Forum Discussion
Thermal Issues With Home Internet Gateway/Router as a Cause of Dropped/Slow Internet or Wi-Fi Connection
I am a Newbie here and a fairly new T-Mobile Home Internet customer. But my background is electrical engineering and I've been around a while. Like many community members I have experienced frustrating degradation of my internet connectivity after a period of operation, which is temporarily fixed by cycling the Gateway's power (otherwise known as a soft reset, not the paperclip nuclear option). The standard fix per T-Mobile Tech Support is to just perform that reset, which isn't a "fix" at all. Though many others have noted the thermal connection, I feel it's time we get organized on this.
Without going into great detail and after surfing a number of forum threads and through my own direct experience, I have become convinced that the primary cause of the various complaints expressed by posters is heat buildup in the Gateway's enclosure and a subsequent compromise in performance in one or several of the Gateways numerous devices. There could be multiple devices affected, manifesting in different failure modes, but one primary cause - heat.
What I'm asking community members to do is to test this theory by keeping a record of the time from device reset (powering down, then back up) to failure or degradation of either internet or wi-fi connectivity or any other failure mode, and then to apply some means of enhanced airflow through the Gateway's enclosure, whether it be placing a muffin fan on top of the Gateway (blowing up, not down) or simply sitting the Gateway atop an A/C vent in your home with constant airflow and recording any difference in the time between reset and the failure. Repeating this sequence several times and then posting your results here, on this thread, will be most helpful.
If, as I strongly suspect will be the case, a correlation between enhanced airflow and increased "up-time" is documented in one place (here) by multiple forum members, we will have a powerful tool to get T-Mobile's management to fix this problem. Please don't post here unless you have performed the requested action; there are many other threads to use.
What do you say?
Just an observation I have made regarding the drops. I can see service here tends to be delivered from two different towers. The tower at 5.3 miles 360 degrees, North, is where the secondary channel is delivered. The 4G LTE "primary" signal appears to be delivered from a tower 270 degrees, NW roughly 2.5 miles away. When the 5G secondary channel drops this becomes clear as traffic appears to be interrupted and of course the routing tends to be slow to recover and of course more latency and slower traffic. It is rather difficult to locate a router where the primary and secondary signals originate from two different locations and have reliable results. It appears to me most of the signal disconnects I have seen have been related to the loss of the secondary 5G channel and I am pretty sure this is mostly due to T-Mobile doing work on the tower equipment. It does make it difficult to know when T-Mobile is not transparent about service work and service delivery. The system may be designed to do traffic hand off but the process does not appear to be seamless.
Thank you for the response. I was just thinking out loud and sharing. Right ambient temperature can be a factor. It would be helpful if T-Mobile support was more proactive and asked such questions OR better yet would leverage the software to automate the collection of key data points and use a template of questions to better profile customer problems. Hopefully T-Mobile will be able to improve their 5G deployments for more consistent service.
iTinkeralot wrote:
I have not seen a single user report the actual hardware version. This may be an important factor in the equation. The HTML reporting will show the hardware version. I know mine is 3TG00739AAAA and I do not see heat related issues. Is it important? I cannot say for sure but it is a data point that should be considered and posted. I agree with Farjohn 100% the more facts people report in the thread the better the profile of the facts.
The point made about using the power button is an excellent point. If the router is unplugged and the power switch is still on then it stands to reason the battery can still provide power to the LTE and 5G radios but NOT the WIFI radios.
Has anyone with heat issues looked into the top of the can with a flashlight and examined the heat sinks? I recall seeing two in opposition to one another while working with my router. Heat sinks can fall off when the adhesive is not applied properly so look at the heat sinks. If they are not secure the chips are not getting proper heat transfer away. Shake the can and see if it rattles. If it rattles there may be a heat sink that has fallen off the board. In manufacturing there can be equipment runs that are made with materials that are not to spec and this can lead to batch failures. The layout is sort of bilateral with the antennas in a radial pattern around the outside of the internal board. There are (4) WIFI and (4) 5G alternating about the inside of the router. It is common that serial numbers have details for model and other aspects of the appliance in addition to its individual part. If T-Mobile were to provide information on the part(s) of the serial numbers that could be relevant to expose a serial run of components it might be a problem due to components or heat sink glue that is not to spec for a build run that can clarify why some people have head related issues. Adding a fan is a work around. Identification of the root cause is what needs to happen. Data. Not what we think but what is KNOWN. As many facts as possible.
- hardware version
- versión de software
- serial number of units, (sequential pattern could indicate bad manufacturing run)
- heat sinks secure/present
- fan used or not (air transport bottom up)
- environmental factors (warm, cool, sunny, shade etc…
- number of wired and/or wireless devices recorded on the Overview page
- details recorded (bullet the facts) make things obvious and quick to consume
- alarms reported on the LED panel in the top of the can (yes/no)
- indication of periodic element or total random
- Report the upload and download of cell data and primary/secondary channels
- record the “Running Time” if possible with issues present from the HTML page (192.168.12.1)
- Record the “Data Sent” & “Data Received” values from the Status/WIFI reporting (this may help relate the traffic loading over the uptime period)
- SHARE this collection of data points with T-Mobile support engineers
- Add any other data points, facts that you feel may be important
- Discuss common factors in the thread with others
Great list, I think the only other thing I would add is ambient temperature. You do mention environmental factors (warm, cool, sunny, shade etc…) that can be helpful say if its in front of a window or not. Then again my windows don't shot much of a change in temp with the double glass UV prevention coatings.
So if your in a climate controlled environment the ambient temp may also play a part in this troubleshooting.Thank you Farjohn for reminding me of all the obvious things I know from working with enterprise trouble shooting for 22 years. The facts shared and reported for others and for T-Mobile support will help lead to finding the root cause. If they see the pattern they can take the gear, pull it apart and put them in heat chambers to confirm with testing that the components behave according to spec or not. I am sure if the hard facts get back to the Nokia engineers they can identify the problem and fix it.
I have not seen a single user report the actual hardware version. This may be an important factor in the equation. The HTML reporting will show the hardware version. I know mine is 3TG00739AAAA and I do not see heat related issues. Is it important? I cannot say for sure but it is a data point that should be considered and posted. I agree with Farjohn 100% the more facts people report in the thread the better the profile of the facts.
The point made about using the power button is an excellent point. If the router is unplugged and the power switch is still on then it stands to reason the battery can still provide power to the LTE and 5G radios but NOT the WIFI radios.
Has anyone with heat issues looked into the top of the can with a flashlight and examined the heat sinks? I recall seeing two in opposition to one another while working with my router. Heat sinks can fall off when the adhesive is not applied properly so look at the heat sinks. If they are not secure the chips are not getting proper heat transfer away. Shake the can and see if it rattles. If it rattles there may be a heat sink that has fallen off the board. In manufacturing there can be equipment runs that are made with materials that are not to spec and this can lead to batch failures. The layout is sort of bilateral with the antennas in a radial pattern around the outside of the internal board. There are (4) WIFI and (4) 5G alternating about the inside of the router. It is common that serial numbers have details for model and other aspects of the appliance in addition to its individual part. If T-Mobile were to provide information on the part(s) of the serial numbers that could be relevant to expose a serial run of components it might be a problem due to components or heat sink glue that is not to spec for a build run that can clarify why some people have head related issues. Adding a fan is a work around. Identification of the root cause is what needs to happen. Data. Not what we think but what is KNOWN. As many facts as possible.
- hardware version
- versión de software
- serial number of units, (sequential pattern could indicate bad manufacturing run)
- heat sinks secure/present
- fan used or not (air transport bottom up)
- environmental factors (warm, cool, sunny, shade etc…
- number of wired and/or wireless devices recorded on the Overview page
- details recorded (bullet the facts) make things obvious and quick to consume
- alarms reported on the LED panel in the top of the can (yes/no)
- indication of periodic element or total random
- Report the upload and download of cell data and primary/secondary channels
- record the “Running Time” if possible with issues present from the HTML page (192.168.12.1)
- Record the “Data Sent” & “Data Received” values from the Status/WIFI reporting (this may help relate the traffic loading over the uptime period)
- SHARE this collection of data points with T-Mobile support engineers
- Add any other data points, facts that you feel may be important
- Discuss common factors in the thread with others
I have now not had a loss of internet since June 10th. The fan solved the problem so far.
The 5G cylinder sits in the exact same place as it did during the many May failures. It is just raised about 1 inch by sitting it on top of the USB fan. I made no other changes to the setup, not even rotating the 5g cylinder.
I went from seemingly random failures to none.
I recently added t-mobile's YouTube TV offer and no problems. I was concerned it wouldn't show local channels with the home internet jumping around, but the location is determined by your cellphone. Very pleased so far.
been moving it. and it over heating with 2 device. both passive connection.
The existing design of the 5g gateway alows for a 1/4 inch area at the bottom for incoming airflow. Besides adding the fan at the top, I also added 1/4 inch high self adhesive feet to the underside of the unit to double the intake flow area. Unfortunately, my gateway always runs slow so that it is unusable. T-mobile told me that they are working on my nearby tower (for three months now).
@ Stary, Thank you. Do you have any sense of whether the original window location was receiving more direct sunshine than the second location? T-Mobile's installation instructions cautions customers not to place the unit in direct sunlight, which of course translates to increased temperatures.
We had the same problem. To me the root cause was the advice given to us subscribers to place the unit near window.
I moved the unit place with clear view via double glass sliding patio door that is 18 feet away. The modem is sitting on a top of 5 feet high cabinet.
No problems anymore; both up and down load speeds are excellent.
No outage over the last 2 months. Bar count is absolutely stable.
Our roof (including the porch) is metal. No problems either (no Faraday cage effect).
