[Gameman Advanced Kid]

@blkt I wanted to mention real quick that I just found out I was mispelling your name. My foul up.

-anyway-

I understand that the only difference between the R8900 and R9000 are the same router but with different wireless AD speeds. I am just being thorough here.

SFP is 1gbps. SFP+ is 10gbe. Although im sure thats just a typo and that you already knew that. I know that x86 is much better, but I rather stick to using an ARM wifi router. A dd-wrt x86 router would require more physical space that I do not have available for it. And I have not gotten into the other requirements like cost of parts and power.

But if the time does come, I will build an X86 dd-wrt router. Now is just not the time.

@DWCruiser

well your post seems to relax me a bit more about the R9000 router despite some of the other issues you pointed out like loading times. I do also recall reading about the whole "bad blocks" issues with these routers too now that I think about it.

[ho1Aetoo]

So to put it clearly again.
The QCA9984 chips are used in millions of devices in over 50 widely used routers, extenders, etc.

And the R9000 is the only known router with dying radios.

It's also the only router that doesn't use the Qualcomm reference design and has an active antenna construction.

Of course, if you're simple-minded, you can blame everything on thermal problems.

But at the end of the day, it's all assumptions.

When I looked through the linked topics again I noticed a post of mine.

[Per Yngve Berg]

It may be the amplifier that are dying and not the wifi chip.

[Alozaros]

to solve the puzzle

here is the main discussion and some thermal pics form msoengineer

https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=326183&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=90

My R9000 on heavy use everyday and 2.4ghz radio only, touch wood still alive...

As its more than clear, you can use an external radio (if you need a 4x4 stream) an extra R7800 connected as a WAP will do ... could do with any WAP indeed ...

My very first R9000 i got, was with both radios burned, than I sold it to a friend and he used it as a main router with a WAP attached, with an old Kong factory build, until BS made a builds that can boot up R9000 even with faulty radios...now happy days...overall R9000 its a beast...i would ve used it as a main, but its stuck in the office and used on presentations and its so reliable, that i dont want to move it to the edge...where R7800 gets the full load...so far...

I'm actually tempted to put Kong's OpenWRT with NSS support on R7800 to find out if R7800 will out play the R9000 on heavy traffic loads... (but just dont like the OpenWRT, im a very autistic person )...

[blkt]

[kernel-panic69]

In my case, there was no flash chip failures, bad blocks, or corruption of partitions, period. Speaking of assumptions while not having one (or more) of these in inventory, in hand, etc. ad infinitum. Your suggestions about corruption were fruitless in my case because what exactly was happening was because of (hardware) failures induced by nothing to do with whether or not anyone was adhering to any reference design. Thankfully, I have people whom I know who wanted to figure out what broke without charging me a dime. Netgear and the folks involved didn't want to take responsibility for obvious reasons, but it would be hilarious if there were a class-action suit filed based on this now well-documented issue... no matter how much they have tried to scrub the internet of it.

Personally, I would not waste my time on any of the three devices ever again

[blkt]

? This is not about you, R8900 here working fine, I mentioned a real possibility of stock firmware nvram corruption.
If R9000 series router only has stock firmware wifi issues then this is certainly a corruption issue already described.

Luckily DD-WRT stores settings differently so it should be a simple and quick way to verify the wifi hardware status.
So there are plenty of stock firmware "dead wifi" units that should be totally fine running DD-WRT always a gamble.

[kernel-panic69]

It's not about you, either. Flash dump comparisons, etc. revealed NOTHING that you sent my way about nvram corruption, ART partition nonsense, nada. Mine failed with DD-WRT installed, NOT stock firmware, and it wouldn't have mattered what firmware was installed on it, because it had ZERO to do with the firmware. We (they) received another broken one in same situation, and it was the same exact problem, with the same exact repairs done, and it wasn't firmware or flash chip failure / corruption induced.

[blkt]

This is the coolest of stories from you, or they/them, hope to provide hardware repair solution details to the public.
The reality is that software corruption scenarios do exist on stock firmwares, for those buying used it is useful info.

We all know risks of R9000. Anyway, seems x86 recommendation is out of the question despite similar price range.

[DWCruiser]

This is a puzzling issue, if i can put it that way.

I got a cheap, used R9000 on eBay from the US back in May last year. Initially on Stock firmware, both 2.4GHz and 5GHz worked fine. I wanted to make sure of that, as a starting point. (I have a background in beta-testing of IT products).

I then flashed it with Kong's f/w but i did not play with it for long as i remember. I then flashed it back to stock f/w before eventually flashing it with BS f/w.

I then tried VLANS on it but it was like trying to tame a wild horse at first. My reading of various posts about the topic led me through a two-week long discovery. I got VLANs working properly in the end, with a workaround.

On a going-concern basis, after flashing a new BS f/w, i always zoom in on Setup/Networking to verify that all details such as under Current Bridging Table section are there as indicative of my R9000 fully loaded. If not, i simply do a s/w reboot of the router again. In 99% of cases, it fixes any remaining issues due to delayed loading (my educated guess).

If detail is still missing after the second reboot, i would flash back to the previous f/w.

A customer asked me for advice. I got a secondhand R9000 unit from Australia and configured it with no issue at all. They both have been working fine. So i scratch my head as to why quite a few people have issues with it.

One terrific thing about R9000 is its handling of encryption/decryption of OpenVPN with flying colours. As for wifi, i now use both DDWRT instead of VANILLA. I have tested and happy with its performance in term of distance and bandwidth.

Lastly, i don't use channel 11 for 2.4GHz. For some reason, my two Rokus (one re-branded with an Australian Telco; the other, a US Roku (so we can select from a larger library for watching without mucking around) simply do not like channel 11. They refuse to connect! Beats me.

Hope the above clarifies a few issues for some.

[blkt]

Kamoj solutions: R9000 AD7200 x10 Firmware Ver 1.0.5.24 kills WiFi & Nighthawk xr700, DumaOS not loaded yet

CNX Software: Gowin R86S mini PC offers 2.5GbE and 10GbE networking for $310 and up & AliExpress Direct Link

[DWCruiser]

Thanks for the links which contribute further to the topic at hand, @blkt.

I think it's interesting to note two rather contradictory observations.

First by:
@kernel-panic69 with 'Mine failed with DD-WRT installed, NOT stock firmware',

secondly, by:
@user12a in Netgear Community forum 'I flashed it with the dd-wrt FW and bang, all the Wifi come back on! All LEDs are on, SSID’s are detected by my devices! This verifies that there is no problem with the router Hardware'

So, unless i misunderstand what @kernel-panic69 implied, it's safe to say there is NOTHING wrong with the router's hardware, in both cases. But, either the codes (of a particular f/ware version) or the flashing itself, somehow, 'corrupts' the loaded OS of the router in the end.

I'd say the two separate observations above add weight to doing a second s/w router reboot, immediately after the router comes back from a flashing. I actually discovered the anomaly of R9000 which i call 'Voodoo' when trying to make VLANS to work.

As for R86S presented by Patrick of 'Serve The Home'. He is an excellent IT presenter. I happened to follow his guide years ago in building my FreeNAS. It's certainly an option but the grass may look greener, than actually the case, further away. I am happy with my R9000 workhorse.

[blkt]

I was demonstrating user12a recovered a corrupted R9000 who notified XR700 users, and some were successful.

Kamoj has since updated FAQ many times, expanding on recovery steps, also more information about corruption.
Use Ctrl+F 'alternate' first match. Also search 'corrupt' section below, mentions the word 11 times in that section.

Not contradictory, these are separate issues. If you cannot get DD-WRT radios working, likely hardware problem.

[DWCruiser]

So, when my R9000 did not come back fully operational after a firmware flash, and without the second s/w reboot with no changes made in GUI at all, it may be construed as a hardware failure or a software failure by you?

Despite what i personally experienced and detailed for all to see.

[Gameman Advanced Kid]

@blkt those x86 options look really cool but they do not allow me to fit two hard drives inside of them for NAS purposes.

However, I might reconsider it since I am recalling the fact that I found a motherboard laying around and the really small power supply for out. just need to figure out the case part.

Motherboard > https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/AM1H-itx/

PSU > https://www.ebay.com/itm/133689301757?hash=item1f2080dafd%3Ag%3Ajk8AAOSw6udgScT%7E&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA0F4m%2Fvi4yS3H3c8X7zpfh7cmCr%2FtVYxsrU8jz6qqz4tLGnf8Ck9kGIgnhjfJD6OZjlx2cUm8peO0WBAJqN6P27aRR2OkqIm%2F7kUXbbQgXn8NfSvlqWT2QoOfgSY0H6Px42Wlyt4MwQ5v%2FuMBLosBWQzeypOaw5LWNIclE6%2FJTI8dkFKe2CIBdKf7fphk8nOArDZdlOyxYHSKtg61EknlL2EkNTYQEvfrqCRuUa8M1kHUXWmGECNjmOfS6Msn907IRrrbe6bNRuuem9NgCFyHNG4%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_65rJnbYQ&LH_BIN=1

only issue with the PSU is that it comes with one sata power but I do have an molex to sata adapter.

the built in WAN can be the integrated NIC but I still need a 10GBE card. preferably with two ports. might be able to still do with 1 port if its not possible with two.

Would I be able to make use of wifi via USB ports? or do I also need PCIE slots for those?

-back to the router-

I was told you have a R8900. have you had any of the nightmarish issues that have been talked about with the R9000 such as bad blocks and/or wifi?

I might just say "fugget it!" and buy the R8900. At least...for now.