R8500 must be unplugged for some number of hours before it will work again

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airfishey
airfishey's picture
R8500 must be unplugged for some number of hours before it will work again

An interesting observation I've noticed with a R8500 that I have is that it will boot and function completely normally for roughly 15 minutes to 1 hour before it decides to stop functioning. When I say it stops functioning, that can mean one of the following symptoms:

  • Router automatically reboots (without instruction from me) and the WiFi radios fail to start back up (SSID never broadcast)
  • Router stops broadcasting SSID, but both the 5Ghz and 2.4GHz LEDs are illuminated
  • Router continues to broadcast SSID, but no devices are able to connect via WiFi

When it gets into this non-functional state, I typically have to unplug the power cable from it, and let it stay powered off for a few hours. After a few hours (and no other resets, tinkering, etc) with the device powered off, I can get the device back into a completely functional state. It's worth noting that an "nvram erase" (via internal serial port pins) and reflashing firmware either stock (http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/R8500/R8500-V1.0.2.100_1.0.82...) or Kongs 2017-11-04 dd-wrt build (http://www.desipro.de/ddwrt/K3-AC-Arm/dd-wrt.K3_R8500.chk) will not get the router back into a functional state. I must let the device sit powered off for some long period of time (at least an hour or two) in order for it to function again.

I do not know the history of this device as I purchased it from somebody else who I no longer have contact with. Has anyone experienced this sort of behavior before? I'm speculating here, but I suspect the device is overheating and must cool down before being functional again.

Another interesting tidbit is that I experience this exact same behavior with a Netgear R7000P that was purchased from a completely different person and uses a different power adapter. Is this just coincidence, or is there a trend here?

dragon120
dragon120's picture
I am using Kong's latest

I am using Kong's latest firmware, but also experiencing some weird behavior coming from my brand new R8500. Right after installation, the second 5G didn't work. Then, after a while, the other 5G stopped working even though the setting shows it is on. Now the firmware shows the first 5G is 2.4G. So now I got 2 2.4G and the mistaken 2.4G didn't work either. Not sure what happened. Did anyone experience similar behavior? Any solution?

 

Albanetzul
Albanetzul's picture
I have same problems with my

I have same problems with my R8500, got it from Ebay and I believed that is an easy fix. After reading all posts on Netgear site found out that is some hardware problem, mostly with Vietnam version 272-12473-02. I can watch all boot sequence using putty and serial cable, I can flash different Netgear chk. files and same issue, failing to load the radio drivers. I will try DD-WRT build to see if that works.

apokalypse2k3
apokalypse2k3's picture
I have the same exact

I have the same exact problems and I also have the vietnamese version, now not even one wireless radio work until I unplug the router