Archer A6 V2 stopped working so I installed OpenWrt and it works

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
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Hi All, I am new user of OpenWRT but have been using linux for awhile. I have an Archer A6 v2 router that started running real slow so I did a hard reset about 3 months ago which fixed it. Last week for a moment, the router flashed orange which means no internet so I unplugged it and it started working. The next day it did it again but nothing would fix it (unplug, hard reset). I could still use the router to connect to my LAN so I was able to go the router's address with the TP link sw. I was about to go out and buy a new router thinking that it was a hardware issue and not a software issue. I didn't want to buy a new one as this one was only two years old. As I was about to leave, I decided to flash it with OpenWRT and to my surprise the router worked and it isn't having any issues.

I hadn't done any firmware upgrades. Can something going wrong with the software like this or will I more than likely have to buy a new router soon? Just trying to get some feedback as I'm sure others have run into this. If I have to buy a new one so be it.

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So your problems were with the OEM firmware and not OpenWrt?

Especially in that case, it's a bit difficult to answer this question, as the OEM firmware tends to provide little- to none diagnostic access (ssh, top, syslog, etc.), but at the same time does a lot of 'magic' behind the user's back, for the sake of simplicity and to tick of the buzzword bingo (e.g. OpenWrt does not enable UPnP, mDNS, samba, etc by default, you can install all of those - but it's a conscious decision, combined with custom configuration, at the same time it gives you full diagnostic access).

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Thanks for your response. Yes my issues occurred with the OEM firmware. I just thought it was weird that it turned out to be a software issue since I never touched the sw and not a hardware issue unless openwrt does something behind the scenes to check if I had a bad arrays/sectors on my flash.