GT-AXE16000 Owner's Thread

[AnClar]

Dell habitually uses BIOS lockdowns to cover their inability or unwillingness to address design and engineering problems and shortcomings. Another glaring example of this is in their current flagship gaming desktop, the Aurora R13. They have disabled XMP in the BIOS because either the mobo or the bad thermals can’t handle it, so it is impossible to overclock the DDR5 system RAM. RAM rated at 4800 is downclocked to 4400 at best. Despite many users howling at Dell in the support forums, they have not budged. They are also not providing any user available FW updates on their new high-end OLED monitors despite serious bugs.

All this rant to say that if this is, in fact, a BIOS problem, do not hold your breath waiting for Dell to fix it, or even address it. Their design and support practices are abysmal and not likely to get any better.

 

[L&LD]

@AnClar, my post (link below) wasn't to praise Dell, even though some took that road to do so.

GT-AXE16000 Owner's Thread

Got my router up and running, however the 6GHz band is only visible to my computers running the 22.45.1.1 driver. I 22.140.0.3 works fine for me running Windows 11: Go to Device Manager, edit the Advanced settings for your NIC, and make sure Ultra High Band is set to Enabled.

www.snbforums.com

 

[erick_e]

Wanted to give a quick update to those who were following my issue. After 35 message exchanges with Dell they finally escalated the issue with my Precision 7560 (AX210) to their product engineering team. They remain firm that my AX211 adapter in my XPS 9520 does not have 6GHz capability because their specifications do not list 6GHz capabilities. See below.

I also found this thread Dell XPS 15 9520 is 15 to 35 percent faster than XPS 15 9510, lacks Wi-Fi 6E support despite coming with an Intel AX211 - NotebookCheck.net News which says Dell confirmed that XPS 9520 cannot utilize Wi-Fi 6E.

My Precision 7560 (AX210) was escalated because Dell's specifications do show 6GHz support, but it was frustrating.

I also opened cases with Asus as previously recommended. Asus actually understood my issue and opened a support ticket to inquire their resources.

And, of course I asked on Intel's support forum, and was told they would look into it as well. Shortly after I posted my issue, another member posted he has the exact same issue with his XPS 9520 (AX211).

I'm not sure this is a BIOS whitelist issue, as these two adapters are factory installed. It honestly sounds like a software driver issue, since the wireless card immediately recognizes the 6GHz network after reverting to the older driver. I don't even need to reboot before it sees the network.

I did do a registry comparison after updating from 22.45 to 22.150 and found the following changes, but am not sure if they alone have anything to do with my issue. Of course, there was a bunch of values listed but not shown below that changed as well.

Keys deleted:
HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0002\Ndi\Params\Is6GhzBandSupported
HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0002\Ndi\Params\Is6GhzBandSupported\enum
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0002\Ndi\Params\Is6GhzBandSupported
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0002\Ndi\Params\Is6GhzBandSupported\enum

Keys added:
HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0002\Ndi\Params\BgScanGlobalBlocking
HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0002\Ndi\Params\BgScanGlobalBlocking\enum
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0002\Ndi\Params\BgScanGlobalBlocking
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0002\Ndi\Params\BgScanGlobalBlocking\enum

I'll try not to bogart this thread and let others post their experience, but I'll update or answer as needed.

 

[Starrbuck]

Maybe move the troubles with the adapters to another thread?

ASUS Store has had the GT-AXE16000 in stock for a couple of days now.

 

[lishan89]

Has anyone manage to get wired backhaul to work with 10gbps yet? I have an rt-ax89x and the GT-axe16000 and Even though I plugged cat 6 cable into the 10gig ports the uplink shows as 2.5gbps only. or is that a limitation of aimesh's backhaul

Update: See below #110

 

[McScruffy]

I made some changes after I noticed my Hue Sync box wasn't connecting and never could get it to reconnect, so I reverted back to the settings backup I had prior to the changes and the router never came back up. Started doing a green pulse with the big LED display with only the power button lit and after a minute or so the LED display goes bright white before the router reboots and stays in this cycle. This is the same as when I first got it.

I've attempted to factory default as well as use the firmware recovery tool 3 times to push a fresh version of the image and no luck getting it back online so far. When I first set it up, it took two attempts pushing the firmware via recovery tool before it finally stuck so I'm not too happy at the moment.

It's pretty messed up reverting to a good saved config breaks the device, about as counterintuitive as you could possibly get. Pretty annoyed and hoping I can eventually get it back up. If anyone has troubleshooting recommendations beyond what's listed above, I'm all ears.

 

[Killerbunbun22]

Has anyone manage to get wired backhaul to work with 10gbps yet? I have an rt-ax89x and the GT-axe16000 and Even though I plugged cat 6 cable into the 10gig ports the uplink shows as 2.5gbps only. or is that a limitation of aimesh's backhaul

Have it working in my case. Both with CAT7 direct from the 10G port on the axe16000 to the 10G port and via a SFP+ switch with DAC. note that there's a drop down for options there.

 

[Plak]

I have two axe16000 in my home all wired with 10 gig tp link switches with CAT 6A between them and I simply can't get 10 gig AI mesh to work with them. It only works via the 2.5gbps or 1gig ports.

When you use one of the 10 gig ports it simply goes into 10/100 mode. When you try to force the AI mesh to one of the 10 gig ports you get the same 10/100mbps speed notification. So there definitely is something wrong because a few months back I had the exact same switch setup and i was able to get 10 gig ai mesh with two AX89X routers just fine. I am not sure if this is a bug but I thought I'd bring this up as not many own two of these beasts. The router connects at 10 gig fine (i see my 10 gig green light on the switch). I even setup my 2nd router as main to test out to make sure both 10 gig and 2.5g ports work fine in case I find some issue with the router and replace it.

I am thinking of getting maybe a 3rd one to really be sure there is nothing wrong with the unit itself and return the bad one. It was hard enough getting these two so getting another will be tough in time. Maybe ill just reverse the routers to test out my main one to confirm it is a firmware issue and not hardware.

Besides that they work amazingly. The ai mesh roaming sensitivity really makes no difference. I kinda gave up and let the clients devices roam I guess. This router definitely needs a few rounds of firmware updates to sort out issues.
Side note the WTFast also is not free and integrated anymore like it was on my ax11000. You have to sign up for a trial. The desktop app totally sucks and doesn't even work, keeps spinning no matter how many reinstalls or reboots I did. I highly doubt it makes any difference anyway. I am already getting lower latency with this router compared to my ax11000 so that's a plus. The wifi performance is very impressive even with the 6ghz it has pretty decent range but not as good as 5ghz as expected.

 

[Plak]

After swapping the router roles I was able to confirm that in fact this router is unable to do 10gig aimesh with either 10gig port and only works with 2.5/1 gig ports. Hopefully it will get addressed soon because seeing 10/100 speed is really terrible on the aimesh (that is if it really is that speed). I even tried forcing one of the 10 gig ports and it still goes to the 10/100 speed. Anyhow I am happy both my routers are perfectly fine! There is definitely an issue with the software/firmware.

 

[lishan89]

After messing with the settings a bit and a restart of my ax89x, it is somehow working all of a sudden. I am using the

10gb rj45 connecter

on both
What I did:
1. go into switch control for the ax89x and change

10G base-T port link speed

to 10gbps. Do this crashed my router and I was not able to get back on the

http://192.168.0.XXX/Advanced_SwitchCtrl_Content.asp

page until i unplugged cable from the ax89x 10gb port and plugged it into a 1 gig switch port. the cable from the
2. I tried changing the

10G base-T interpacket gap

to 128 bit times with no luck
3. I tried turning on jumbo frame with no luck.
4. I reverted the setting back to their defaults
5. After a restart for the axe16000, and it was all of a sudden working correctly.

Side note I ran into an isuue: Some devices when bound to axe16000 , ax89x, and rp_ac1900 does not jump to that node even if the wifi would be a lot stronger after the roaming assist .

My Current setup:

RP-AC1900===GT-AXE16000===RT-ax89x ===GT-AC5300
               ||
              Modem

 

[McScruffy]

I finally got it up after replacing it with my old router for a bit to try to figure it out. Maybe I'm just out of the loop but the issue seems an odd choice if by design.

The router is only coming online at boot if I have WAN connected and have a computer direct connected to the LAN ports. If nothing is physically connected to the LAN but WAN is connected, it will power up showing only the power light and the LEDs on top pulsing green before rebooting then showing white. If I'm connected on the LAN with a computer but not the WAN, it's the same problem. If nothing is connected, same thing.

The only repeatable success I have is both being connected at boot. I tried booting with just the WAN connected and got the boot loop, but leaving on as soon as I plugged in my Alienware laptop all the status lights came to life and it is functioning again. I can then unplug the LAN and it stays up and all is well. If it reboots after I have to reconnect my laptop.

Hopefully this helps anyone else having that issue and this can be fixed in a firmware update.

 

[lishan89]

I finally got it up after replacing it with my old router for a bit to try to figure it out. Maybe I'm just out of the loop but the issue seems an odd choice if by design.

The router is only coming online at boot if I have WAN connected and have a computer direct connected to the LAN ports. If nothing is physically connected to the LAN but WAN is connected, it will power up showing only the power light and the LEDs on top pulsing green before rebooting then showing white. If I'm connected on the LAN with a computer but not the WAN, it's the same problem. If nothing is connected, same thing.

The only repeatable success I have is both being connected at boot. I tried booting with just the WAN connected and got the boot loop, but leaving on as soon as I plugged in my Alienware laptop all the status lights came to life and it is functioning again. I can then unplug the LAN and it stays up and all is well. If it reboots after I have to reconnect my laptop.

Hopefully this helps anyone else having that issue and this can be fixed in a firmware update.

That is interesting, since I specifically setup the router before I connected it to wan so that my wife won't get angry at me for the down time because I had to enter in all the dhcp reservations. May I ask where did you purchase your unit? I am curious if this is a QA issue, because so far I have had 0 issues, in fact the previous I had with upnp giving "too many files open error" is solved with this new router.

 

[McScruffy]

That is interesting, since I specifically setup the router before I connected it to wan so that my wife won't get angry at me for the down time because I had to enter in all the dhcp reservations. May I ask where did you purchase your unit? I am curious if this is a QA issue, because so far I have had 0 issues, in fact the previous I had with upnp giving "too many files open error" is solved with this new router.

I bought direct from Asus when they came in stock a couple weeks ago. It makes no sense to me and I can't see how this specific issue would indicate a hardware problem. I'm wondering if there was some testing on some of the first batch of units and they're stuck with some maintenance mode setting or I dunno. First router I've handled with an experience like this.

 

[lishan89]

I bought direct from Asus when they came in stock a couple weeks ago. It makes no sense to me and I can't see how this specific issue would indicate a hardware problem. I'm wondering if there was some testing on some of the first batch of units and they're stuck with some maintenance mode setting or I dunno. First router I've handled with an experience like this.

Ironically hardware issues are the least of your worries. Asus rt-ax89x had this issue where the router would just crash out of the blue if you did not do a factory reset then flash firmware then another factory reset again before you start setting up the router. I had this issue with my ax89x and fixed it following those steps. Sounds simple but the diagnostic was a pain. But I would definitely try that if I were you. restore to factory flash firmware then reset again.

 

[erick_e]

I guess being a beta tester comes with its remorse and hardship. I'm not sure I should have even mentioned that it works with v22.45 which is older that then my laptop, and not even supported by Dell.

Any advice on how to reply or convince Dell pursue further? I've already opened a case with Intel and Asus.

 

[L&LD]

If you can't return the computer for a refund, there is nothing (further) they will do.

If you can return the computer, do so. Buy the same model again, but be sure to fully test it before the return period runs out (with an updated driver, of course).

 

[AnClar]

Just doing a routine check of the firmware, and got an update which does not yet appear on the Asus web site, nor is it mentioned in the ASUSWRT - Official forum here. I went from v 3.0.0.4.386.48786 to 3.0.0.4.386_49533. No noticeable differences here. I'm going to post on the FW forum and see if I can get any more info on this release.

 

[Tundy Mundy]

Just doing a routine check of the firmware, and got an update which does not yet appear on the Asus web site, nor is it mentioned in the ASUSWRT - Official forum here. I went from v 3.0.0.4.386.48786 to 3.0.0.4.386_49533. No noticeable differences here. I'm going to post on the FW forum and see if I can get any more info on this release.

Version 3.0.0.4.386.49533
2022/07/05 61.75 MBytes
ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 Firmware version 3.0.0.4.386.49533
1. Fixed GUI bugs
2. Improved system stability


Sparse update notes. Would be nice if there was at least a small amount of detail, but then they've never been great about it.

I updated in the middle of the night. Haven't noticed anything different, although a couple of devices in my house were having wifi connectivity issues. I'll have to see if they are any better after the update.

 

[smallnetbricker]

Well, the new firmware doesn't resolve the upload speed issue (at least for me). I'm still capped at around 100Mbps, despite having sequential gigabit.

I have hard reset, soft reset, and reset via the GUI on both firmwares now with no improvement. I submitted feedback with logs a few weeks ago after someone suggested the idea on here, but never heard any response. Do I just hope this is going to be fixed with a future firmware? or should I start fighting for an RMA now? It seems like I'm not the only one having this problem, but there are some people that are getting their full gigabit upload speed.

 

[McScruffy]

Well, the new firmware doesn't resolve the upload speed issue (at least for me). I'm still capped at around 100Mbps, despite having sequential gigabit.

I have hard reset, soft reset, and reset via the GUI on both firmwares now with no improvement. I submitted feedback with logs a few weeks ago after someone suggested the idea on here, but never heard any response. Do I just hope this is going to be fixed with a future firmware? or should I start fighting for an RMA now? It seems like I'm not the only one having this problem, but there are some people that are getting their full gigabit upload speed.

Even with the problems I have when it reboots that's I've finally identified a "fix" for, I am still getting my full gig up and down, or at least more than I have with any other device. Testing from Asus router app it's about 945/950. From a pc direct connected via 2.5Gbps port (pc and router) and regular LAN ports I'm getting about 930 up and down.

I'm about to try the firmware update since nobody has said it breaks anything else so far to see if that resolves my issue and/or introduces anything new. Fingers crossed....