Why does my Linksys WRT54GS keep losing its memory?

I was given this second hand wireless router a while back. It generally works fine, but sometimes loses all its settings. It gets turned off at night, along with the PC and cable modem, so I'm guessing that the non-volatile memory is volatile after all, but it doesn't happen every time.

To save me opening this thing up, can someone tell me if it has a battery I can replace or if it is just likely to be faulty.

It's mainly a pain as it loses the wireless settings. I don't want it going back to unencrypted.

Steve

Posted 2009-09-28T20:03:32.380

Reputation: 255

Have you tried resetting to using the pinhole button in the back? I think that clears NVRAM. That router could have had DD-WRT installed on it and maybe the previous owner restored the factory firmware w/out clearing out NVRAM. – hyperslug – 2009-09-28T21:38:25.980

Since installing the latest Firmware the problem has not re-occured. – Steve – 2009-10-06T20:56:16.157

I have this device with dd-wrt. It has been working great, but now loses it's settings with any power loss. I'm totally bummed as dd-wrt has worked great. Does anyone have any suggestions for a fix or a replacement dd-wrt capable device? – Chasler – 2009-12-27T07:30:44.327

Answers

There is no battery in this device. Likely the NVRAM isn't working correctly or it was relying on a capacitor which doesn't last all night. Personally I would first check for firmware upgrades on the Linksys by Cisco site (silly name) incase this firmware isn't correctly using NVRAM.

dlamblin

Posted 2009-09-28T20:03:32.380

Reputation: 9 293

IMO you can't do anything to fix this problem other than asking the manufacturer for a maintenance or buy another router.
A workaround of this problem is to export your router settings, and import them once they're lost.

Moayad Mardini

Posted 2009-09-28T20:03:32.380

Reputation: 3 513

I think the router is too old to be worth fixing. I updated the firmware last night and will see if that helps. I have been importing a settings file when it lost them – Steve – 2009-09-29T07:51:16.687

no battery.

try updating to the latest firmware (or DD-WRT or Tomato, whichever you prefer)

if that doesn't fix it, consider it toast.

Molly7244

Posted 2009-09-28T20:03:32.380

Reputation:

I think you'll have to live with it losing setting it left off overnight, a firmware update is a good thing to try, as it's free.

Assuming that doesn't help, you're choices are either replace it, or leave it turned on overnight. I don't think it'll waste that much electricity.

Douglas Leeder

Posted 2009-09-28T20:03:32.380

Reputation: 1 375