NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
Router Unable to Boot, Stuck in Bootloop
Hi all,
I am having trouble with my Netgear Nighthawk X6 R8000 currently.
I have had this router for 5.5 years (since August 8, 2014) and it is currently running on the latest firmware (1.04.46_19 since November 2019). The router operates on a 18/7 schedule (i.e. 18 hours a day, 7 days a week on a timer connected to a wall).
The only qualm I have had with this router so far is that the attached HDD is not recognised on first boot, usually needs to be disconnected and then reconnected to get it online. (The disk itself is wonky with intermittent connection).
Starting yesterday, my router exhibits the following systems:
-Upon boot, the router will enter a bootloop, i.e. the router keeps resetting. I cannot enter the web console at all.
-The only way to get the router to boot is to hold the reset button at the back of the router at 7 seconds (and this only works if you do it IMMEDIATELY upon powering on the router. If I attempt to reset it once it enters the bootloop it will never leave the bootloop.) The router will bootloop 3 more times before returning to normal.
The strange thing is, even after resetting, all my settings all come back to normal! I have reset this router before and I understand that I usually must restore the configuration manually.
I have to keep performing the reset step everytime the router reboots, which is just not viable.
Does anyone here have an explanation as to why my router is behaving this way? Or is it time to get a new router? (I hope not!)
I look forward to some solution here. Thank you!
Issue has been resolved, please see post #5 of this thread:
22 Replies
What do the LEDs on the R8000 look like? Especially the power LED?
5.5 years of daily on/off cycling might have done thkigs to the power adapter. Do you have a spare you could try?
Anything with the right volts, amps, polarity and tip size should work.
The cycling may also explain why the HDD plays up. Switching things on/off can confuse things.
Guessing the router may have had an update pushed to it that did not go well.
May need to do the famous, on this site, tftp to get it going again.
https://kb.netgear.com/000059634/How-to-upload-firmware-to-a-NETGEAR-router-using-Windows-TFTP
Just a curiosity question. Why don't you leave the router turned on? Doesn't use that much electricity and opens you up to early life failures, just like it is recommended to not turn a PC off. Inrush can damage components.
labatt wrote:
Guessing the router may have had an update pushed to it that did not go well.
May need to do the famous, on this site, tftp to get it going again.
https://kb.netgear.com/000059634/How-to-upload-firmware-to-a-NETGEAR-router-using-Windows-TFTP
You don't need tftp unless it really is impossible to get into the browser graphical user interface to run the update.
Along the same lines, another thought I had was that the last firmware update didn't stuck.
But given the quality of recent updates, rolling back to an earlier version might be worth trying if the latest continues to play up.
labatt wrote:
Just a curiosity question. Why don't you leave the router turned on? Doesn't use that much electricity and opens you up to early life failures, just like it is recommended to not turn a PC off. Inrush can damage components.
Spot on there. It isn't just the "surge effects" but the possibility of connection issues when the thing boots up.
For a while I ran a modem/router (D6400) in model only mode. The boot process after a power cut was so slow that the rest of the network got left behind. Nothing connected. I installed a modem only box instead.
That an HDD causes problems hints at possible problems on that front.
