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RAX120 V2 Constant Random Reboots
The router reboots frequently sometimes every 30 minutes. I have noticed that the router reboots under heavy system load of +50% on the processor. The only way I have been able to drastically lessen the issue is by turning off 2.4 Ghz WMM services. Unfortunately my 2.4 Ghz devices pay the price for that with slower throughput. I can't even view some security camera streams any longer because the bandwidth is so poor.
I first purchased this router about a month ago and have already had the unit replaced by NG once but unfortunately the replacement does the same thing. I am within the time period to return the router. I'm hesitant to purchase the RAX200 because of the same issue. I may have to try another brand after 10 years of using NG. It doesn't look like Netgear has a solution for this either- I've spent plenty of time troubleshooting with the Level 2 support folks (they spent a lot of insinuating that the power outlet was the culprit, even after trying the router on several outlets and APC backups)).
- Installed beta firmware 1.2.3.33 on it and then turn fan on in debug.htm. Just check mark it , don’t click on apply.
And bought a cool pad from amazon $10 . 4 days in a row no restart and router works perfect.
Laptop Cooling Pad，ESGAMING Laptop Cooling Stand Laptop Cooler 10-15.6 Inch 2 USB Ports 2 Fans with Blue LEDs https://a.co/d/dXVVnxw
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- Purchased the RAX120 in early May. The Wi-Fi router worked flawlessly for a few days then about 10 days into ownership of the RAX120 it started random reboots.
I followed all the advice in this community on this issue , disabled VMM for 2.4 GHz, purchase a pure wave surge suppressor. Non of these resolved the issue.
I contacted Netgear support and they were useless in helping.
I finally, returned the RAX120 got my $ back and then purchased a different Wi-Fi router.
It is shameful how NETGEAR denies a major defect with this model Wi-Fi router. There should be a recall.
Good luck everyone with your troubleshooting on this issue. Hope one day NETGEAR can resolve it. As for me I paid too much $ to mess around with a defective product. - I have solved the issue. It's 100% heat related. I went to the router debug page and set the exhaust fan to "Always On." I then placed the router on top of a 140mm computer case fan for added cooling. 6 days now without a single reboot and router now stays cool.
Interesting find.
Is 6 days of uptime the longest you've had? If so that's not going to tell you much.
Ive thought I had it fixed before with a clean UPS power supply with like 19 days of uptime. But then I will get a reboot like once every 4 days generally always when I am doing something network intensive like streaming 4k video. Then it will stay up for another ~14 days, so its hard to tell if you really have a fix.
But I do know that with 2.4Ghz WMM ENABLED and a NON pure sine wave power supply the random reboots happen much more often for me at a rate of around ~8 times per day which is way worse.
The firmware def has a bug which needs to be fixed.- All I know is the thing was running hot. Ever since keeping it cool no issues. I know a heat dissipation issue when I see one. It was curious that the exhaust fan never seemed to come on regardless of it being obviously too hot. That I believe is a firmware issue. So until they fix it, setting fan to Always on and setting the router on top of an fan acting as an air intake seems to be doing the job.
- Only 6 days, and is this the real reason?
I doubt the heating issue in the beginning too. But I think it could be the firmware issue that needed to be fixed.
For the general design, if the machine is overheated, the CPU will usually lower its frequency to decrease the temperature.
Because it’s a soft reboot, and the machine can be working after the reboot. I guess the firmware triggers the soft-reboot under specific conditions.Not only the constant reboot is breaking the viability of using this router, but V1.2.3.28 has been the latest official firmware update since when? November/December 2021? Other routers have been constantly getting updates, how many 0-day are RAX120 users being exposed just because this issue is not addressed?
I also doubt it's a temperature issue. I live in Sweden in a very stable temperature controlled apartment and I've seen the router reboot at 2am hours after most electronics in the house have been turned off by smart plugs.
So has anyone else noticed there router running hot or abnormally warm in between these reboots?
I put a USB laptop stand with fans under mine and it didn't solve anything. It's also connected to UPC. It's a POS that Netgear won't refund or fix.
- As I said, I went to the router debug page as well and set the exhaust fan on the top to "always on." This combined with the 140mm fan underneath it has done the trick for me. Going on almost 2 weeks now solid.
Well, I am happy to report (so far) that adding the fan/cooler below the laptop has indeed prevented this router from the random reboots (so far.) Of course I will continue to monitor long term and report weekly here if I can.
Please reference my original post for more information on the history, however I'd like to add a few things.
- I have since rebooted many times and the "Always fan option" is NOT on. So the router is doing whatever it wants.
- The fan I am using is the AC Infinity S4 on high, underneath the router directing air flow up. (AKA flowing air from the bottom, and exhausting from the top....think of it like beefing up the stock fan....if that even does anything)
- Previously, it was impossible to copy files to the router NAS drive when a heavy load was put (copying 100gb at once.) The router would get hot. Not burning "OWWW MY HAND HOT", but it makes a person go "Whoa, that is a little toasty, does this thing cool itself?" Now it is cool to the touch, and I can't feel much heat on it at all.
Again - this is seriously to salvage whatever few years I can from this thing. I will report back long term, even though things may "seem" fixed, we need to be sure.
Maybe down the road, I will open this up and see the heatsinks and any thermal paste issues? Not sure? Thoughts on that?
Anything is possible at this point. Could be that there maybe some missing paste, however if the heat sink IS getting hot as well, I would presume there is paste there and just not enough internal cooling with the fan. Also seems that there is some CPU handling and usage that needs to be tune up in FW to help lower what's going on there as well. Also seems like the safety trigger temp is not activating the fan as well that needs to be fixed.
Glad the fan is helping.
My RAX120v2 reboots numerous times every day at seemingly random times. Here is a recent example from the Logs:
[Time synchronized with NTP server] Wednesday, July 27, 2022 10:00:37
[Initialized, firmware version: V1.2.3.28] Wednesday, July 27, 2022 10:00:35
I’m running the newest firmware (V1.2.3.28). I’ve read other threads about this issue, but still haven’t gotten to the bottom of it — although I know that countless other people are experiencing the same problem.
• Is this a problem with it overheating?
• Are there settings I can use to avoid the issue?
• Is there beta firmware available that solves the problem?
Any help would be greatly appreciated! For a premium router, it’s very frustrating that I’m having this happen all the time.Try enabling the ThermalFan under router IP address/debug.htm
Others reported that either this or adding a laptop cooling fan stopped the reboots from happening.
I recommend getting a laptop cooler under the router for added cooling:
Any laptop cooler can work.
Thank you, FURRYe38! I ordered a laptop cooling fan earlier today as well as enabled the router's fan. Fingers crossed that this will solve the problem, but it's still frustrating — especially since the fan would have to be reenabled whenever the router restarts.
Do you happen to know if/how I could obtain beta firmware?
Firmware update 1.2.8.40 and still getting Random reboots with the RAX120 router. Factory reset and disable the wmm for 2.4 and still reboot persists.
beachmiles Bladestorm Have you tried enabling Thermal Fan under debug page and or put a laptop cooler fan under the router? Others reported in this thread that this helped stave off these reboots.
We've make NG aware of this and they are working on it.
tried to enable but after reboot it disables again. wish it would stay on too 🙂
Adding: i have even tried hanging on wall which was under AC vent. Then tried to place on shelf and elevated router so had extra space for air and still same issues.
- Sadly this has got to be the most popular topic on the Netgear forum.
BTW it just crashed again. No WiFi, no internet, suck in hell.Happy to report the replacement router has been rock solid for 2 weeks, 0 reboots no matter what is thrown at it.
- Same here. Looked last night. Uptime 18 plus days.
ANY one in this thread still have a v2 router with stock power adapter that came with the router?
Please post here or let me know via PM.
I bought RAX120v2 two weeks ago. It was restarting on random basis from the very beginning. Somedays several times daily, somedays several dozen times dally. I have tried everything described here, but none of that helped me.
My observations during restarts:
- It is not adapter issue. I'm living in Europe and have an European adapter version, but the router is still restarting.
- It is not a heat issue. Yes the sensor shows NaN, but it is just a problem in the UI. I started 4K YouTube videos on eight devices in parallel and the router's fan was working during the load. The temperature sensor was OK and the router was not too hot. Actually the processor load was ~40%.
- It is not a settings issue. I've tried them all, without any success.
Even after one hour playing of eight parallel 4K YouTube videos the router was pretty stable. Then I moved to another room in my home, returned after 15 minutes and the router was restarting ...
That was my experience last two weeks. Now the good news from the last several days. I'm using ESET Smart security. Sometimes I got notification for a DoS attack from one specific device. It was my home security camera which has motion detection. Then I realised that the router is detecting the same false DoS attack and it cause the restarts. Almost every time when I move from one room to another, the camera triggers false DoS attack and restarts the router. I have detached the camera and now the router is running smoothly without restarting itself. I'm not using any cool pad and returned all my previous settings. I'm using Smart Connect, WMM and even 160MHz band. Everything is perfectly stable. The problem was in my camera. It can be connected with LAN cable or using WiFi, but seems that both are working in parallel. In my case the camera had two IP addresses, one for the LAN port and one for the WiFi. I decided to reset it and connect it again, but using WiFi connection only. I refreshed the router DHCP table and connected the camera. Now everything is running without any issues even with the camera. Actually the router is perfect when it is stable. ESET Smart Security doesn't report DoS attacks as well.
All of you, who experience such kind of router restarts, should check for DoS attack in the router's log or in the your security software log. If you have such
kind of attacks, find the device which is causing them and disconnect it from the router. Then check the router stability. It is pretty common issue regarding NG routers to restart because of false DoS attack. You can try to reset the problematic device and connect it again to the router. In my case it was working solution.Currently, the router is working almost two full days without a single restart for the first time in two weeks.
What FW is loaded on the router?
Would you post the first 3 characters of the serial number seen on the bottom sticker please.
What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too?
Be sure your using a good quality LAN cable between the modem and router. CAT6 is recommended.FW version - 1.2.8.40
SN first 3 chars - 6K0
Before RAX120, I used the same LAN cable and ISP modem with Tri-Band Linksys 8300 router without any issues.
The problem was with those false DoS attacks caused by the camera. The same camera was working OK with my previous router mentioned above.
FWIW my router reports tons of DoS attacks but that doesn't seem to correlate to the reboots. I presume these fake warnings are just push notifications to our phones and devices, or other background stuff.
Count me in too.
I got a RAX120v2 just over a month ago and am suffering from random reboots.
FW V1.2.3.28
SN 6JY
Modem is Motorola MB8611 and it's talking to the router at 2.5Gbps
It rarely reboots more than once a day, and usually will run for days on end between reboots, at one point it had been up for 16 days. The last time it rebooted was exactly when I tried to start a video stream. But it is not reproduceable or predictable; it can happen at any time. I disabled WMM on the 2.5G radio yesterday because someone suggested it here but I have no idea if that will make a difference. It has been up for two days since the last glitch.
I've read through this entire thread and its clear to me that there is no solution for this product other than to live with it or to replace it. I was using a NG AC1750 for years and it was solid. I only got the RAX120 for the faster and better WiFi. I was able to ditch my WiFi extender because the signal is so good, so I'm not keen on plugging the AC1750 back in but I can if I have to.
I just think it's hardware. Otherwise there would be a solution by now. The Motorola modem also reboots for no reason every few weeks. I hear the new iPhone 14 pro max also reboots for no reason when it is on the charger. Not everyone is affected by any of these issues. So maybe some of the chips are junk, they are running too close to manufacturing tolerance. Who knows. I'll keep an eye out here for the time being if a real solution magically appears.
