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Re: NightHawk R8500 Shutdown - Overheating?

MWiggins
Tutor

NightHawk R8500 Shutdown - Overheating?

Noticed this afternoon that my R8500 was off. I thought that the power strip had failed so I moved the router's power adapter directly to the wall and it powered back up. After an hour or so, I came back into the office to find it off again. The router felt slightly warm so I elevated it to get circulation underneath it just in case. I also moved it to another power strip and monitored it for a bit. I sat down to play BO3 for a bit and after about an hour the router shut off once again. This time I felt the router right after it shut down and found the bottom to be incredibly hot. Laptop running stress test levels of hot. I unplugged it and plugged it back in with not response. After waiting for about 2 minutes I tried again and it powered up no problem.

 

My guess is that the router is overheating. Anyone else encounter this or have suggestions for testing this theory/methods for dealing with it? 

Model: R8500|Nighthawk X8 Tri-Band AC5300 WiFi Router
Message 1 of 17

Accepted Solutions
MWiggins
Tutor

Re: NightHawk R8500 Shutdown - Overheating?

Thanks for the assistance, but I contacted Netgear support this morning. They issued an RMA for an overheating unit.

 

I came here looking to see if others had experienced this issue. At least now I suppose this thread can serve as reference for anyone else that may encounter it.

View solution in original post

Message 4 of 17

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MWiggins
Tutor

Re: NightHawk R8500 Shutdown - Overheating?

Update

 

Router continued to fail in less than an hour under normal household usage conditions. Hooked up old router and left it running all night with no issues. R8500 sat powered on with no network activity and still had power this morning. Not warm to the touch. Seems to definitely be an overheating issue.

Message 2 of 17
ElaineM
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: NightHawk R8500 Shutdown - Overheating?

Hello @MWiggins

 

Welcome to the community!

 

Let me follow-up on your submitted case to support.

They'll be in contact with you separately.

 

Message 3 of 17
MWiggins
Tutor

Re: NightHawk R8500 Shutdown - Overheating?

Thanks for the assistance, but I contacted Netgear support this morning. They issued an RMA for an overheating unit.

 

I came here looking to see if others had experienced this issue. At least now I suppose this thread can serve as reference for anyone else that may encounter it.

Message 4 of 17
VE6CGX
Master

Re: NightHawk R8500 Shutdown - Overheating?

I think either it is over heating or flaky wall wart issue. Some times during assembly they don't use enough heat sinking compund

or heat sink itself is loose.

Message 5 of 17
lhgoh
Aspirant

Re: NightHawk R8500 Shutdown - Overheating?

I have an RMA R8500 unit  2 days back and it is overheating, all the LED seems ok on the router and it is extremely hot when touch.   Wifi can not be found and even after the reboot, the wifi has shown up but it is failing authentication.  Could you decribe your symtom?  Does it as as mine?  Also the firmware used in the failing router?

Message 6 of 17
ElaineM
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: NightHawk R8500 Shutdown - Overheating?

@lhgoh Are you still having issues?

Message 7 of 17
ShoreTech
Tutor

Re: NightHawk R8500 Shutdown - Overheating?

My unit is experincing the exact same issue - It's Summer time here in the US and the unit it's located in an area of the house (Upstairs Loft) that doesn't have good cool air circulation. Recently the unit is failing as you have described  - noticed the following.

 

1) Unit is extremely hot to the touch

2) Issues with 2.4GHz radio and/or 5GHz radios ceasing to broadcast SSID - Unit must stay powered down for a good length of time to cool down before the SSID will broadcast again after a reboot.

3) Issues with powering off and rebooting if the unit is still hot (Goes into a Boot Loop)

4) Issues with Authentications on both 5GHz channels and the 2.4GHz channel

 

I have since moved the unit to a cooler part of the house and I am not experincing the issues above.  

Ambient Tempature in the Loft was 78F, new location Ambient Tempature is 71F

 

EDIT: Running the Latest Firmware as of Post (At work, so I don't know exact Firmware but I'm sure it's the latest available)

Message 8 of 17
ElaineM
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: NightHawk R8500 Shutdown - Overheating?

@ShoreTech Let me forward you to one of our support team.

Message 9 of 17
ElaineM
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: NightHawk R8500 Shutdown - Overheating?

@ShoreTech Is it possible for you to do a temperature test on the unit as to how hot it gets?

Message 10 of 17
ShoreTech
Tutor

Re: NightHawk R8500 Shutdown - Overheating?


@ElaineM wrote:

@ShoreTech Is it possible for you to do a temperature test on the unit as to how hot it gets?


No direct way for me to test the temputare of the unit itself - unless there is a sensor within the unit accessiable via the web admin interface that I'm unaware of.

Recently again the unit displayed odd behavior sitting in a room where the temprature reached 75F and again I had to power the unit down and wait a good 25-30 minutes to let it cool down before it would actually boot, unit again felt very hot to the touch. And as before when it was hot the only light that remaind lit was the Power LED and it was glowing Orange.    Seems that these units have issues with overheating.   I'm going to find a "Laptop" cooler pad to put under it see if it helps with air circulation better. Perhaps a design change is needed maybe a small built-in fan wouldn't hurt.

Message 11 of 17
VE6CGX
Master

Re: NightHawk R8500 Shutdown - Overheating?

Unfortunately NG routers don't have temp. monitoring feature for cpu and radio chips in the firmware like Asus. If over heating is suspected it is pretty easy to prove it. Cool the router with fan to force air thru the router more or remove top cover and run it. If it does not go down you knpow it  may be a heat problem. Also you can take off the heat sink from the said chips to see how well thermal paste or pad is applied. I  don't like pads. They seem less effective compared to good quality paste. Poor treatment of paste or pad is common problem in laptops too.

Often I remove heat sink and reapply good quality paste and make sure HS has a good tight contact to the chip. There is laptop cooling

fan trays you can buy which can be used for router or you can even raise the height of router with bottle caps or such to improve ventilation or

drill more holes on the case.  Another case of router going down is bad or intermittent AC adapter. Some only checks the voltage output but

really the current should be checked under load.

Message 12 of 17
ElaineM
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: NightHawk R8500 Shutdown - Overheating?

@ShoreTech Let me forward you to one of our support team.

They'll contact you separately.

Message 13 of 17
Dr_Craig
Initiate

Re: NightHawk R8500 Shutdown - Overheating?

Hello,

I have read the string of messages and I am also having trouble.  My Nighthawk is only 40 days old and 2 weeks ago it started.  I just thought the unit quit.  I unplugged it and was very upset with the product.  Today, I decided to give it a try again and it turned on.  About 30 minutes into putting and plugging things back into it...it quit again.  Frustrated again, I have gone to customer support where they gave me a number to call in with.  I want to get the RMA too.  

My issue is very possibly the same you guys have had.  It is warm to the touch but my house is cool and this room is cool too.  It is about 70 F in this room.  I just hope the replacement model will work.  Thanks for all talking about the heating up of the unit.  That makes sense.  I just wish the company will do something about it.  I spent quite a bit of money on this product wishing for the best only so far being frustrated.

Model: R8500|Nighthawk X8 Tri-Band AC5300 WiFi Router
Message 14 of 17
ElaineM
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: NightHawk R8500 Shutdown - Overheating?

@Dr_Craig Someone from the support team will contact you regarding your concern.

Message 15 of 17
Dr_Craig
Initiate

Re: NightHawk R8500 Shutdown - Overheating?

Thank you!

Message 16 of 17
ElaineM
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: NightHawk R8500 Shutdown - Overheating?

@Dr_Craig You're welcome.

Message 17 of 17
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