GL-AR300M not booting reliably - big problem

lostdog · 2016-11-17T10:10:03.000Z

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.

wesmantooth267 · 2016-12-12T03:58:48.000Z

@<span style=“background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #222222; font-family: source_sans_proregular, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;”>stmorrjbvdrg70</span>

I am having the same issues. Which is very frustrating because I’m using a usb tethered device dedicated to the router. When it resets it shuts off the connection from the phone and someone has to physically connect it again. Which is not an issue when someone is on site. But that’s not always the case and would have to travel an hour or so just to turn it back on.

@alzhao

I’ve used both the 1amp and 2amp ac adapters thinking the power draw was to large but it continues to reset the router. I ordered a 2 router to test thinking I received a bad device. This one too have the same issues. Do you have any suggestions?

alzhao · 2016-12-16T00:21:37.000Z

@wesmantooth267, which 4G LTE modem are you using? we can have a try here.

ohliuv · 2017-09-16T13:29:44.000Z

Hi alzhao, did you guys figure out what the problem is?

My ar300m worked fine for 4 months, then started experiencing the boot issue described in this thread. Ordered a new one, hope it will be fine.

Do you need more units to investigate? Could ship it directly to you when the new one arrives.

ch3sco · 2018-05-09T01:19:37.100Z

Hello, I wonder if there is a solution on this issue.

I see @alzhao is doing some research on this…I bought my GL-AR300M16-ext thru amazon last February and have been using it since that date, about three weeks ago it started to behave like the other cases in this thread.

Yesterday I flashed the firmware 2.261 (or the one its suppose to come from factory), worked fine for the night, but today after power it down to move it to its place, it hasn’t boot, should I try another firmware?

please let me know,

Thanks

Francesco

alzhao · 2018-05-09T08:37:08.934Z

Can you ship the device back to me? You’d better just let it be (cannot power up). I want to connect serial port and check what message is there.

As your device doesn’t have Nand flash so this should not relate to Nand.

ch3sco · 2018-05-17T00:56:37.955Z

Hi, As I live in Venezuela, it wont be cost effective (for me) to send the Router to Germany (Or back to the USA where I bought it), If you want I can connect to the serial port and send you whatever you tell me, but, I have some news.

about three or four days ago, I noticed some misbehavior with the cable (the white one which comes with the Router) I changed the cable, and I have had four or five shutdown since the cable change and those five times the router has boot up as it should. (I also was able to install the latest firmware)

I used the router ex-wire to charge my phone with a battery case, and every time it has problems, disconnecting or not having enough power to charge the phone and battery case as it should, so the problem might be in the cable, I’ve read a lot of people trying other power supply (even me) but not sure if they tried different cables. And everybody have experienced the same behavior after about the same time period, a bad batch of cables? some kind of degradation?

As I have one 4 hour shutdown a day (country problems) i can tell later if everyday it has booted up well, so far so good.