1

Hi -

I have a GL-AR300M and use it in a fixed router setup that mainly acts like an access point for wifi. (All the extra functionality is currently off.)
Since a few moths the device seems to freeze up regularly. At first I had to restart the device once every few days as all wifi functionality seized. The time until freezing up has kept decreasing .Now I have to do it about twice a day. Both hardware and software reset seem to have the same effect that everything starts working again for a while.
The problems first started with an older firmware, but the update to the latest version did not change any behavior. The firmware is up-to-date at 3.105 ( Compile Time 2020-12-07 15:32:56 ).

Any thoughts what could cause this?

2

You can change the power adapter and cable and try.

If still not resolved, maybe radio is ageing.

3

I changed the power adapter already without any change, but I will try the cable.
As to aging radio, what component would be affected by age to get such a result?

I could imagine a memory leak or some log events filling buffer or space, but that wouldn’t explain the increasing frequency.

4

Ok, so just in case this might help someone else as well:

Things kept getting worse until the router would freeze up after 1-1.5 hours already.
I could resolve the problem (at least things have been stable for several days).
While updating the firmware did not help at all, a reset to factory defaults (labeled
“revert firmware” in the menu) seemed to help. I would have expected the update of
the firmware to already fix possible problems there, but reverting seems to do something
additional.

5

Maybe it is because of some of the radio parameters. When you upgrade these parameters were kept.

6

Hmm, true, but would you expect them to be able to lock up the whole system?

Anyway, I spoke too early. Shortly after my post everything locked up again. But the reset to factory default still did something to increase the period until freeze-up to 3 days instead of 1-1.5 hours.
Intuitively, I would say that speak against a hardware failure.

I will keep observing it for a while to see if it happens regularly again and report back.

7

I am testing WiFi roaming with Android and have several of these GL-AR300M configured as gateway & access point. These routers have been extremely stable for months in both modes using a 1000ma power supply and 850ma too (which is not recommended.) But I did reduce the WiFi transmit power to 1mw because I need to limit the range of each zone. (I am trying to force wireless clients to switch to the nearest access point automatically.) So maybe you have an overheating problem? (What is the ambient temperature? What happens if you place the router in a vertical orientation?) Can you check these logs for any errors:

http://{router-IP}/cgi-bin/luci/admin/status/syslog
http://{router-IP}/cgi-bin/luci/admin/status/dmesg

would you expect them to be able to lock up the whole system?

Are you sure it is totally frozen? What happens if you log in via terminal / SSH ?

8

Fix is discussed here:

9

CAN CONFIRM! TWO yes two, Shadow gl-ar300m16 and gl-ar300m with nand ARE BOTH doing this after 2 years, ill go MAYBE 3 days THEN get 2 hours of steady use before FREEZE UP. and no, load / usage does NOT matter. it just reboots or freezes whenever totally RANDOM.
Even went so far as to brush down the whole inner board with 95% iso, AND ADDING heat sinks to the chips. (i own a 3rd that ended up just being a donor board for the more expensive Nand one, one of the NoR chips needed replacement 1 year in, easy swap.)

FULLY redone firmware (manually redone to avoid 'settings' issues)
THIS ISSUE should have been fixed SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY!!! (5 different versions of OpenWRT WTF ... ive tried from v18.0.1- v24.1.0 even the stock one from GL net is rebooting or FREEZING this thing.. NO INFO like this issue doesnt exsist? {ugh, ive even suggested this to customers and clients .. if IM having the issue THEY will too, and now its on me.}
AVOID this router.. built to die ..
Yes, i have redone even the UBOOT kernel partitons ect ect. NOTHING has helped with this issue.
Junk hardware? if so All research resulted in 0 and = Same answer.
after 5 years and 6 different versions of this little router they have all died, and im down to 1 (not even the good Nand one..):face_with_tongue:
Dont use this router, or i would assume, all variations of its hardware lifespan?
So that would include
Shadow -
GL-AR300M-Lite (Nor Only)
GL-AR300M16 (NoR only)
GL-AR300M (128 Nand and NoR)
GL-AR300M-Ext (128 Nand and NoR)
GL-AR300M-Ext16 (NoR only)
-*
After years with 3 of them in rotation, way more trouble than they are worth.
1 star, would be 0 stars. but -insert reason-