Region : Ireland

Model : TD-W9980

Hardware Version : V1

Current Firmware Version : 0.6.0 1.8 v0021.0 Build 140925 Rel.32089n

Latest Firmware tested: TD-W9980_V1_141215

ISP : Eircom eFibre VDSL2 (no vectoring so far)

Recently bought a TD-W9980 and quickly began to notice these modem routers have a flaw that has been carried through several generations of TP-link devices. For some odd reason the router doesn't play nice with networked devices pushing high bandwidth up and down and around the WAN/LAN, so much so that it crashes randomly at least twice, maybe three times a day. You can't access the network wirelessly, any new devices attempting to connect will not be assigned an IP by DHCP as it seems to be borked, the modem's firmware settings are inaccessible but you can connect to the internet on a wired connection strangely enough (if the client device has been already assigned an IP before the crash). Syslogs are wiped on restart every time so today I decided to use my NAS as a syslog server so it could feed error messages to it. Nothing/no crash so far.

Similar issues can be seen on the TD-W8980, W8970 and the W8968. I believe it is a flaw in the firmware that leads the router to do intensive CPU work and then overheat (see heatsink replacement link). Some say it might be the NAT table being overloaded (out of bounds or poor memory allocation). Pretty much all these routers are passively cooled and rated with a ideal max temp of 40 degrees Celsius. I can tell you that by placing my hand over the case, it certainly feels like its hitting that threshold quite quickly.

W9980: TP-Link Forum - TD-W9980 multiple issues
W8980: Whirlpool Forum - TD-W8980 error
W8970: http://forum.tp-link.com/showthread.php?3102-TD-W8970-freezing&highlight=NAT+crash TP-Link Forum - TD-W8970 freezing and NAT crash
W8968: TP-Link Forum - My W8968 has begun to freeze up...
Heatsink replacement: ADSL Zone - TD-W8970

Prime culprit seems to be related to torrents and a PLEX media laptop server setup I have going on with a QNAP NAS. I want to like this router. I really do. The menus are a breeze and when it works, its so snappy. My ISP (Eircom) modem router which is a rebranded Zyxel VMG8324-B10A is a load of muck and dies due to unstable firmware as well so I've no other option. I've posted a review on Amazon detailing this and will update it as soon as you release a definitive fix for the issue. Also something to note is the TD-W9980 is not in the list of selectable devices when posting on the forums so I had to edit the HTML combo box on the new thread page to cater for this. I am willing to try beta firmware (as long as patch notes are issued with them detailing whats changed).

Also, another issue that seems to occur in multiple TP-Link devices is that diagnostic tools will always seem to fail when testing DNS root for "Internet surfing" even though I can browse perfectly fine (until of course the modem router crashes!). This error occurs in every firmware available for the TD-W9980 for me.

Test DNS Root: TP-Link Forum - W8980 Test DNS Root