RT-AC-86U - Help with No Free Space Left for GC (Solved for now)

[L&LD]

Well... the router was locked up this morning. I have it to reboot at 330AM every day - but it never completed.

So.. it did the factory reset, keyed in most things - and did a reboot (from the interface). Booted good. Then I finished some more settings - and reboot again.. and it hung on "Completed"... had to power cycle.

So now I'm confused why it won't reliably boot from a "soft" reboot..

That is a known issue with an unknown cause right now.

When you say 'it did the factory reset...' do you mean the router self-reset or that you initiated that process?

What firmware are you on now? Did you try the latest 45713 code from Asus?

 

[Chipster]

Ok... so the soft reboot problem isn't just me? Is it code related or hardware? That would be a non-starter for me... it's been rebooting daily virtually without issue for about a year on the Asus code (until a few days ago)

And sorry about "it" - "I" did the reset (via the reset button).

Now... after the soft boot hang.. wondering if it was code related - I did try the ASUS firmware. First I saved the Merlin setup - then reset - then uploaded ASUS 45713.

I keyed in everything from scratch - again. Everything looked good. Then I did a reboot from the WebUI. .. and it never came back. I was in full brick. Had to use the Asus Restore utility to bring it back.

So... I uploaded Merlin 384.10.2 with the utility - and once back - I restored the settings I saved this morning.. It's back again - but still hangs on a soft reboot.

I *will* try the ASUS setup again... but another day for that. And I'll turn off the auto reboots.

I was beginning to worry that some flash may have failed - but if the problem is known... I'll wait before buying another router.

EDIT: Added code version for Merlin - and added comment about the reboot hang.

 

[L&LD]

Ok... so the soft reboot problem isn't just me? Is it code related or hardware? That would be a non-starter for me... it's been rebooting daily virtually without issue for about a year on the Asus code (until a few days ago)

And sorry about "it" - "I" did the reset (via the reset button).

Now... after the soft boot hang.. wondering if it was code related - I did try the ASUS firmware. First I saved the Merlin setup - then reset - then uploaded ASUS 45713.

I keyed in everything from scratch - again. Everything looked good. Then I did a reboot from the WebUI. .. and it never came back. I was in full brick. Had to use the Asus Restore utility to bring it back.

So... I uploaded Merlin 384.10.2 with the utility - and once back - I restored the settings I saved this morning.. It's back again - but still hangs on a soft reboot.

I *will* try the ASUS setup again... but another day for that. And I'll turn off the auto reboots.

I was beginning to worry that some flash may have failed - but if the problem is known... I'll wait before buying another router.

EDIT: Added code version for Merlin - and added comment about the reboot hang.

Like I stated above, the cause is not known right now.

You need to put your router into a good/known state, your method indicated above isn't doing that.

Please see the M&M Config link in my signature below, but you need to flash the firmware you want first, reset to factory defaults (in your case I would recommend doing a WPS Erase and to format the jffs partition too, then, reflash the same firmware and do a final reset to factory defaults), do not use a saved config file, do a minimal and manual configuration to secure the router and connect to your ISP.

After doing the above thoroughly, add each customization in slowly, testing (and rebooting as a test) as you go.

 

[Chipster]

Thanks for the method... I'll let you know.

I knew this all better way back when I had my AC66U - in 2013.. and enjoyed Merlin since then.

Once that router died.. I got the 86U in Fall of 2017...

Didn't care anymore about the absolute best throughput or range - but reliability is everything to me.

I like reliable remote access - and can live with a router that hiccups - provided I know it will reliably reboot in the evening - and be available in the morning. Either via router-based VPN, or TeamViewer to a computer behind the router.