I’ve been using an Asus RT-N16 router with Tomato firmware for just over two years now, and the other day it died on me. It would power up for just a second or so if I unplugged and re-plugged it, and I confirmed it wasn’t just a bad transformer with another 12V/1A power supply I had around. I was able to swap in a Netgear 3400 I had on hand and get back online quickly so I didn’t need to worry about it, but wanted to see if there was anything I could do with the N-16 as it has worked very well… and has all my config in it :/
Top view of swollen capacitor on Asus RT-N16.
The whole family was sick today, so I finally had a chance to dig into it a bit. I first checked the warranty and see that I’m a couple of months past the two year point (purchased in July 2012), so I went ahead and opened it up. Upon doing so, I discovered a slightly swollen 680uF 16V capacitor near the power connection. A bit of Googling seems to indicate this is a pretty common problem (here, here, and here are just a few samples), so I’ll have to do a little scavenging and see what I can come up with for a capacitor.
Side view of swollen capacitor on Asus RT-N16.