RT-AX88U Pro Hard Crashing every couple of days

[The_Bishop]

I'm starting to think my router is having hardware issues.

I was running into issues with my RT AX88U Pro crashing about two weeks ago. It would run fine for a few days, then crash hard, go completely unresponsive (wired or wifi). Was running Firmware 3004.388.8.4. No custom scripts, nothing aside from the built-in stuff. AI Protection on, traffic analyzer on. Only 1 access point, the router itself.

I decided to do a complete reset and move to 3006.102.5.0 about a week ago. Did the 'Factory default/wipe all data' in the menu system, followed up by the 'hold WPS button down while powering up until the power light goes out' procedure prior to installing 3.006.102.5.0, and re-ran the menu system factory default. I wanted to make sure there were no vestiges of the old firmware. I then reconfigured the router from scratch to no uploaded configuration files.

It'll run for a few days then crash hard, same behavior prior to the upgrade to 3006. A reboot gets it back online, but it's super inconvenient to have it crashing ever 3-4 days.

I know when it crashed, as I get an email notification is my VOIP adapter goes offline. It crashed some time around 11:30 last night. Unfortunately the system log only goes back to 2:17am last night so nothing useful to glean from it.

I've had it a bit less than two years; it's still under warranty but I might just go buy a replacement as I can't do the downtime of all the asus support diagnostics plus the probable need to send it in for repair/replacement. I may do that after getting a new router to get my network up and running first.

Anyone have any ideas on what I should check? Should I try the factory firmware first?

 

[jksmurf]

Anyone have any ideas on what I should check? Should I try the factory firmware first?

The power supply. Seriously, always the first port of call. Don’t rush out and buy a replacement just yet. If you can find one with the right exact Voltage, barrel size and min rated Amps, more is ok, it’ll only draw what it needs, try that first. Or borrow a friend’s with the same router.

Second is a failing USB drive, thumb drive specifically and especially if you have amtm Addons on it and cache.

After that then start looking at firmware and setups.

 

[The_Bishop]

I have a USB drive attached as network shared storage (samba). There is nothing on the router that would access it aside from as network storage and it's relatively new. The drive tests out fine when attached to a standalone PC and checked for errors.

I have no add-ons, and as far as I can tell there is no cache on it (No swap file enabled in router) This is a less then week olf od a complete wipe and flash of the latest 3.0.0.6 firmware with nothing else added to it.

I've got a power supply on the way here later today, stock one is 19.5V 2.31A/45W. The replacement is a 19.5V/4.62A/90W max unit. Hopefully it makes a difference, it'll be a cheaper fix than a new router.

I would think the power supply would either work or not work, how could it make the router crash every couple of days?

Edit: All the networking equipment is connected to a UPS so it's unlikely that a surge damaged the power supply as far as I can tell.

 

[jksmurf]

I have a USB drive attached as network shared storage (samba). There is nothing on the router that would access it aside from as network storage and it's relatively new. The drive tests out fine when attached to a standalone PC and checked for errors.

I have no add-ons, and as far as I can tell there is no cache on it (No swap file enabled in router) This is a less then week olf od a complete wipe and flash of the latest 3.0.0.6 firmware with nothing else added to it.

I've got a power supply on the way here later today, stock one is 19.5V 2.31A/45W. The replacement is a 19.5V/4.62A/90W max unit. Hopefully it makes a difference, it'll be a cheaper fix than a new router.

I would think the power supply would either work or not work, how could it make the router crash every couple of days?

Edit: All the networking equipment is connected to a UPS so it's unlikely that a surge damaged the power supply as far as I can tell.

Ok sounds like you’re doing all the right things, I’d suggest perhaps unplugging the usb and running it for a week just to rule it out.

I don’t have an answer for you on whether the PS failing would make it a binary event, I’m not sure how much extra load those units undergo when there’s a number of things all cranking along at full noise simultaneously but I don’t think it’s necessarily a binary on/off thing, capacitors, transistors etc. can misbehave due to heat and aging. I’m not claiming to be an expert on this although my better half is a professional electronics engineer (albeit more micro electronics SMD and small sized stuff). She vouches for me .

Did you manage to catch System logs (might need to change debug level) after a crash? Folks more experienced than I could possibly spot something if it is setup related.

 

[The_Bishop]

I have logs turned on but the latest crash happened at about 11:30 last night and the logs only show entries from about 2:17am on, guess it wraps around. Log was chock full of this, essentially over and over:

Oct 3 02:17:51 hostapd: eth6: STA a0:6a:44:df:ee:01 IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to local deauth request
Oct 3 02:17:59 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(685): eth7: Auth E85:2B:4B:BC:4E, status: Successful (0), rssi:0
Oct 3 02:17:59 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(722): eth7: Assoc E85:2B:4B:BC:4E, status: Successful (0), rssi:-69
Oct 3 02:17:59 hostapd: eth7: STA e8:d5:2b:4b:bc:4e IEEE 802.11: associated
Oct 3 02:18:00 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(685): eth6: Auth 44:27:45:62:7E:C2, status: Successful (0), rssi:0
Oct 3 02:18:00 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(722): eth6: Assoc 44:27:45:62:7E:C2, status: Successful (0), rssi:-72
Oct 3 02:18:00 hostapd: eth6: STA 44:27:45:62:7e:c2 IEEE 802.11: associated
Oct 3 02:18:03 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(645): eth7: Deauth_ind E85:2B:4B:BC:4E, status: 0, reason: 4-way handshake timeout (f), rssi:-69
Oct 3 02:18:04 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(645): eth7: Deauth_ind E85:2B:4B:BC:4E, status: 0, reason: 4-way handshake timeout (f), rssi:-69
Oct 3 02:18:04 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(645): eth6: Deauth_ind 44:27:45:62:7E:C2, status: 0, reason: 4-way handshake timeout (f), rssi:-72
Oct 3 02:18:04 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(645): eth6: Deauth_ind 44:27:45:62:7E:C2, status: 0, reason: 4-way handshake timeout (f), rssi:-72
Oct 3 02:18:08 hostapd: eth7: STA e8:d5:2b:4b:bc:4e IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to local deauth request
Oct 3 02:18:09 hostapd: eth6: STA 44:27:45:62:7e:c2 IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to local deauth request
Oct 3 02:18:10 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(685): eth6: Auth 34:6F:92:27:EC:5B, status: Successful (0), rssi:0
Oct 3 02:18:10 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(722): eth6: Assoc 34:6F:92:27:EC:5B, status: Successful (0), rssi:-43
Oct 3 02:18:10 hostapd: eth6: STA 34:6f:92:27:ec:5b IEEE 802.11: associated
Oct 3 02:18:14 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(645): eth6: Deauth_ind 34:6F:92:27:EC:5B, status: 0, reason: 4-way handshake timeout (f), rssi:-43
Oct 3 02:18:15 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(645): eth6: Deauth_ind 34:6F:92:27:EC:5B, status: 0, reason: 4-way handshake timeout (f), rssi:-43
Oct 3 02:18:19 hostapd: eth6: STA 34:6f:92:27:ec:5b IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to local deauth request
Oct 3 02:18:25 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(685): eth6: Auth 44:27:45:62:7E:C2, status: Successful (0), rssi:0
Oct 3 02:18:25 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(722): eth6: Assoc 44:27:45:62:7E:C2, status: Successful (0), rssi:-72
Oct 3 02:18:25 hostapd: eth6: STA 44:27:45:62:7e:c2 IEEE 802.11: associated
Oct 3 02:18:29 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(645): eth6: Deauth_ind 44:27:45:62:7E:C2, status: 0, reason: 4-way handshake timeout (f), rssi:-72
Oct 3 02:18:30 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(685): eth6: Auth A0:6A:44F:EE:01, status: Successful (0), rssi:0
Oct 3 02:18:30 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(722): eth6: Assoc A0:6A:44F:EE:01, status: Successful (0), rssi:-44
Oct 3 02:18:30 hostapd: eth6: STA a0:6a:44:df:ee:01 IEEE 802.11: associated
Oct 3 02:18:30 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(645): eth6: Deauth_ind 44:27:45:62:7E:C2, status: 0, reason: 4-way handshake timeout (f), rssi:-72
Oct 3 02:18:34 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(645): eth6: Deauth_ind A0:6A:44F:EE:01, status: 0, reason: 4-way handshake timeout (f), rssi:-39
Oct 3 02:18:34 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(645): eth6: Deauth_ind A0:6A:44F:EE:01, status: 0, reason: 4-way handshake timeout (f), rssi:-39
Oct 3 02:18:34 hostapd: eth6: STA 44:27:45:62:7e:c2 IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to local deauth request
Oct 3 02:18:39 hostapd: eth6: STA a0:6a:44:df:ee:01 IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to local deauth request
Oct 3 02:18:44 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(685): eth7: Auth CC:9E:A2:145:4B, status: Successful (0), rssi:0
Oct 3 02:18:44 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(722): eth7: Assoc CC:9E:A2:145:4B, status: Successful (0), rssi:-52
Oct 3 02:18:44 hostapd: eth7: STA cc:9e:a2:14:d5:4b IEEE 802.11: associated
Oct 3 02:18:46 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(685): eth6: Auth A0:6A:44F:EE:01, status: Successful (0), rssi:0
Oct 3 02:18:46 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(722): eth6: Assoc A0:6A:44F:EE:01, status: Successful (0), rssi:-39
Oct 3 02:18:46 hostapd: eth6: STA a0:6a:44:df:ee:01 IEEE 802.11: associated

 

[Ripshod]

Always best to reset the router after flashing the firmware. So many get this the wrong way around have problems. Not saying that's what's happening, just pointing out an obvious (to me) error.

 

[The_Bishop]

I did both, reset before *and* after the upgrade to 3006 to avoid any oddness, as I was trying to troubleshoot the crash that happens every few days.

>>Did the 'Factory default/wipe all data' in the menu system, followed up by the 'hold WPS button down while powering up until the power light goes out' procedure prior to installing 3.006.102.5.0, and re-ran the menu system factory default.

 

[atkinsom]

Just want to confirm that I had in the past an older AC68U run into almost the same exact situation. It would start doing crazy stuff like going offline for no reason and WIFI would go wonky...just silly nondescript stuff happening. I disconnected the external USB drive and it got a bit better but still kept happening except not as frequently. Anyway long story short is I had a buddy of mine in the medical service field hand me a replacement power supply with more juice for testing and bingo all the problems went away. He ended up testing the original power supply and sure enough it wasn't totally bad but definitely was showing signs of wear and eventual failure. I learned that lesson a few years ago with these home devices to always check the power supply...cheap effective test when nothing makes sense. Hopefully that is your issue as well.

 

[The_Bishop]

Should have posted about it yesterday but got pretty busy. The new 90W power supply is place as of late yesterday afternoon. Now to wait and see what happens, I guess.

 

[The_Bishop]

Well, so far we're at 1 days 3 hour(s) 29 minute(s) 2 seconds of uptime and everything's going well.

I would never have thought that a potentially wonky power supply would cause the issues I was running into. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

 

[jksmurf]

Well, so far we're at 1 days 3 hour(s) 29 minute(s) 2 seconds of uptime and everything's going well.

I would never have thought that a potentially wonky power supply would cause the issues I was running into. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

It's that extra 2s that did it.

 

[The_Bishop]

Well, spoke too soon. Router crashed again last night some time around 2:10am. So, a little over 2 days. This time I have logs from before and during the crash, will be looking at them to see if I can determine what happened.

 

[KevTech]

Maybe try running stock and see what happens.

 

[The_Bishop]

It was steady and stable for a long time with the previous version of Merlin I had on it, then it started randomly crashing. I reset/flashed the latest version only as part of the diagnostic process to see what was causing the random crashes.

I have a brand new RT-BE88U that just got delivered this morning. Getting a bit tired of the network instability and when it does crash for whatever reason some of my network devices need to be signed into the network again, which is a PITA. It's still under warranty, so I might just send it in for Asus to look at and keep it as a backup or use it as an extender at some point. I've spent a lot of time trying to figure this out and the time invested into it is rapidly approaching the 'it's not worth it' zone for me.

Looked at the latest logs, which are set at the 'debug' level. There's pretty much nothing except the various network entities going through the DHCP lease renewals, and prior to the network crashing out the renewals were all failing due to "4-way handshake timeout (f)" over and over again. At this point, even wired clients lose internet connectivity.

 

[degrub]

power supply failing or hardware failing, i guess, unless you can get it stable on an earlier firmware.

 

[The_Bishop]

Already replaced the power supply a few days ago, it's earlier in the thread. I'm thinking hardware failure. It became unstable after being perfectly fine on 3004 for a long time, then in the diagnostic process I completely wiped it, flashed the latest 3006 and here we are, still the same failure mode. Random crashes every 2-3 days, router totally unresponsive requiring a power down to get it functional again.

 

[The_Bishop]

The new RT-BE88U is now in place and mostly configured. The additional ports on the back made it possible to eliminate a 1G switch that was needed to connect everything, so the additional power savings is nice.

The boost in the processor performance lets me activate all the features I want with no slowdown which is also very nice.

Now... Do I stay stock firmware or switch to Merlin? Need to ponder that. Would be nice to have some kind of 'additional features' that Merlin would get me over stock for this router without having to do back-to-back comparisons.

 

[Ripshod]

Now... Do I stay stock firmware or switch to Merlin? Need to ponder that. Would be nice to have some kind of 'additional features' that Merlin would get me over stock for this router without having to do back-to-back comparisons.

I'd only switch to Merlin if either you need the extra functionality, or if there's a problem with asus firmware. I made the jump, running everything in my signature, but your use case is likely different.

 

[The_Bishop]

Now that I have a bit of processing power to spare on the router, I was kicking around using Diversion. All my PCs are running Firefox/Ublock origin but it'd be nice to avoid ads on the non-pc things too.

 

[CaptainSTX]

Well, spoke too soon. Router crashed again last night some time around 2:10am. So, a little over 2 days. This time I have logs from before and during the crash, will be looking at them to see if I can determine what happened.

If you can look at the logs for your modem take a look at them also. When Xfinity upgraded my service to 2 gig for less than I was paying for slower service I had to purchase a new modem. The Coda56 seemed like a good deal but I then started having short outages which then caused my reset outlet then rebooted my modem and then the router. Since the Coda56 doesn't allow you to access its logs I had to rent a modem from Xfinity. Since putting the different modem into service WAN connection has been very stable and has demonstrated to me that my AX88 PRO is not the issue.