Yesterday, I flashed a T-Mobile CellSpot router first with an Asus stock firmware and then with Merlin firmware following a popular guide. Everything went smoothly and it worked well. I tested the wifi bandwidth on both radios from different parts of my house and I was satisfied. After using for about 4 hours, my wifi suddenly got disconnected on all my devices and both the SSIDs disappeared but ethernet was working fine. When I was in very close proximity, I could see and connect to 5.8GHz network, but the signal was weak and not stable. Even at close proximity there was no trace of 2.4GHz network. I tried power cycling and even after a couple of hours of cooling off, it didn't help, so I did a factory reset of the settings too and still no difference. I then noticed that the CPU temperature was way high hovering at 96°C (205°F), so I switched it off to avoid any further damage. I am attaching a screenshot that also shows that 2.4GHz radio is at 63°C (145°F) while the 5.8GHz radio is at 69°C (156°F) and they also seem quite high.
It looks like there are hardware issues, but exchanging and warranty coverage are not options for me (purchased in US about 2 months back, but it is taken out of the country), so I am wondering what can be done to resolve the issue. It was actually powered on for only a few hours (less than one day), but if the CPU was high because of manufacturing defect, it may have been high the entire period. Could that have caused any permanent damage? Could the wifi radios have gotten damaged due to this same reason? Is there any hope or did my $74 just went down the drain? Any help would be highly appreciated.
It looks like there are hardware issues, but exchanging and warranty coverage are not options for me (purchased in US about 2 months back, but it is taken out of the country), so I am wondering what can be done to resolve the issue. It was actually powered on for only a few hours (less than one day), but if the CPU was high because of manufacturing defect, it may have been high the entire period. Could that have caused any permanent damage? Could the wifi radios have gotten damaged due to this same reason? Is there any hope or did my $74 just went down the drain? Any help would be highly appreciated.
