4 Signs Your Router Might Be Dying

Having your router fail to power on is a nightmare scenario, given we depend on the internet for everything. Depending on the manufacturer and your personal care, you may need to upgrade your router every three to four years. Besides its natural electronic degradation, your router could die prematurely, so you ought to be on the lookout for clear signs it is nearing the end of its life.

Your router could be dying, but not dead — and that's when you should start looking to buy a new one. Stress on the hardware is one indicator. If you notice it overheating in a relatively cool room, the components might be working overtime to keep the router running. Another indicator is with the connection itself. If you are having trouble adding new devices to its network, or you notice significant slowdowns while using them, then the gateway might be trying to clue you in that it is malfunctioning when it shouldn't be. Eventually, you'll want to know whether your router is on its last legs, so you can plan ahead and upgrade your router to one that supports Wi-Fi 7.

Unless you are using a good Wi-Fi extender to mask your router's flaws, a weak Wi-Fi signal may indicate coverage issues with your networking device. That's because the internal antennas or radio chips can degrade over time. As a result, the transmitted signal becomes too weak to penetrate walls like it used to. Though internal part degradation is one factor, the other is that the power management capacitor could also be failing. That means it might not be supplying enough power for the antennas or Wi-Fi (radio) chips to do their jobs, resulting in a weakened signal.

A good way to test it would be to use a device and see if you lose connection when you move too far away from the router. If you have an extender plugged in, keep it unplugged, run the test, and if you notice issues where you shouldn't (such as when it's within range), your router might need replacing.

If you notice your network connectivity has worsened over time, such as random drops, a complete loss of connection, or significantly slower speeds, that's another sign that your router might be near its end. A few things can affect your connection. For one, the router can begin dropping data packets. When that happens, the data needs to be retransmitted to fix the interruption. You can observe this behavior if you experience unexpected delays, buffering, or even minor stuttering or freezing while streaming or connected to an online network. Loading times are also slower, and sometimes files don't download continuously when they should.

A quick hardware restart can sometimes fix data packet loss and temporarily restore network health. But that's not a good thing, as it could indicate something is wrong with your router. Your device's hardware could be overheating, or it could be too old to process data fast enough to meet the demands of your data requests.

Your router can become congested or overloaded when it is in use. When multiple devices simultaneously connect to it, you're essentially exposing any hardware stability issues it might have. A symptom of a dying router, or at least one that can no longer handle modern processes, is when it gets bottlenecked by its capabilities (or lack thereof). The first clue comes from a sudden drop in network connectivity. You can notice this when someone opens their laptop or phone while you're on a device that's normally steady online, and finds they are also experiencing connection issues (assuming this isn't an allocated bandwidth issue). Your router might be having trouble handling other devices connecting to the same network, even though there is enough bandwidth.

This could be due to your gateway struggling to manage its CPU and RAM. Both are overutilized to the point that they cannot process multiple requests simultaneously. As a result, they are limited to the number of devices they can connect to. Most modern routers should be able to handle a heavy load, so the number of devices connected to your network shouldn't be an issue unless you're running a demanding smart home or have a small business. You should look up your router's model number and check the manufacturer's specifications to determine its exact capacity. Doing so could determine whether you're hitting the limit due to normal constraints or whether your router's internal components are deteriorating to the point that it no longer functions normally.

Aside from hardware health, two easy-to-spot software issues could indicate your router won't last much longer. The first one is that the newly supported firmware is having trouble updating properly on your router. If there's a stability issue, downloading and installing new router firmware might expose it rather than fix it. Rolling back to an older firmware version might bandage the issue, but it can lead to vulnerabilities. It should also remain a red flag that you have underlying issues with your router's compatibility or hardware integrity. By avoiding updates, you can add more problems down the road.

Another factor is age and a lack of ongoing support. As your router ages, manufacturers stop releasing new firmware updates altogether. If your device is stuck on outdated firmware and no longer receives updates, it's a clear sign your router has reached end-of-life and should be replaced. You can usually double-check if this is the case by confirming if your router's manufacturer lists the device as unsupported.