to-384.44230/#post-382118

Is it officially supported? - No.
Does it work? - Maybe. The issue seems more to do with whether the USB hub is compatible rather than the size of the drive.

 

[Cupax]

Yesterday I tried to format the drive with ext4. It did work slightly better, faster, I managed to upload some movies but very soon the router got stuck on 100% CPU again.
Arrrrrgh... I give up. ASUS routers are BAD for NAS.
I'll buy a dedicated home NAS like Synology.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Yesterday I tried to format the drive with ext4. It did work slightly better, faster, I managed to upload some movies but very soon the router got stuck on 100% CPU again.

If you're just using the router as a file server and not using DLNA then make sure the Media Server is turned off otherwise you can experience this problem.

Arrrrrgh... I give up. ASUS routers are BAD for NAS.
I'll buy a dedicated home NAS like Synology.

Indeed.