GL-AR300M not booting reliably - big problem

alzhao · 2016-10-25T19:37:21.000Z

I don’t need the usb disk. Please return it to Amazon and declare it as broken. Please put a sticker on the router saying the problem (or just from forum z0rg) that would be very helpful to us.

z0rg · 2016-11-01T15:25:06.000Z

Hey @alzhao,

I sent it back as broken yesterday. Wrote my nick in the Amazon form and on the piece of paper i put in the package. Will be interesting to see what you find out.

alzhao · 2016-11-03T17:40:42.000Z

thanks

z0rg · 2016-11-16T19:49:30.000Z

Hey @alzhao,

Can you tell where that router is right now and if you have any insights already? I am traveling more and more and I miss that beautiful little box. Probably I will wait until you release the ac version of the AR300M anyway. I am so looking forward to it, travel routers rock!

rene · 2016-11-17T01:59:11.000Z

Hey z0rg,

i think the router you´ve received was a monday product

I would just purchase another one and i think it would run great, i´m having no issues so far with it.

z0rg · 2016-11-17T02:27:38.000Z

Hey Rene,

Agreed, however there are other people in that thread with the same issue. Still, something might be wrong with the product. You are right, I will just buy another one, because I could return it to Amazon again in the end.

lostdog · 2016-11-17T10:10:03.000Z

@Z0rg,

Yup, I’m another one who has serious issues with my AR300M. A factory reset gets it to work but the next time I try and use it it locks up. Frustrating!

alzhao · 2016-11-18T13:01:30.000Z

@z0rg, when did you send back to Amazon? I haven’t get it back. Sometimes Amazon throw away my stuff quickly before I get it back.

@LostDog, I uploaded firmware version 2.24. You can download from GL.iNet download center

AR300M firmware was having a problem in firmware 2.19. The data is not sync to the nand flash immediately. That means when you change something and reboot the router, all the unsaved data will be lost. But this has been fixed in later firmware by using “sync” everytime you change something in the UI. If you change something using ssh or luci, you can execute “sync” manually in ssh and data will be saved to flash.

dvdivx · 2016-11-23T01:40:25.000Z

I have 2 <span style=“color: #222222; font-family: source_sans_proregular, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px;”>GL-AR300M and both have been rock solid but both have holes where the antennas would go. It could be in need of a tiny heatsink. The holes help with ventilation. Neither one reboots and they both get to be VPN servers running 24/7. I’m running the 2.23 firmware on both.</span>

z0rg · 2016-11-23T06:13:53.000Z

@dvdivx @Rene I bought another one from Amazon (the one with 2 antennas) and it’s just working as expected. There is still some issues with WiSP mode. So when you switch the Wifi it should relay it reboots Wifi and sometimes Wifi doesn’t come up properly. But it works a lot better than it did before. I try out the LEDE Project image right now, which also seems to work great so far. I have to say it’s a nice little piece of hardware! Still awaiting the AC module

Edit: @alzhao I sent it back on 31st of octobre already. Should have arrived at Amazon on the 3rd or something of novenber.

alzhao · 2016-11-23T22:28:10.000Z

@z0rg, thanks. Hope I can get it back for investigation. I needs some time and luck.

lostdog · 2016-11-27T14:35:09.000Z

@alzhao,

I’m still getting “cannot update wan” errors with 2.24 firmware on the GL-AR300M. If I’m not using WISP mode the router works great. After a factory reset I can make a successful connection using WISP but if I then try a different access point I get “cannot update wan” and cannot do anything until a factory reset.

alzhao · 2016-11-28T15:38:24.000Z

@LostDog, what device and browser are you using?

I am using iphone and safari and I don’t have this problem.

If you have problems now, you don’t need a factory reset. You can press and hold the reset button and the middle LEDs will flash. After 3 seconds it will flash quicker then you can release your finger. Now the network will reset and you can re-configure again.

lostdog · 2016-12-01T22:18:12.000Z

@alzhao,

Thank you for the follow up. I’ve tried Android (7.0), Edge, Firefox and Chromium (all on Windows). I’ve not had a chance to boot to linux on my laptop and test that but I’ll give it a try. I’ll also give the three second button press a try and see if that fixes it.
I’d be happy to send you more system logs if you’d like.

Thanks!

alzhao · 2016-12-02T22:14:06.000Z

OK. I will try on Windows as well next week.

wesmantooth267 · 2016-12-03T04:16:05.000Z

@alzhao,

I too have been having issues with the US amazon device I bought (Azure: AR300). All have been updated to 2.24 firmware. After reading this thread I just realized that the device has been plugged into a 5v 1Amp AC adapter. I am now testing a 2Amp AC Adapter. It keeps rebooting on me. I will keep you updated.

stmorrjbvdrg70 · 2016-12-05T15:53:17.000Z

Seems like I have a similar issue with an AR150 (bought directly I think). I rebuild it, it works fine for a few power-ups/days before locking up. Normally I can power up, then medium press the reset button to clear the network settings, or if I’m having significant issues I’ll need to long press it and do a complete rebuild. Not sure what happened yesterday but it powered up okay but didn’t seek to actually boot as pressing the reset button post power-up didn’t do anything. I had to upload a new firmware via uboot. I’ve been running the 2.24 firmware (previously during beta). I’m either powering off a 5V 1A portable battery pack or a 5V 2A USB port on an Anker adapter. Given the router is rated for 1A I’m not sure why it absolutely needs 2A. Does this need to be updated?

I’m finding the micro USB port to be a bit unreliable as the power either fully drops out or will cause intermittent resets if the PCB is in the housing - slightly moving the USB cable when it’s plugged in is enough to do it, and sometimes I cannot get it to power on at all (happens with multiple cables). I’ve removed the card from the case and placed it directly on a bench; it’s been maintaining power properly for a couple of hours now

It’d be useful if the LEDs did something to indicate an issue bringing up the network or other core component; other than the wifi network not showing up, there’s no way to tell what’s going on and diagnosing issues on the road with just a phone/tablet can be tedious.

alzhao · 2016-12-05T21:06:43.000Z

@ stmorrjbvdrg70, thanks for the feedback. AR150 should consume less power and 1A should be enough. If the Micro USB contact is not good, you can try to plug and unplug several times to make it contact better. If the MicroUSB connector is not well soldered, you may need an exchange. Seems the issue is still not very clear and I cannot say anything about it now.

stanislav · 2016-12-06T05:07:09.000Z

My GL-AR300M-315 arrived in the post today at 20:00 CET, tried to set it up, my computer picked it up in WiFi at first but now at 22:00 CET cannot pick it up anymore… connecting power via usb phone adapter cable to my home router and WAN-LAN via ethernet… no matter what I do, windows 10 won’t recognize it.

Any advice would be appreciated before I return it.

lostdog · 2016-12-06T13:53:31.000Z

@Stanislav - Sounds like similar issues to what many of us are experiencing. Are you using repeater mode (WISP)? Try factory reset and see if it works again.

@Alzhao - I had a chance to try it today. When I first logged in via wifi it would not show any access points in the repeater (WISP) menu. I held the reset button for ~3 seconds and I was then able to see the Google Starbucks access point. The problem was when I tried to select it I got the “cannot update wan” message again.

It seems if I want to use the router I have to factory reset every time I select a new access point.