Router died.....revived only to die again (in oven)....hardware related?

[Engineer]

This isn't a networking question as there seems to be a hardware problem. My Asus RT-N16 router, about 4 to 5 years old, died last week. The power on light blinks indicating that it's in recovery mode. I tried to flash firmware (several varieties) but none would work (using ASUS recovery utility).

I finally broke down and bought a USB to RS232 TTL level signal cable and connected to the router to monitor what was going on. The router was waiting for a firmware as if it had lost it. I tried to TFTP to the router several times and each time, the router would respond with DONE, reboot and go back into the loop.

Before tossing it, I decided to look at the hardware and saw nothing that stood out (no leaking or swelled caps, no burned marks, the power supply is fine (I swapped to make sure), etc). I finally decided to throw it into a 200 degree oven for 10 minutes for poops and giggles. What do you know, it worked. The router now booted and the CFE monitor (serial) was showing life. However, about 20 minutes later, it died again.

This indicates hardware to me. Do you guys have any suggestions? Possibly a bad cap that isn't showing signs of decay? The flash going bad but works with heat? I haven't tried freezing it (yet). I just hate throwing it away IF it can be saved.

Thanks ahead of time....

 

[VirtualLarry]

I've got an Asus RT-N12/D1 N300 2.4Ghz (only) router, and I really don't like it. I reset the settings today, and set it up as a secondary router to my Verizon router (in place of the Buffalo WHR-600D that I recently set up, with DD-WRT on it).

Well, after I got it set up, my wireless connections were:
1) poor
2) latency was horrible

With the Buffalo, my latency on www.speedtest.net is like 20-22ms. With the Asus, it was 88. It was severely affecting my web browsing.

My un-educated opinion on Asus routers, based on my experiences with this one, is that they really suck.

Oh yeah, the firmware would only configure correctly in IE. In Waterfox, I could navigate the menus, but when I went to hit Apply, it would go to a screen, but it never finished configuring. It just hung on that screen. On IE, I actually got a percentage counter that went to 100%.

 

[Engineer]

I'm not sure that I agree that this was moved to Networking. It has less to do with Networking (other than it's a SOHO router) and more to do with hardware failures (which the oven heat exposed).