OPENING YOUR MODEM OR ROUTER WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY, ALSO IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING YOU CAN DAMAGE YOURSELF OR EVEN WORSE THE MODEM. I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU MESS THIS UP.. I have a cheap Netgear modem which was always crashing and just doing funny things. The other day I went to reset it and noticed that it was very hot :concern: .. So I decided to investigate further. Turns out there is no cooling on any of the IC's at all!! To make things worse there is no air flow in it either (well not enough for a bare chip). Doing this will also help lengthen the life of your modem or router. So This morning I decided to fix this, in total it cost around $10.00 and took about 15 minutes to do. First off you'll need a few things: 1x Tube of adhesive heatsink compound (#NM2014) 2x Heatsinks (22H x 16.5W x 10mm L) (#HH8514) Let's get to it... Step 1: Strip down the modem to the motherboard. Now this is different for every brand but most Netgear models are the same. There are four rubber feet, under said feet there will be either Torx (T8) or Phillips. My modem even has little stoppers so you don't loose them Step2: Now we have the board out use some IPA to clean off the IC's. Step3: Before sticking the heatsinks down, do a test fit and see how they look. Step4: Put a small blob of the adhesive onto the heatsinks and spread out, be quick though this stuff dries pretty quick. Step5: Now place the heatsinks on the Processor and other IC's, wiggle it around to make sure you have a good even contact. ** I put mine under a warm lamp to help the adhesive set faster..** Step6: Now put your modem/router back together and enjoy your crash-less experience Adding a small fan into the mix also helps. hopes you like it
Ive got pratically the same model as you and although mine heats up, it's been going for 8 year straight through three people using it for gaming, downloading files (Big steam games) with no problems whatsoever. These routers are tanks.
Mine was resetting every 1hr or so. I do run a 24-7 minecraft server off it too but that should not cause any issues..
That's not a bad idea. I might do something similar to my DG834G V5. That thing runs so hot the plastic has turned brown on the underside! I have a feeling it might be the cause of my AirPort Express drop outs too! Although for no reason at all, it has been working swell the past two weeks or so. Added to the to do list! Thanks! :topsy_turvy:
Thanks! I don't know why the manufacturers don't use even a cheap 50c heatsink? There good products but it seems the extra heat makes them run bad making the more expensive units seem worth the extra wasted cash lol
You and what army? :wink-new: I never had much luck with their higher end modems. Someone I know has a DG834Gv3 and it has been going for as long as I can remember. The poor thing has been struck by lightning twice as well. Some of the ethernet ports died, somehow the phone line socket didn't die. Anyone else got char marks on their modems? I've ordered a few heatsinks to pop on the four main chips. They should help dissipate the heat. Here's my temporary measure:
When you get a good Netgear you have a solid little thing. If you get a bad one though watch out. IIRC there are a few different DG834 revisions. I had one of the first ones and it was raaaaaather horrible. Fixed it by running over it. I like to run over modems. The D-Link I had to reset every 12 hours because of the NAT table filling up and stalling the router made the best crunching sound.
I found Netcomm rather strong, just their firmwares are bit well weird. IPv6 doesn't function for me, so IPv6 disabled everything runs very well, not even hot.
my netgear router crashes plenty, i've thought about doing this but never bothered its easier just to turn it off and on lol. old motherboards and graphics cards are also a good place to source heatsinks
Agreed, i run our entire offices of net gear business class switches and access points. They have been rock solid for a few years now.
As I stand mine up vertically, the top of it where it says ADSL2 has also gone a browny/yellow- however, it does sit in the Windowsill, so that be a cause. However, for what it's done whilst under those conditions is amazing.
My media PC which is white plastic went yellow when on the window sill too, it turns out it was the gloss paint (hamster cage did the same thing too!)
Haha that's the one! It was so satisfying to hear it die. If I still had one I'd offer it to you but giving one of those things to someone shouldn't be legal. Netcomm make some great stuff. I've got a NB6+4w or whateveritscalled and it's never missed a beat in 6-7 years. The chipsets they use go quite well with most AU ISPs' DSLAMs. NB1300s are great for long/crappy phone lines too.
I was lucky, I believe the older versions of my DG834G don't have a power switch. They probably implemented it because they kept locking up! Hahaha! That said, I had a poke around for heatsinks to pinch off old hardware... my ISA hardware is too old and nothing ran hot enough to require heatsinks!
