Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Actiontec MI424WR with bad capXons

Collapse
X
Collapse
 
  • Page of 1
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
Previous template Next
    #1

    Actiontec MI424WR with bad capXons

    Our wireless router that has been going good for years just got bad, it would drop connection and crash like once or twice every 30min. Of course, this got annoying, since it takes like almost 5min to boot up.

    I told my parents, and they agreed I could take a look at it. Well, I found 6 bloated/nearly exploded CapXon capacitors inside. They were 2x 330uF 6.3V, and 4x 220uF 10v. The only replacements I had on hand were nichicon VR 470uF 10v caps, although they are 85C rated, I went ahead and replaced the bad caps. Now the router works well again

    None of CrapXon caps vented, but they bulged, and pushed their rubber bung out. Three of them had the rubber bung broken into pieces from the buildup of pressure!

    -Ben
    Attached Files
    Muh-soggy-knee
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: Actiontec MI424WR with bad capXons

    Originally posted by ben7 View Post
    Of course, this got annoying, since it takes like almost 5min to boot up.
    I don't keep up with all the consumer CPE equipment, but I never heard of a consumer router taking 5 minutes to boot? My Cisco/Linksys takes maybe 5 seconds to boot. Maybe the majority of that time is spent downloading the profile or something?

    Now back in 1992, when IBM thought they could build a router out of a 6611 RISC station and thought they could compete with the younger smaller players, it definitely took over 5 minutes to boot.

    Imagine, changing the subnet mask, and the 6611 says it needs to reboot. Oops, need to make an OSPF change, reboot. Building a simple config file would take well over 35 minutes of rebooting. So much for fives 9's of uptime with all the rebooting.
    Last edited by retiredcaps; 02-01-2012, 10:50 PM.
    --- begin sig file ---

    If you are new to this forum, we can help a lot more if you please post clear focused pictures (max resolution 2000x2000 and 2MB) of your boards using the manage attachments button so they are hosted here. Information and picture clarity compositions should look like this post.

    We respectfully ask that you make some time and effort to read some of the guides available for basic troubleshooting. After you have read through them, then ask clarification questions or report your findings.

    Please do not post inline and offsite as they slow down the loading of pages.

    --- end sig file ---

    Comment

      #3
      Re: Actiontec MI424WR with bad capXons

      Um, my fairly new 2Wire DSL gateway takes several minutes to boot up.


      On topic. it must be all that Minecraft that heats up your router...
      just kidding

      Comment

        #4
        Re: Actiontec MI424WR with bad capXons

        Originally posted by shovenose View Post
        Um, my fairly new 2Wire DSL gateway takes several minutes to boot up.
        I'm going to split hairs and say that the 2wire DSL gateway is a combo CPE and router. I'm talking about standalone consumer home routers like a Cisco/Linksys.

        At home, I have Motorola cable modem (CPE) and a Cisco/Linksys consumer router (2 seperate devices). The Cisco/Linksys boots in about 5 seconds. The Motorola cable modem takes longer and I never timed it, but it is nowhere near 5 minutes. I'm guessing less than 60 seconds.

        When I had problems with the cable itself, it would take forever to sync with the CO, but the actual booting of the cable modem is way way less than 5 minutes.

        When I had DSL, it was also a standalone 3Com DSL modem and that didn't take more than 1 minute either.

        Hmm, I just remembered I got a free 2wire gateway sitting in the garage. I might boot it up and see if I can reach the http interface and time it. If not, I can hookup a protocol analyzer and see when the gateway starts broadcasting IP packets.

        Remember that most of these devices boot from flash and are usually never more than 4MB of linux code. Now it is possible that the ISPs put in a lot of startup checks, authorization, billling, etc, etc that causes a startup delay. Then again, I have been out of the ISP/CO/CPE world for a while now and things could have changed.
        Last edited by retiredcaps; 02-02-2012, 12:35 AM.
        --- begin sig file ---

        If you are new to this forum, we can help a lot more if you please post clear focused pictures (max resolution 2000x2000 and 2MB) of your boards using the manage attachments button so they are hosted here. Information and picture clarity compositions should look like this post.

        We respectfully ask that you make some time and effort to read some of the guides available for basic troubleshooting. After you have read through them, then ask clarification questions or report your findings.

        Please do not post inline and offsite as they slow down the loading of pages.

        --- end sig file ---

        Comment

          #5
          Re: Actiontec MI424WR with bad capXons

          Cable modems in general need up to 15-30 minutes when they're first started to test the 4-8 channels they're preset to use and pick the best ones in your area.

          I have a Motorola Docsis3 cable modem ... it took about 20 minutes when I first plugged it to go up to the 100/6 speed and determine the best pair of frequency/channels to stick to... now when I restart it every 3-4 months, it takes basically about 20 seconds to boot.

          The boot is quite simple...
          boot strapper loads firmware from flash,
          scan the channels for best downlink and uplink signal,
          download the configuration file from isp through a separate internal network interface,
          (if specified in config file download and flash itself with a new firmware and reboot and start again)
          initialize the voip telephone if I have rights to and it detects it connected in the back of the modem
          done.

          Some similar stuff goes with the tv set top box.. that's instant but it's actually more complex because it uses nagravision to encrypt all channels

          Comment

            #6
            Re: Actiontec MI424WR with bad capXons

            My openwrt broadcom stuff takes like 2 or so minutes to boot.

            Comment

            Previous template Next
            Working...