XR500 locks up/reboots

[Rallymen007]

Hello,

My XR500 has developed an issue where it seemingly locks up and reboots approximately every 20 hours, sometimes less. I don't exactly know when it started happening but it's very noticeable since I started working from home 2 weeks ago. It worked great for 11 months and as far as I can tell nothing changed. There are more devices connected all day long and my brother got a new phone but I doubt a couple more devices on the WLAN would cause it to blow up spectacularly.

When it happens all devices lose internet connection (and DHCP if I try to reconnect a device before the reboot) and the router's web interface is inacessible. After a few seconds the power LED turns red then it reboots and resumes operation seemingly normally.

What I tried:

• Factory reset with .56
• Downgrade to .40
• Factory reset with .40
• Downgrade to .32
• Factory reset with .32

Every factory reset the only settings I change are:

• SSIDs/passwords
• LAN IP (from .1 to .88 because that's what I used on the old R1)
• Static IPs for my home servers
• Port forwarding for these servers
• Static router IP
• Disable UPnP

My setup the XR500 connected over ethernet to an Orange Livebox 4 that really only does FTTH modem. XR500 is DMZ'd for gaming purposes. I did do a bit of dust cleaning inside the router with compressed air but it was clean already so no overheating issues. All IPv4 as IPv6 seems to break DumaOS to the point I get catastrophic packet loss on my computer.

 

So if anyone has an idea, or if there is a way I can access the pre-reboot logs to take a peek that would be great!

 

Rally

[Tialyx]

Sounds like we are experiencing a lot of the same issues and we've tried a number of similar steps.  I'd say check out my thread along with the things i've done / things the admin has recommended. Granted I haven't gotten things fully fixed yet but it's possible you might get some ideas here.

 

 

[Netduma Admin]

Hi there - everything you’ve tried is very logical. The fact it’s breaking still post downgrade and factory reset unfortunately suggests this is a hardware issue. You should still be under warranty if you’re within 1 year. I recommend you contact Netgear for a replacement and apologies we can’t be more help - you’ve already tried everything I can think of suggesting. 

[Rallymen007]

Since I did another factory reset on .32 it has been running smoothly for now 3 days. Wouldn't call it a victory just yet (or ever really, it's still outdated software) but it's going in the right direction at least.

So if you have ideas or troubleshooting steps to try for what would break post .32 I'm all ears.

[Netduma Fraser]

There aren't any changes between those firmware versions that I could attribute this issue to unfortunately. It's doubtful there are any specific settings causing this either. However, could you check the livebox please and see how long its DHCP lease is please? Also as you've DMZ'd the XR did you set a static IP for it on the livebox? If not could you do this please and then also on the XR in Internet Setup change it to use static instead of dynamic please. 

[Rallymen007]

I think the Livebox issues 24h DHCP leases, but the XR is fully configured with static IPs. It has a static IP assigned in the Livebox's DHCP server so the DMZ works and itself is configured to use a static IP.

I'll try to upgrade back see if whatever issue was purely temporary, and in any case contact netgear to get a replacement device once I'm no longer working from home.

Thanks!

[Netduma Fraser]

Okay let us know! Check in Settings > Monitoring > Connection Status and see if the lease obtained matches the livebox lease it's been given as well.

[Rallymen007]

Yeah the lease matches.

Was daring yesterday and did the update back to .56 with a factory reset. The crashes are back yay! More or less the same process, internet/wlan LEDs freeze, ethernet LEDs still work, and after 10 seconds or so it reboots.

This is the last frame I get before the crash. Nothing out of the ordinary except for that one device that asked for an IP 5 times in 3 minutes. That's a computer on the wifi so nothing exotic. I now gave it a fixed IP in the XR500 DHCP config to see if it helps.

[Guest Killhippie]

4 hours ago, Rallymen007 said:

Yeah the lease matches.

Was daring yesterday and did the update back to .56 with a factory reset. The crashes are back yay! More or less the same process, internet/wlan LEDs freeze, ethernet LEDs still work, and after 10 seconds or so it reboots.

This is the last frame I get before the crash. Nothing out of the ordinary except for that one device that asked for an IP 5 times in 3 minutes. That's a computer on the wifi so nothing exotic. I now gave it a fixed IP in the XR500 DHCP config to see if it helps.

To be honest this sounds like a hardware issue, if you are within your countries warranty contact Netgear and start the process for a RMA from your Netgear account. Good luck and stay safe.

[Netduma Fraser]

The only thing I could suggest would be to give all devices a static/reserved IP and then disable the DHCP server to see whether that fixes it and is does lean towards that being the cause, not ideal I know. Otherwise it could be a hardware issue as KH has suggested.

[Rallymen007]

So a couple of hours after my last post the router restarted after the same DHCP shitstorm. So I yeeted it off the network and the router has been up with no single issue for 4 days now.

So yeah definitely looking like a DHCP server update made it blow up when this device is on the network. Not sure why, especially because this device doesn't seem to be having issues on my OpenWRT router.

[Tallone]

from my own issues with a very similar problem i think the dhcp in the current build is flawed as it seems to be a time related thing im wondreing if its a memory leak but i have to reboot my x500 between 3-6 days regular as clockwork and sometimes takes more than 1 reboot like you i have been advised to set staic ips but then i have 35+ things on the network thats no small undertaking im holding out for the next firmware to hope and pray that  fixes it else im afraid ill be shopping elsewhere

[Rallymen007]

Yeah I'm really thinking it has a bug as well. Not sure if memory related because on my router the CPU/RAM usage graphs are not particularly alarming even after 5+ days of running. Averages around 50% CPU usage and around 50% of the RAM is shown as free.

In my case I think it just can't handle that computer and probably makes the entire thing kernel panic because if it just crashed the DHCP server I'd expect it to be able to be restarted without restarting everything?

[Netduma Fraser]

On 4/6/2020 at 7:55 AM, Rallymen007 said:

So a couple of hours after my last post the router restarted after the same DHCP shitstorm. So I yeeted it off the network and the router has been up with no single issue for 4 days now.

So yeah definitely looking like a DHCP server update made it blow up when this device is on the network. Not sure why, especially because this device doesn't seem to be having issues on my OpenWRT router.

Sorry could you clarify please, you're using another router now and not getting the issue? So there is one device that seems to trigger the behaviour but is fine when nothing else is connected?

On 4/6/2020 at 7:28 PM, Tallone said:

from my own issues with a very similar problem i think the dhcp in the current build is flawed as it seems to be a time related thing im wondreing if its a memory leak but i have to reboot my x500 between 3-6 days regular as clockwork and sometimes takes more than 1 reboot like you i have been advised to set staic ips but then i have 35+ things on the network thats no small undertaking im holding out for the next firmware to hope and pray that  fixes it else im afraid ill be shopping elsewhere

How long is your lease in Connect Status? Might be that the router itself is getting a new IP which knocks everything off rather than devices specifically. Are you using static in Internet Setup?

[Rallymen007]

12 hours ago, Netduma Fraser said:

Sorry could you clarify please, you're using another router now and not getting the issue? So there is one device that seems to trigger the behaviour but is fine when nothing else is connected?

I took that computer off the XR500 and connected it to another router and the XR500 stopped rebooting. Now up for 6 days with no issues. All the other devices that were connected to the XR500 are still connected to it.

12 hours ago, Netduma Fraser said:

How long is your lease in Connect Status? Might be that the router itself is getting a new IP which knocks everything off rather than devices specifically. Are you using static in Internet Setup?

I also see that line in the log:

[Internet connected] IP address: 192.168.10.2, Wednesday, April 08, 2020 07:22:44

Which is 13 minutes ago, or how much time passed since the lease was obtained. So it seems like the router gets its IP from the Livebox no worries and it did several times since last reboot.

[Klesk Reaver]

28 minutes ago, Rallymen007 said:

I also see that line in the log:

[Internet connected] IP address: 192.168.10.2, Wednesday, April 08, 2020 07:22:44

Which is 13 minutes ago, or how much time passed since the lease was obtained. So it seems like the router gets its IP from the Livebox no worries and it did several times since last reboot.

Damn! I wish my ISP gave me a lease time that long, mine are 30 mins, my ISP's DHCP servers must be insane

[Netduma Fraser]

9 hours ago, Rallymen007 said:

I took that computer off the XR500 and connected it to another router and the XR500 stopped rebooting. Now up for 6 days with no issues. All the other devices that were connected to the XR500 are still connected to it.

That is really strange, what brand/model is it? Is there anything unique about it such as using a different ethernet card or anything you can think of?

[Rallymen007]

On 4/8/2020 at 7:10 PM, Netduma Fraser said:

That is really strange, what brand/model is it? Is there anything unique about it such as using a different ethernet card or anything you can think of?

It's a rebranded Medion P2004 with an i3-3240. The WLAN card inside of it is a Realtek RTL8188CE mini PCI-e card (PCI\VEN_10EC&DEV_8176&SUBSYS_821110EC), running what I think is the latest version of the driver (2012.12.331.2016 from Windows Update).

And no there's nothing special that would make me think it wouldn't work. It works with an older version of the firmware and works on another router so it's definitely linked to something that changed inside the XR500 firmware. It may be that now the DHCP server reacts badly to a bad configuration of that machine while it used not to.

If I get some time I'll tinker with that machine, try to boot it off a clean Windows To Go external drive and try a USB WLAN dongle.

[Netduma Fraser]

Could you rollback the WiFi driver please and see if it works after that? https://it.nmu.edu/docs/roll-back-wireless-driver

Also let us know how you get on with what you try.