Access Points (R500, R510, R310, R320) Restarting Every 15-30 Minutes with "Watchdog Timeout" Error

[IsakTypit]

We manage an Unleashed Network with 12 access points (APs): mostly R500 models, plus one R510, one R310, and one R320. The Master AP is an R500 (serial number: 441504202540) running firmware version 200.6.10.1.308. Recently, we’ve noticed that several APs are restarting randomly every 15-30 minutes. Logs show errors like "Heartbeat Lost," "Application Reboot," and most commonly, "Watchdog Timeout."

We’ve spent over 40 hours troubleshooting this ourselves, with RUCKUS support and with our reseller Nowire technical support, but haven’t resolved it or at least just identify the cause. I recognize these are end-of-life products, the customer is not in a situation for a year or two to replace them all so we need to identify the issue so we can try work around it.

We believe this issue started with 10 new Handheld PDA, they are Zebra TC5301 running Android 13.
Here’s what we’ve tried without success:

• Swapping restarting APs with identical models.
• Disabling all VLAN settings on the switches to simplify the setup.
• Turning off all other Wi-Fi networks, leaving only one active.
• Running only the 5GHz band.
• Swapping locations of two APs.
• Upgrading firmware from 200.7.10.202.141 to 200.7.10.202.145.
• Downgrading firmware from 200.7.10.202.145 back to 200.6.10.1.308.
• Upgrading firmware back to 200.7.10.145 since firmware downgrade did not solve the issue.
• Factory resetting all devices and reconfiguring the network.
• Using Wireshark to capture traffic data from an AP, analyzed by a Nowire technician (no solution found).
• Disabling 802.11r and 802.11k, band balancing.

Interestingly, the restarts only happen when there’s network activity—during work hours with traffic—but not when the system is idle (e.g., overnight). The APs primarily support a Wi-Fi network used by about 10 handheld PDA devices. This Wi-Fi is set up with WPA2, a strong password, 5GHz only, and channel planning for speed, stability, and roaming in a warehouse.

We appreciate any help as this issue has been going on for weeks and the effectiveness of the customer warehouse personell is affected. 

---

Summary of Correspondence with RUCKUS Support (March 14-17, 2025):
Reported the issue to Ruckus support and providing logs showing "Watchdog Timeout" reboots linked to CPU load during traffic. Since the R500 is end-of-life (EoL), engineering couldn’t investigate further, but support continued. Multiple troubleshooting attempts (firmware changes, log collection) failed, noted restarts tied to traffic from Zebra TC5301 PDAs running Android 13.

[igor_cherniienk]

I have a similar problem, and Ruckus refuses to fix it. I recommend looking at a different manufacturer.

[IsakTypit]

Hey there, this was quite a while ago but interesting to see others have the same issue, I can update whats happened.

I discovered that our customer had with another distributor, purchased 2 new Zebra Handheld PDA devices. Around 8 of them was as a phone, android and used to scan products, and 2 others was more like an pad, larger which sits on the forklifts. Both was manufactured by Zebra.
I noticed in my tests that the restarting/crashes of the RUCKUS APs was caused by the handhelds. Tho interestingly, only by the Zebra Phones and not by the Zebra Pads, two different models.
The distributor for the zebra devices confirmed that do communicate a lot more aggressively, to make sure they have a very stable connection, and the Zebra Phone model was causing the crashes. I did a test where I walked around with the devices and I would notice crashes as it jumps between APs, but it only happened with Zebra Phones, not the Zebra Pads, not Laptops, not other regular phones, only that one.

Now, I understand RUCKUS choice not to fix it, this models are old and end-of-life, thats the nature of manufactures today. They did try on the support line but, the developers was just not allowed to push out any more firmwares. 
I'm not sure who to blame, RUCKUS or Zebra, but perhaps Zebra as it was only one model causing issues of them crashing, or getting very unstable and it would lose packets and pings would be high as I roamed around.

The customer finally agreed reluctantly and understandbly, not happy with the new Zebra products causing issues, to swap out all the APs. We have around 15-20 APs, all was swapped out to newer RUCKUS R350, and the issues have been resolved after that.