Re: R7960P firmware not upgrading

The_Smurph · ‎2020-09-15

Yes, several people have returned the product without the box. Just need your membership card and they will look up the purchase at Costco and allow you to return it.

billycuth · ‎2020-09-15

I spent three hours with technical support over 2 phone calls and finally got them to swap out my router. The replacement is due to be delivered today and I will keep you all posted. Fair warning, the technical support call to troubleshoot is brutal. Outside of a failed FTP method to update the firmware (which is a comical procedure, btw) they did nothing that I didn't try countless times over the past year. I maintained my composure and played along nicely, but that process is not for everyone. I just don't happen to believe that making the other person on the line miserable along with you is ever productive. It's not their fault.

I am just hoping my problem is solved.

The_Smurph · ‎2020-09-15

@billycuth

Glad to hear you are getting a replacement. My biggest issue with the replacement unit is, its an R8000, not a 7960P. If I return the 7960P to Netgear, I lose my warranty through Costco. Lifetime warranty vs. 1 year for Netgear? Hmm lets think about that tradeoff. I understand the R8000 is a slightly better unit but am I really going to miss out on the 325mbps of additional bandwidth on a Triband Router?

Also, why, why do I need to pay the shipping costs on the RMA for a unit Netgear screwed up with a bad firmware release? Yes its going to be roughly $20 bucks with either RMA choice but this unit was fubared by Netgear.

I am not really happy with any of these choices so when I can find a better router at Costco, Ill be returning this unit instead of RMA'ing it. Definitely not happy with Netgear.

billycuth · ‎2020-09-15

Netgear didn't charge me anything to RMA the router. I also told them to pound sand regarding their laughable tactic to make me pay for tech support because I was outside of 90 days.

I agree with your sentiments and I am not happy either, but I'm going to hope it's resolved. Time will tell.

The_Smurph · ‎2020-09-15

@billycuth

Could you let us know which unit they sent you ?

billycuth · ‎2020-09-15

I sure will. It arrived at my home a short while ago via Fedex, but I won't be home from work for another few hours or so.

billycuth · ‎2020-09-15

They sent me another R7960P

Zero_c00l · ‎2020-09-15

Exactly on point, I did not want to go through that hassle and also keep my options open. I returned mine to costco and got a Tplink instead. I'm pretty happy about it and the DLNA and FTP transfer speed is much faster than Netgear.

Good luk everyone. I am leaving this forum and company forever!

Jchalups · ‎2020-09-26

I'm about ready to dump Netgear as well. Unstable. Now, firmware will not load. Thus, my extender and main Nighthawk now go on and off. Is there a way to update? I'm baffled. This last upgrade for firmware is days old. I have to work from home for a living. I only have so many more vacation days.

@labatt wrote:
@Zero_c00l wrote:
Yeah I have the same problem. it tries to upgrade and after reboot it's still on the previous firmware (V1.4.1.44_1.3.5). You wouldthink Netgear test the upgrade file before publishing it, but I guess not!!!
You would hope the firmware was tested before posting. For the time I had a r8000 and r8000p I never got firmware that was bug free. In fact the same bugs existed firmware version after firmware version. Some say the firmware is farmed out to a 3rd party off shore. In any case there does not seem to be any testing or QA of the firmware before ship other then to see that it will load onto the router. There are bugs that are a year old and still are not fixed. I, personally, gave up on Netgear and went else where. More toward the commercial side. Lose things like parental controls when you do that, but I do not have any kids here to worry about.

Jchalups · ‎2020-09-26

Having same issue. Nighthawk Netgear support has failed me on previous router. This one is from July purchase to replace the June one that burned on the desk. Now, this worked fine until the Sept 2020 upgrades of firmware. Help!

@Zero_c00l wrote:
this is my first time trying Netgear router, and I just realized the free support ends three month after you register the product and there is no email or any kind of support to report the firmware bug. You have to come to their forum and beg for attention. what brand are you using now?

cousinjoe · ‎2020-10-05

Finally received my new replacement router a week or two ago. After a bit of a back and forth through their online support system (I referenced this thread and included the URL in my response early on to state this is a major issue and many others are dealing with it as well), they finally sent me out a brand new router, same model as the original I got from Costco. They waived any fees or shipping (obviously as this was their fault) and just had me put in my credit card info on an order form clearly stating there is $0 charge for the new router. They use it as collateral in case you don't return the old one (which they give you a prepaid label to return). But I had no issues and was never charged as I shipped back the old defective router the next day.

Interesting enough, the replacement I received still had the older firmware on it, so I immediately went to test out the update and it worked no problem through the web interface and is now current with no issues in upgrading it.

Problem resolved for now. If it acts up again I'll take it back to Costco since I have a new box now, but going to give it the benefit of the doubt until I decide to possibly switch to a rack mounted router with access points in the future.

Stinsonddog · ‎2020-10-18

Well today my replacement R7960P from July 5th 2020, so a mere 3 1/2 months old, DIED. Supsect it was a refurb that died again. So now I have to pay to ship it back and they will replace it again, but this is getting old. Good thing I am kept my old router so I have something to work with.

Anyone else get a replacement that died? Not sure they make them anymore so guessing it will be another refurb.

Jchalups · ‎2020-10-18

Pure junk. Had one smell and burn. NetGear support was awful. I took it back to Costco. Got another that failed after 3 months and would not upgrade firmware. I took it back. Costco’s comment was “we have had a lot of these returned!” Bought instead an Orbi. Works easily and fast. Thus far has not failed. Do not combine 2.5 and 5.0 MHz to one auto band. Do not use their security.

IdahoScott · ‎2020-10-18

I didn't have any problems with my replacement. In truth, it's probably anywhere from 10% to 20% slower than my original R7960P, but it works, and I still get at least 140 MBPS wireless (i.e. my ISP is delivering about 225 MBPS. The old R7960P got as high as 180 MBPS regularly, but my new router has only hit about 160 MBPS. However, the firmware updates work fine and are always up to date.

Of course, I neglected to mention that I PAID for my "replacement" router, my Archer C4000 V3 router with the REFUND on the R7960P from Costco. After waiting 6 months for a fix from Netgear, I gave up after being a Netgear customer for at least 20 (maybe 25) years, returned it, and bought the TP-LINK unit from Costco to replace it. I miss the performance of the Netgear router, despite the fact that the C4000 specs look better than the R7960P, it's just not quite as fast.

However, with the benefit of fewer headaches with Netgear's hardware, their absolute and resolute refuse to acknowledge the defect, or to repair it, I'll take the lower performance and better reliability of the TP-LINK unit.

(One more "honesty" note: A Netgear representative DID in fact email me after about 25 of these posts, offering to resolve the problem, about 3 days after I had ordered the replacement TP-LINK unit. WAY too little, too late. I promise, this is the last Netgear Community post for me.)

Good luck with your R7960P routers, the replacements, the replacements to the replacements, and etc.. I wish you many months (or days, or maybe even hours) of trouble free performance.

@Stinsonddog wrote:

Well today my replacement R7960P from July 5th 2020, so a mere 3 1/2 months old, DIED. Supsect it was a refurb that died again. So now I have to pay to ship it back and they will replace it again, but this is getting old. Good thing I am kept my old router so I have something to work with.

Anyone else get a replacement that died? Not sure they make them anymore so guessing it will be another refurb.

Stinsonddog · ‎2020-10-19

Well I have to say this wasn't that difficult. They gave a full year warranty on the first replacement. It took 5 min online and one call for them to verify. I do have to pay to ship it there. I have a backup of the config file for when the new one comes and I just popped in my old one as reset one extender. I do agree that the C4000 for $129 looks good and would be fine for my speeds. This will be the last chance to get this right.

Juice_22 · ‎2020-10-19

I ditched the R7960P after losing months with a router that constantly kept dropping my devices. My camera constantly would go offline or cycle it’s connections ever few minutes. I went with the C4000. It’s been solid ever since I switched. I will say that the router is slower. I pay for 600 down. The Netgear used to get me 425-450. Now I get 350-400. But on for upside the C4000 has lifetime built in Antivirus. So that could account for some of the slowdown. I’m happy with the C4000. It hasn’t gone down once in 4 months. No need to reboot. I think for now, this will be more then sufficient. I have 30+ devices connected and no issues.

Stinsonddog · ‎2020-10-19

@Juice_22 @IdahoScott thanks for these updates. I was looking at the C4000. I have wide area wifi and its not fast so that should be plenty of speed. I did like that my Netgear EX8000 extender works well with the 7960 both being tri band. So not sure what I will do at this point. Basically would be an even swap since the 7960 was so discounted.

billgio · ‎2020-10-28

Just got off another completely pointless call to the support # for this issue. I refuse to pay for extended warranty support when it was their faulty firmware that broke the functionality. I didn't want to go the return route just because of the hassle, but I don't see any other option now.

uxnguyen · ‎2020-12-31

I tried to update from 1.4.1.50 to 1.4.1.64 with no success. I like the router but now I will have to return it. Sad that the firmware update issues has been a long-standing problem and Netgear had done nothing to address the quality control issue. Need to search for a new router. Costco has C4000 onsale for $99 but I'm not sure if I want to go with TP-Link.

Mrfatboy · ‎2020-12-31

I just got the email for the new update this morning. I didn’t try updating yet.

How did you try updating? What was the problem?

Did you place the update file on the desktop and load from there?

michaelkenward · ‎2021-01-01

@uxnguyen wrote:

I tried to update from 1.4.1.50 to 1.4.1.64 with no success.

How did you do it and what happened?

Are you interested in fixing it?

@uxnguyen wrote:

Sad that the firmware update issues has been a long-standing problem and Netgear had done nothing to address the quality control issue.

Most updates go through without problems. You only read about failures here. People don't turn here and say "my firmware update was great". (I have never had a failure and have done many many updates.)

Sadly, you will find similar tales of update woes with most brands. It is just that Netgear has a larger and more active user community.

uxnguyen · ‎2021-01-01

@Mrfatboy Mrfatboy

I got and email about new firmware so I first updated using the iOS app. Then I did the auto update via the web browser. Then manual update. Then I follow your and other's instructions on this thread by power off the router for a few minutes and also placed the firmware on the desktop. I've not done the reset to factory and retry the update yet.

uxnguyen · ‎2021-01-01

@michaelkenward

Yes, I'm definitely interested in fixing it as returning is the last resort.

uxnguyen · ‎2021-01-01

@Mrfatboy @michaelkenward

I forgot to mention what happened. The update was successful and the router reboot but the firmware is still at version 1.4.1.50

uxnguyen · ‎2021-01-01

One other thing to note is if I let the app or the browser to check for latest firmware to update, it came back with latest version is 1.4.1.66. However, to download the firmware manually from Netgear the latest version is 1.4.1.64. I guess the Netgear support website is lagging behind.