5Gee 2021 Home Router - Fan Noise

[hostler]

I've had the 2021 5Gee Home Router running for a couple fo months without issue - easily integrated into my pre-existing mesh setup, and now getting much better speeds up and down.

However, in the last couple of days the fan in the unit has become INCREDIBLY NOISY where once it was whisper-quiet. Restarting doesn't change anything, or adjusting its position on the shelf.

Anyone else had / having these issues? It's impossible to work with the noise it's creating.

Thanks in advance

Tom

[mtjwatts]

Looks like I'm at the beginning of your painful journey. My 5GEE router just turned up, it has nothing connected to it yet but the power supply, hit the on button and I thought the thing was trying to take off, fans immediately come on and never stop.

Phoned EE who initially tried to tell me it was normal because of 'All the software running on the device', I own countless bits of IT equipment all over my house, other mobile routers, wifi routers and nothing else that I own has a fan that comes on the minute you start it up, @EE THIS IS NOT NORMAL BEHAVIOUR. Long story short is the Tech team (after waiting 30 mins to speak to them) don't apparently have a way to record this as a fault so the only thing they've offered is that I have to take it into an EE shop and have them try it, apparently they can deal with the return / replacement.

Ah well, at least I feel a bit better for having a rant

[hostler]

Sorry to hear that ...

From mine, yours and the several other people that have found this thread's experiences .... it's clear EE just need a sensible, grown-up approach to hardware faults on critical broadband hardware. If it's sold as a broadband device, for areas of poor fibre coverage, there needs to be a rapid swap-out / loaned hardware policy for fault-finding.

I would understand it it was a PAYG device, but i'm on a 2 year tariff and have (Orange and EE combined) a faultless 25+ year payment history ... so i'm  not going to run off with any loaner hardware.

In an update to my situation, i've largely had fault-free running since I discovered the USB port power draw issue ... so as long as I don't use the USB port, it runs near silent. I have noticed it runs louder / fans work harder in the recent hot weather ... so make sure it's in a well ventilated space.

I've also had a couple of 'freezes' of late ... where we lose connectivity totally until a reboot is initiated. This is annoying, esp. if you run remote monitoring / cameras and relay on is as your primary connection. No idea why it's frozen, and the log files are no help. I'm going to put the device on a timer plug to force a reboot in the night, so if this every happens again ... at least I know in X hours it'll reboot and hopefully things will come back online.

Overall though ... as soon as i'm out of contract i'll be looking for a more reliable vendor.

Good luck with your own setup - hope it's smooth sailing

T

[lethe1977]

Yep, exactly the same fain noisy issue. Mine lasted a couple more months but now it's impossible to work in silence next to it! And there's no way to open it to clean the dust out of the fan (that's what I think it is)

[lethe1977]

Can you send me a pm too please Thanks @Leanne_T

I have the same problem and like @hostler I don't want to be without router for two weeks!

[hostler]

Sorry to hear you're having these issues - I still am too - though have a few observations to suggest to you.

Based on the reports from others in this thread, it doesn't;t sound like EE have improved their position on hardware swaps for devices like this, or improved training awareness in stores (who step through a troubleshooting workflow for a phone).

Some things to suggest that do seem to affect this.

1. If you have anything plugged into the USB socket - printer, hard drive etc - then if possible remove it. This (presumably) causes the unit to draw more power and increase the use of the (always on) fan.

2. Despite this, I still have periods of intense fan noise ... but I have noticed these are just as likely to be caused by mechanical motion that judders/jars the unit - and (presumably) jolts the fan and its bearing assembly (?)

Mine is on the desk I work / type on - and if I bump the desk any - suddenly the unit starts to whirr and whine.  Knocking AGAIN can sometimes cure it, or a (very) light tap on the top case. When its really bad though, the only thing that sure fire cures it is a hard power reset and reboot - but that interrupts your home WiFi.

3. Linked to the above observations, i;ve placed mine on a pad of sponge/foam to mechanically isolate the unit from the desk. I used fairly stout foam, so as NOT to allow the unit to sink into he foam and block the air vents around the bottom

My gut feel is that there's a fairly cheap fan used in these, that's only just powerful enough and only just mechanically scrabble enough. When I get out of warranty i'm considering opening the unit up to look and source an aftermarket fan that maybe be quieter / less susceptible to vibration.

Hope these help and your issues get sorted soon. It's such a shame this issue persists and EE seem to ignore it - the 5G speeds are life-changing for us - but it's impossible to recommend currently.

Tom

[lethe1977]

In pretty sure that if we could get into the router, and blow the dust off the fan this would probably solve this problem. I know it violates warranty but does anyone have a link to how to dismantle this router? 

[footballcrazyp_]

Mine is on day 14. Its so noisy. What the he'll EE. Even my neighbour complained about the humming noise. I'm hoping for a better response tomorrow. 

[Katie_B]

Good morning @footballcrazyp_. 

Welcome back to the community. 

Have you reported this to our technical care team?

The team will be able to complete a full diagnostics on your router. 

Katie

[hostler]

Good luck in getting help. I found EE to be lacking when I had my issues sadly. In case you didn’t see my solution,  make sure you don’t have anything plugged into the USB port on the router. You can add a hard drive for example and have it shared to anyone on the WiFi. 

A useful feature, but I found whe anything was plugged into and drew power, it caused the fan to labour and make noise. Remove the USB Device and it was quieter. 

I also put a piece of felt / fabric under the router so it was slightly cushioned/isolated from the table and that helped too. 

This combination means that I’ve not had noise issues for many months now. 

Hope that helps

Tom

[scwilson]

Yes I have this exact same issue. This is my second unit now within 4 weeks. After 2 weeks to the day, the cheap fan in the base grinds. It is in a well ventilated area.

Terrible support and customer service from EE.

The bottom can be unscrewed and the fan replaced with a better quality one. Just trying to source one from somewhere with the same dimensions and spec