Suggest you ask here: https://www.snbforums.com/forums/asuswrt-merlin.42/

Some of you may not be aware that there is an Asus Malaysia official rep thread in Networks and Broadband subforum. Better to ask your RMA questions there.

My AC86U died last night. No LEDs on the front, no WiFi, no ethernet, although the USB stick in the back does light up. The PSU is giving 19V as it should. Can't rule out a lightning strike because there was a big storm last night. I wasn't using cooling.

Chinese unit, bought it Oct 18 from Taobao Collection on Lazada. I've read the horror stories about RMA to China - anyone been successful with that?

Tips for a replacement unit? I'd like to have the option to flash Merlin FW, or similar.

More expensive than I want. Looking at the AC66U-B1.

I found your posts and the tips are useful, thanks. I think the problem will be getting the Lazada seller (Taobao Collection) to contact Asus and arrange the RMA. Lazada CS are onto it. I assume it's effectively impossible for me to contact Asus China directly (I don't speak Chinese)?

As I mentioned before, I have a dead AC86U from China. Really the seller or agent should help me to get RMA, but mine is not helping. With assistance from other lowyat users I got onto Taobao and used the Ali wangwang app to chat (in English!) with Asus Flagship Store. They gave out their return address and a telephone number. If anyone needs it, PM me.

The remaining problem is that they will only send the replacement unit to a China address and I don't know anyone in China.

This post has been edited by tertiary: Jun 19 2019, 05:16 PM

Yes, that may be the only way. Can anyone recommend an honest, reliable Taobao agent?

Wireless transmission power is said to be lower with the China-sourced units. Not an issue in a small unit.

Depends how close your PC is to the router. 5m away, in direct line of sight, I was getting close to 500Mbps with Chinese unit on 5GHz. If there's a wall or two in between, then speeds would be affected.

This post has been edited by tertiary: Jun 22 2019, 04:10 PM

Got my replacement router from Asus China after sending the dead one back. Total cost for postage etc RM155. Total time under four weeks. It was a pain in the #$@, even with the patient help of a Taobao forwarding agent. If you don't speak Chinese I would advise against buying from China - the RMA process is such a big hassle.

Anyway, I finally have a working AC86U again. The sticker shows hardware version 1.5 (not sure what the old one was), manufactured in 2019. Doing some TV streaming now and the CPU is at 77 degrees.

I'm not convinced the problem is heat. Others here (and in this topic) have said they had fans running and the router still died. Probably a design/manufacturing fault with the early versions.

I could install fans just to be safe but I don't want even minimal noise from that.

Fair enough, but you were the one who said it had nothing to with cooling, in this post

Click on the link I gave in my last post (the words in red). In that thread you said:



So why do you advocate cooling now? Selling fans?

This post has been edited by tertiary: Jul 17 2019, 01:49 PM

You could have said, "Cooling fans won't stop your router dying, but if you want to fit them they're really quiet". That would have been consistent. I think it ill serves owners of the AC86U to imply that heat is the problem and fans will cure it - they will not. That is why I clarified the matter. Not detecting any malice, just your statement was incomplete and somewhat contrary to your very strong views in the other thread.

Well that escalated quickly.

See https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...&#entry93300720