Router factory resets after every reboot

[Sepster]

I've had the Xr1000 router for a month now with no issues until a couple of days ago when the powerline next to my house decided to blow up and the power got shut off for a couple of hours before someone from the electricity company came to fix it. After that, when power came back and the router was up I couldn't login to DUMA OS. I would get this error message: 

haserl CGI Error
Failed to readline from 'config get DumaOS_Theme_Version'
 

So I looked it up and one of the suggestions was to reboot the router so I did with the power button on the back and the router had "factory reset" in a way on it's own. The network name and password and all the settings like smart connect were back to factory but the custom device names I had given to each device in the device manager were still there. I did a full factory reset after that thinking wth might as well set everything up again and reboot the router with the new reboot option in the OS.

Why? for 3 reasons,

1) I wanted to test it out since it is fairly new 

2) in another post regarding a similar issue OP had the same problem occur again after a reboot and I wanted to see if it was fixed.

3) I needed to know if the power goes out again at some point in my life which it most definitely will or I have to disconnect the router to move it or whatever if this would happen again. 

After the reboot same issue occurred I couldn't access the DUMAOS again so I had to reboot from my phone this time which reset everything and so now force updated the OS with the same update 1.0.0.52_1.0.38. I won't do a factory reset however just yet and also won't reboot just cus I don't wana set everything up again incase the force update hasn't fixed things.
Basically if you reboot once, you can't access DUMAOS and you get the error message I posted above. so then you have to reboot a second time which factory resets the router for some reason but in return allows you to log in to DUMAOS and fixed that error issue.

Now my question is do we know if this is a hardware issue that may have caused after the power outage while considering the fact that someone else in the post I linked has a similar issue and OP didn't have a power outage to potentially have damaged his unit. Or is this a software issue and we just have to deal with it in the mean time and hope to get fixed at some point? Cus if it is hardware, I would like to know to see if I should get a new one but if it is software I would just suck it up for now. 

TIA

[Netduma Liam]

Thanks for posting your full experience, that's really helpful.

This isn't too common of an issue but so I can't for sure whether the issue is hardware, software or just environment based yet.

Initially I would suspect it's a result of the power outage, but can't say for certain particularly as the previous user who experienced the issue didn't have this in common with you.

Let us know if the issue persists for you or if you see any other problems after this, unfortunately we can't yet recreate the issue internally as it's not occurring with any of our internal units.

[Sepster]

Well. 2 other things just happened. 
 

1) I believe the factory reset isn’t working properly as after I reset, there are always a couple of devices connected to the wifi even though it is technically reset with a new password and i can not remove those devices even though they are offline technically per what the router says. i did just rest with the button on the router so will see how that goes.

 

2) The router stopped working completely. Devices were connected and OS worked but no internet. (Internet is working, confirmed by direct connecting to my computer) thats why I did another reset just now with the button. I think although the random factory reset issue after every reboot may not 100% be due to power outage, but something else seems like may have been damage. I guess I will have to wait and see if this latest factory reset with the button worked or not after some use.

 

thanks.
 

 

[Netduma Liam]

OK thanks for the additional information.

I don't suppose you remember if the XR1000 had a WAN IP when you noticed you could access the interface but not the internet? You would've found this in System information.

Are there still two random devices in Device Manager after the reset? Is there any indication as to what these devices are? Are you able to remove then by hitting "Remove offline devices" in the three-line menu?

Let us know if issues persist after the reset.

[Newfie]

Did you reset the router using the reset option in the software or the rear pinhole method?

don’t use the software reset, hold the rear pinhole in for around 20 seconds. This will clear the NVram properly. Don’t use a saved config, you need to setup as new. 
 

if you then reboot and it fails to remember your previous setting ie. it goes through the setup I personally would RMA the unit.

[Sepster]

7 hours ago, Netduma Liam said:

OK thanks for the additional information.

I don't suppose you remember if the XR1000 had a WAN IP when you noticed you could access the interface but not the internet? You would've found this in System information.

Are there still two random devices in Device Manager after the reset? Is there any indication as to what these devices are? Are you able to remove then by hitting "Remove offline devices" in the three-line menu?

Let us know if issues persist after the reset.

Sorry for the late response. Got caught up with work.

I unfortunately don’t remember the WAN IP. The random devices that are still there after a factory reset are my own devices but they can not be removed. They are in the offline category in dumaos and i can press the delete button but it gives me a error message saying they are connected so they can not be removed. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) apple devices by default use private mac addresses when connecting to a new wifi so every time the router resets and I connected with my iPhone, it gives the router a completely new mac addresss. So one of the two devices that are left every time I reset the router is my iPhone. Just with a different mac address because of the private macaddress feature. 
 

[Sepster]

6 hours ago, Newfie said:

Did you reset the router using the reset option in the software or the rear pinhole method?

don’t use the software reset, hold the rear pinhole in for around 20 seconds. This will clear the NVram properly. Don’t use a saved config, you need to setup as new. 
 

if you then reboot and it fails to remember your previous setting ie. it goes through the setup I personally would RMA the unit.

I have tried both the pinhole and through software. Both give the same result. 

[Newfie]

10 hours ago, Sepster said:

I have tried both the pinhole and through software. Both give the same result. 

Factory reset again with pinhole and install the latest firmware over the top. Reset again then test. If the problem remains I would be thinking of RMA.

[Netduma Fraser]

It is possible it was due to the outage, if you didn't have the issue before but you did after then may have received an electrical surge.

Here is what I would recommend:

1. Unplug the router from power for 10 minutes to let any residual power drain
2. Download the latest firmware again https://kb.netgear.com/000062702/XR1000-Firmware-Version-1-0-0-52
3. Re-upgrade to the same firmware using the TFTP method: https://kb.netgear.com/000059634/How-to-upload-firmware-to-a-NETGEAR-router-using-Windows-TFTP this will upgrade the router bypassing the boot process so if an issue lies there now hopefully we can remove it.
4. Once the router has re-upgraded (wait 2 minutes after completion of TFTP) then factory reset but holding the reset button for 30 seconds, release, wait 2 minutes then access

See if everything seems to be working then. If it does make changes to your settings and save a backup file from Settings > Administration. That way if it happens again you can restore the config from a time when you know it was working. Also reboot the router from the interface as this will act as a hard save and so if it happens again your settings shouldn't reset.

[Alias 1aB]

from what you're saying, I think your router crapped out. Power surge fried something and I doubt it messed up your software. I had an XR450 that every time the power was cycled, it would factory reset. That was basically like the motherboard CMOS battery in your computer not working but in this case not the same fix. Lucky for me mine was still under 1 year warranty and I got Netgear to replace it for free. You should probably try the same thing.

[FrankM530]

Bro this has been happening to me also it will not let me login to the dumaos interface so i tried restarting multiple times with power button since i cant threw dumaos and nothing so i went to the mobile nighthawk app and for some reason everytime i reboot threw the app or restart using the power button it factory resets all my setting pretty annoying considering i sometimes need to restart since ipv6 still keeps on breaking every other day....

[Netduma Liam]

4 hours ago, franko530 said:

Bro this has been happening to me also it will not let me login to the dumaos interface so i tried restarting multiple times with power button since i cant threw dumaos and nothing so i went to the mobile nighthawk app and for some reason everytime i reboot threw the app or restart using the power button it factory resets all my setting pretty annoying considering i sometimes need to restart since ipv6 still keeps on breaking every other day....

Sorry to hear that, could you please clarify exactly what router this is on as well as what firmware version you're currently running on that router?

[FrankM530]

xr1000 latest firmware also it will randomly just one day not let me login and i get the same message well actually i get two different ones .. one will say dumaos is not loaded yet we will redirect you once it is up never happens and say i try to turn off the router and then on doesn't fix it the other message is the same one Haserl CGI Error
Failed to readline from 'config get DumaOS_Theme_Version' and there is basically nothing i can do once one of those messages besides turning it off and on which doesn't fix it and will somehow factory reset all my setting and i have to agree to the terms and setup again and the other way i was able to reboot is threw the ios nighthawk app but when i reboot threw the app it also factory resets the router instead of just a simple reboot...
 

[Newfie]

Go to the support page and download the latest firmware. Then reinstall the firmware using the manual update followed by a factory reset using the rear pinhole method. Remember to allow time for the update to be installed and hold the rear pinhole in for at least 20 seconds. Do not turn the router off at any point.

see if that cures your issue.

[FrankM530]

do you mean tftp i tried doing that yesterday and for some reason i kept getting a error saying it wasn't able to read from that file can it be that when i download the firmware  under type of file it says recovered file fragments?

 

[Newfie]

No just the normal manual update found in the settings on the router.

[FrankM530]

ok ill try that thanks.