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Forum Discussion
RegularDude
Dec 13, 2019Aspirant
Nighthawk X4 - WiFi Cable Modem Router - Unable to connect to 5ghz
Up until today, all of my devices have been connected to my 2.4ghz radio - with no issues. Since I recently added a few new devices, I decided to spread them across both my X4's radios. SSD only di...
plemans
Dec 14, 2019Guru - Experienced User
Have you tried a factory reset and reinstall?
RegularDude
Dec 14, 2019Aspirant
Not yet; I was purposely leaving that as the last ditch troubleshooting move. I'll factory reset it after the weekend, have too many people on it right now. As far as reinstall goes, what do you mean? Reconnecting the other devices to the WiFi?
- plemansDec 14, 2019Guru - Experienced User
I just mean doing a manual re-install after the factory reset. Many use backup configurations which work well most of the time. But if a firmware changed enough between iterations, restoring a backup leaves the issues still there.
- RegularDudeDec 14, 2019Aspirant
Interesting. So if I perform a factory reset, the firmware could potentially revert to an earlier version? I guess I've been looking at this too much from the perspective of how cell phones handle version updates when a factory reset is performed (which preserves the most current version of the OS). When I looked up this model on the Netgear Support site, so I could download and install the most current version of the firmware, it told me there was no firmware to download. And that my internet service provider would update the firmware as necessary. So I haven't had to install anything from day one. I've made no backups of my configuration, as I've made few adjustments to the defaults.
- plemansDec 14, 2019Guru - Experienced User
Factory resetting doesn't revert the firmware at all. What it does is remove all the prior settings. Sometimes firmware upgrades are big enough that a factory can help resolve issues caused from the changes.
You're correct in that you can't download firmware for it. Combo devices only get their firmware from the ISP.
- RegularDudeDec 14, 2019Aspirant
Got it, thank you plemans for confirming the results of a factory reset. I'll give this a try come Monday. The current behavior just doesn't make sense. And I've scoured the UI; I didn't see anything that would restrict me to utilizing only one radio at a time. So I'm hoping the reset will resolve the issue I'm experiencing. And it's not a matter of distance from the router. I can use any of my mobile devices from a seat right next to it and I just can't authenticate. It goes through the motions of establishing a connection, but it just fails.
I'll let everyone know how this pans out.
- plemansDec 14, 2019Guru - Experienced User
If it doesn't work and you're still within your warranty, I'd start an RMA process with netgear.