Help Please RT-AC86U Troubles

[Ray H]

So I have been looking all over these forums looking for an answer to this problem. Nothing I found has worked yet. Here is my issue(s).

I have an RT-AC86U flashed with Asus-Merlin 384.10_2. About a week ago it started not letting our devices connect over wifi. It would only allow 3 or 4 to connect at a time. This started out of the blue. I would power down the router and power back on and it was fixed for about 4 days. It started doing this again. Powered off and on. Worked again but only for a day this time. Did this a third time and decided to investigate the issue. I logged into the router GUI and the only problem I was seeing was the 2.4G did go out. The 2.4G showed available as a wifi network but could not be connected to. On the router GUI the wifi symbol was half blacked out like it was off. Also when clicking around the router GUI any tab I clicked on would take 30 seconds for it to load. This was not normal. So after some looking around I decided to flash it to the pervious version of Asus-Merlin 348.10_0. This did help with the issue the devices connecting. The 2.4G was still not working and the GUI was still taking forever to load when clicking on the different tabs. So I decided to do a reset of the router and this caused me more problems. It turned on but all I was getting was a blinking power light. I have Asus recovery tool on my Mac and followed those steps to restore. The tool tells me it has been restored successfully but I can't access the router still. I just get the blinking light. I have tired this multiple time and still get the same result. Something I've noticed is when using the recovery tool when uploading the firmware at 80% it pauses for a split second and at the same my port I'm plugged into stops flashing as if it is done loading. The tool continues up to a 100%. Not sure if all the firmware is completely loading or if that is a normal part of the process. So this is where I'm at. A router that has a blinking power light and says I'm connected by the ethernet cable.

Other things I've tried.
-held the WPS button in while router is off and turned on router. (That caused an interesting result. After 20 seconds of booting up, the power light went off but the router was still booting. I know because my ethernet cable still connected even thought he power light was off.)
-Turned router off and let set for couple days.

Appreciate any input you could provide. Would love to get this router up and working again. It seems from what I'm reading on here all hope is not lost with this thing.

 

[lighting]

I am hypothesizing that your 2.4 gHz channel is dead, which is a common failure on these. Are you able to connect 5gHz devices? I’d try doing a factory reset and switching to ASUS stock firmware, too. At any rate that will likely be the first thing ASUS will tell you to do if you try and get warranty support. (Though if you value your time highly I’d just buy a new router rather than entangle yourself in that briar patch.)

 

[Kingp1n]

I had the same issue ...my 2.4 went out and I could only connect to 5ghz. Resetted router but same issue persisted so created a ticket for it and mailed the old router to them for a fix. They ended sending me a new RT-AC86U (manufacture in 2019). However you're now having issue which you cant access your router now. Try contacting Asus and best of luck.

 

[martinr]

So I have been looking all over these forums looking for an answer to this problem. Nothing I found has worked yet. Here is my issue(s).

I have an RT-AC86U flashed with Asus-Merlin 384.10_2. About a week ago it started not letting our devices connect over wifi. It would only allow 3 or 4 to connect at a time. This started out of the blue. I would power down the router and power back on and it was fixed for about 4 days. It started doing this again. Powered off and on. Worked again but only for a day this time. Did this a third time and decided to investigate the issue. I logged into the router GUI and the only problem I was seeing was the 2.4G did go out. The 2.4G showed available as a wifi network but could not be connected to. On the router GUI the wifi symbol was half blacked out like it was off. Also when clicking around the router GUI any tab I clicked on would take 30 seconds for it to load. This was not normal. So after some looking around I decided to flash it to the pervious version of Asus-Merlin 348.10_0. This did help with the issue the devices connecting. The 2.4G was still not working and the GUI was still taking forever to load when clicking on the different tabs. So I decided to do a reset of the router and this caused me more problems. It turned on but all I was getting was a blinking power light. I have Asus recovery tool on my Mac and followed those steps to restore. The tool tells me it has been restored successfully but I can't access the router still. I just get the blinking light. I have tired this multiple time and still get the same result. Something I've noticed is when using the recovery tool when uploading the firmware at 80% it pauses for a split second and at the same my port I'm plugged into stops flashing as if it is done loading. The tool continues up to a 100%. Not sure if all the firmware is completely loading or if that is a normal part of the process. So this is where I'm at. A router that has a blinking power light and says I'm connected by the ethernet cable.

Other things I've tried.
-held the WPS button in while router is off and turned on router. (That caused an interesting result. After 20 seconds of booting up, the power light went off but the router was still booting. I know because my ethernet cable still connected even thought he power light was off.)
-Turned router off and let set for couple days.

Appreciate any input you could provide. Would love to get this router up and working again. It seems from what I'm reading on here all hope is not lost with this thing.

“So I decided to do a reset of the router and this caused me more problems”

Hi Ray, and welcome to the forum.

I’m sorry to hear that a reset to factory default settings compounded your problems. Please confirm that after the reset, you entered all your settings by hand and you didn’t “cheat” by using a settings backup file.

(If you haven’t already seen it, here’s THE guide to the reset)

 

[Ray H]

I am hypothesizing that your 2.4 gHz channel is dead, which is a common failure on these. Are you able to connect 5gHz devices? I’d try doing a factory reset and switching to ASUS stock firmware, too. At any rate that will likely be the first thing ASUS will tell you to do if you try and get warranty support. (Though if you value your time highly I’d just buy a new router rather than entangle yourself in that briar patch.)

Yea I was thinking that the 2.4 gHz is dead as well. This past fall about a month in with the router the 2.4 gHz temperature was running high on it. I turned it off. At some point I decided to turn it back on and it was fine until now. I think all our devices were connected to the 5 gHz anyways so this isn't a big factor to me. I was mentioning it to give the full context of the situation in case that would be of any help.

Yea have done the reset multiple time while using the Asus Restoration Firmware app and I get a very consistent blinking power light and my port 1 light on showing I'm connected by ethernet cable. I can't get it out of this mode.

I've had this router since September so I think it is still under warranty if I need to get it replaced.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Ray H]

“So I decided to do a reset of the router and this caused me more problems”

Hi Ray, and welcome to the forum.

I’m sorry to hear that a reset to factory default settings compounded your problems. Please confirm that after the reset, you entered all your settings by hand and you didn’t “cheat” by using a settings backup file.

(If you haven’t already seen it, here’s THE guide to the reset)

Thanks, glad to have joined!

So when I did the reset I could no longer access the router via the gui. I got a slow blinking power light. Right now I'm getting just a flashing power light.

Thanks for sharing the link!

 

[martinr]

Have you tried a Google search for blinking LED and a Google search for blinking light ?

 

[Ray H]

Have you tried a Google search for blinking LED and a Google search for blinking light ?

Yes, I have done searches, but I'll check those out as well. Maybe you searched it in a way that I haven't and it will lead me to an answer.

Thanks!

 

[martinr]

..... Maybe you searched it in a way that I haven't and it will lead me to an answer.

Possibly: I’ve found it definitely pays to search with Google as well as using the forum search tool. And, after a while, you start to recognise some key words that will bring up half-remembered relevant topics As a new member you won’t have that advantage.

 

[Latzz]

Yes, I have done searches, but I'll check those out as well. Maybe you searched it in a way that I haven't and it will lead me to an answer.

Thanks!

Sounds like the same symptoms with my first AC86U. After weeks trying to figure out what were the intermittent issues, the radio lasted from days between reset to hours then ultimately failed completely. Had a replacement shipped from ASUS as it was diagnosed to be a hardware failure (and probably been a failing hardware all along).