×

Introducing the Orbi 970 Series Mesh System with WiFi 7(BE) technology. For more information visit the NETGEAR Press Room.

Orbi WiFi 7 RBE973
Reply

Re: Orbi RBR40 Random Reboots at Night w/Streaming

dfilip
Guide

Orbi RBR40 Random Reboots at Night w/Streaming

My Orbi / RBR40 router only recently (within the last month) started rebooting itself periodically, and appears to do so only while streaming TV (mostly Apple TV, but once on Amazon Firestick) at night.  I can go for several nights without a problem, and then it will unexpectedly reboot (which I can tell by the pattern of lights on the top).  I have 60+ devices on the WiFi network, but don't remember adding anything significiant / unusual that I added recently.  Most of the devices are computers (over a dozen Macs and Raspberry PIs, Android and iPhones, iPads, and a bunch of Nest thermostats and fire detectors) that communitate frequenty with each other and services on the Internet, so there is always lots of WiFi chatter during the day.  The only thing that is unique at night is streaming TV (e.g., Apple TV).

 

My RBR40 was 3+ years old, so like my experience with some other Netgear (non-WiFi) routers, I thought it had just reached its age.  Therefore, I picked up a brand new RBR40 (original packaging) from eBay to replace it, upgraded it to the most current firmeware, and loaded the configuration.

 

However, I've noticed that the brand new RBR40 started doing the same thing -- periodically rebooting, but apparently only when I am streaming TV at night.

 

Both the old and new devices were upgrage to the latest RBR40 firmware.  Any ideas as to how I can determine how or why these are rebooting themselves?

 

One possible additional hint: when the RBR40 reboots itself -- either old or new -- it will usually reboot itself again if I continue streaming TV usually within the hour, UNLESS I power-cycle the RBR40, in which case it will keep running for a few (2 - 4) days + nights beore it reboots itself again.

 

Also, is 60 - 70 devices too much for this device to handle?  I am using two (2) RBW30 satellites, which is why I did not replace the RBR40 with a newer model (and I didn't want to have to figure out a brand new Orbi configuration, since Netgear is notorious for changing the administrative UI and features between models).

 

Any thoughts or advice as to how I can further troubleshoot this?  Since the device is rebooting itself, the logs are cleared, and resetting to factory defaults is unlikely to resolve since it happened with a brand new device.

 

Anyone else out there experience this same type of problem?

 

Thanks,

 

Dave

Message 1 of 6
CrimpOn
Guru

Re: Orbi RBR40 Random Reboots at Night w/Streaming

It might be interesting to open the Orbi 'debug' page and observe the memory and CPU usage on the router.

i.e. http://orbilogin.net/debug.htm

 

Each tiime the page is refreshed, it will show a snapshot of CPU/memory usage.

 

On that debug page, you can set the Orbi to collect a debug log starting on bootup.  I have no idea if any of this log persists over a reboot, except that one of the files is named panic_log.txt.  And, there's another file called wsplcd-restart.log.

 

I see people post about their Orbi systems spontaneously rebooting and am bewildered.  The only thing that should cause a reboot is a power failure. (would not take long, but certainly long enough to be noticable.)

Message 2 of 6
dfilip
Guide

Re: Orbi RBR40 Random Reboots at Night w/Streaming

Thanks, that is what I was looking for!  I have a BR500 that lists all of that stuff on the first Admin GUI page, but couldn’t find it on the Orbi Admin GUI (see prior comment about Netgear making every Admin UI different both in terms of form and functionality).

 
But what I don’t see is temperature?  Do you know if that is monitored and recorded anywhere?  I used to have a FVS318G — great router when it worked! — that had horrible thermal issues after about a year of continuous use.
 
I’ll set up a curl + cron to pull this debug page periodically and write to disk, so that I can see if there is a particularly high CPU and/or low memory when the reboot occurs.  Unfortunetly it is a bit of JS that runs to get this -- so can't simply scrape the page -- so I will have to reverse engineer the page (OMG!  Just the page that displays the Orbi stats - not debugging anything else @ Netgear!).
 
You wrote:
 
> I see people post about their Orbi systems spontaneously rebooting and am bewildered.
> The only thing that should cause a reboot is a power failure.
 
I agree 100%, and am now worried that an Orbi spontaneously rebooting is not entirely unexpected … 😞
 
However, for 3+ years, I’ve had very good luck, so I’m hoping to find a solution, if not at least an explanation.
 
Gee … I have to remember if this started happening after I applied a recent firmware update???
 
Message 3 of 6
CrimpOn
Guru

Re: Orbi RBR40 Random Reboots at Night w/Streaming

I have not found a way to display CPU temperature on the Orbi. Sorry.

 

Message 4 of 6
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: Orbi RBR40 Random Reboots at Night w/Streaming

If you feel this is a temp issue, one can install a laptop cooler fan under the RBR for some additional forced air cooling. Something I do for any of my routers I put online. Works well. 

Message 5 of 6
dfilip
Guide

Re: Orbi RBR40 Random Reboots at Night w/Streaming

Thanks for the suggestion!  I don't necessarily think it is a temperature issue, because my office where it is running is now +/- 68 degrees, and I never had any problems during the summer months before, but those are the 3x things I typically look for when diagnosting device instability and reboots: Memory Usage, CPU Usage, and Temperature.

 

The BR500 VPN router that I also own from Netgear displays temperature within the Admin GUI (in addition to memory and CPU), so I was hoping that might be available from the RBR40.

 

[And I may also still have memories of having to point an external fan on an old FVS318G to keep it from hanging during the summer months ... metal case and no air holes!]

 

Message 6 of 6
Top Contributors
Discussion stats
  • 5 replies
  • 863 views
  • 1 kudo
  • 3 in conversation
Announcements

Orbi WiFi 7