Hi everyone,
My DIR-825 A1 runs so hot during a throughput test over wireless (Tamosoft client running on the laptop wirelessly; server running on desktop over gigabit wired) that the router spontaneously reboots within minutes. If I take the router's cover off, it appears to be better... so far, no reboot. My infrared thermometer tells me that the CPU and switch controller are steady at about 57C, while the wireless chip of the top card is 52C. These temps seem really high to me... that's with the cover off! There is hardly any ventilation with the cover on, so it is far hotter, and not surprising to me that it reboots itself. The router feels very hot after such a test... the bottom especially.
Even when it is mostly idle, with my wireless laptop and wired desktop (both Windows 7) just sitting idle (just doing background things), the plastic case gets very warm, much more so than the case of my Netgear WNDR3700. With the cover off, the CPU and network switch are cooler than during the throughput test, down in the low to mid 40s, but the wireless chip is still about the same.
It would be fairly easy to cut a hole in the top cover and install a case fan, but should it be necessary? Surely D-Link would not release a router that runs so hot out of the box that it reboots itself doing a throughput test (which is limited to the speed that is possible over the wireless connection)!
It works, though... other than the rebooting under heavy load, it works quite well. It does everything it should: wireless connections don't drop, and everything is quick and smooth.
It has completed 20 minutes on the throughput test with the cover off now, and it never made it past 5 at the most without rebooting before, so the reboot does seem to be heat related.
The 825 is pretty old (I bought it not long after its release), but it has not been used in a long time. The capacitors inside are not bulged.
Is this amount of heat normal for this router?