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itstoppedworkin's avatar
itstoppedworkin
Aspirant
Oct 01, 2021

NightHawk R8000 - Second 5GHz radio stopped working

Hello all,

 

I need help with my R8000. I've been using it for a year now and 1 month after the warranty expired, it was acting up. The second 5GHz channel would constantly disconnect/reconnect and had to reboot the unit several times in a week. Then the second 5GHz channel completely stopped working. The SSID on the second 5GHz channel can no longer be seen by all devices even if broadcast is enabled. In the router status menu, the second radio (5GHz) shows an "X" though the channel is enabled. The 2GHz channel is fine.. it is long range and slow (as we all know). The other 5GHz channel is working fine too but it seems to have a shorter range than the second 5GHz channel that stopped working.

 

I have done a full factory reset several times and upgraded to the latest firmware V1.0.4.76_10.1.82 with no luck.

 

My kids are doing school online and I work from home. Ever since the issue began it has been a nightmare. The store said to contact Netgear but the Netgear site says I'm out of luck as the HW warranty has expired. This forum is my only hope and I'm hoping someone out there can share an answer.

 

Netgear, I still believe in you. I work for a distribution company of IT equipment and I have always adverstised your products to clients in every positive way. Kindly help please.


Thanks,
Rain

 

2 Replies

  • plemans's avatar
    plemans
    Guru - Experienced User
    Oct 01, 2021

    sometimes the "latest" firmware isn't always the greatest. We'd hope it is but it does happen when firmware changes introduce more issues than it fixed. that could be the case. 

    Try downgrading to version 1.0.4.68 (or .66). then do a factory reset and reinstall. Disable auto updates and see if it helps.

    Sometimes you don't need to do a factory reset after the downgrade but if you downgrade and it doesn't help, then try the factory reset. 

    • itstoppedworkin's avatar
      itstoppedworkin
      Aspirant
      Oct 12, 2021

      Spent my holiday long weekend with downgrading the firmware from V1.0.4.76_10.1.82 (latest) to the following:
      R8000-V1.0.4.68_10.1.75
      R8000-V1.0.4.66_10.1.75
      R8000-V1.0.4.62_10.1.74

      I did factory reset each time with no luck... my devices still don't see the second 5GHz channel. Then I upgraded back to the latest V1.0.4.76_10.1.82..factory reset.. then finally saw the second 5GHz channel came back to life. It was working fine for a day, then I started noticing the Android smartphones are only showing 2Mbps download when doing Ookla's Speedtest while the computers (laptops and desktops) are showing 75Mbps download. The download speed on the smartphones will get corrected when rebooting the R8000. I've been rebooting it since.. unbelievable :(   Yesterday, the devices started disconnecting from the second 5GHz channel again. By night time.. it disappeared again. In the router status menu, the second radio (5GHz) shows an "X" though the channel is enabled.


      I give up.. these router and firmware updates are no longer wasting any more of my time. This R8000 will be the first and last Netgear equipment I will use. I will go back to the old names I've used before that worked well (Linksys, TP Link, and D-Link).

       

      Plemans, I appreciate you reaching out to assist me on this one.