Hi,
embarrassing and it may sound stupid, but I struggle to give my CAP AC a config reset via the reset button. Pressing the reset button for 5 sec during boot process when powered on until the LED flashes (which by the way never flashes it rather goes off and if you keep pressing after 15 sec on again) does not reset the config. I still have a previously configured WIFI without an IP on the device, which I try to correct.
Any advice!?
Reset or mode button used ?
https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/UM/cAP+ac
Regardless of the above option used, the system will load the backup RouterBOOT loader if the button is pressed before power is applied to the device. Useful for RouterBOOT debugging and recovery.
This gives a clue why your device is not resetting:
(which by the way never flashes it rather goes off and if you keep pressing after 15 sec on again)
It should actually flash in quick flashes. Make sure you are pushing the Reset button, not Mode next to it.
Hold, power on, Keep holding, let go when flashing starts. The “User” LED should be the furthest away from the Power LED.
Hi, thanks for your suggestions, but the topic is as simple and frustrating as it is. I read the manual and all the other hints. Yes, I push the reset button. Yes, I noticed the supposed to be differentiator of whether you push it the first 5s starting prior to power-on in comparison to right after powering on. There ist no difference in the device behaviour.
If I connect the device with POE network and the blue LED start lighting up solid. I then immediately push the reset button as written in the manual and keep holding it approx. 5s when the blue LED then turns off and release it afterwards. The device is then just simply rebooting the previous “faulty” config.
If I keep holding the reset button after the blue LED turned off I do reach at about 10s a flashy state with other LEDs turning off etc, but never a flashy blue LED.
I have two devices acting the same, non ever have the blue LED flashing after 5sec Reset button press.
Any advice.
Addendum: I once more gave it a try, but no difference. I do think I started with pressing Reset prior to connecting POE and released it once the blue LED turns off after 5s. Then it boots in a state with the old faulty config and blue LED solid on, Ethernet1 flickering and 2GHz and 5Ghz LED going on/off (rolling on/off) in a carousel like mode.
Instead of reset, try to use Netinstall and completely format the device.
https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Netinstall
Make sure to use the latest files from our download page when you do this procedure:
Was thinking about that, but since netinstall is Windows solely and I’m in a Mac OSX and Linux environment with just a virtual machine with Windows it’s not a solution. I actually gave it a try, but the netboot state is not being recognized via the network up to the VM running Netinstall. (just noticed there is a Linux version of Netinstall, will give it a try)
What is the meaning of the 2GHz and 5GHz LED carousel? Is this indicating a Netboot state?
You mentioned you have access to the device? You can issue a system → reset command without using the button. In software.
Unfortunately I don’t have administrative access, as I can connect to it’s wifi as it is configured as bridge, but it doesn’t has an IP and connecting via MAC isn’t working either.
Interestingly I found out my problem with the RESET handling description:
“The reset button has three functions: … Hold this button during boot time until LED light starts flashing, release the button to reset RouterOS configuration (total 5 seconds).”
“During Boot time” should be more precisely phrased as, “once turned on, wait 2-3sec until Power LED, but foremost User LED lights up, then push RESET for 5 seconds until User LED starts flashing”. ← that seems to work, but not pushing RESET after Power LED lights on, as I did the past couple days.
UNFORTUNATELY, though the LED flashes, it’s still not resetting my device. I’m going to try Netinstall, now that I have the feeling to got at least control over the different reset modes.
@Mikrotik: It would be helpful to get a more clear description of LED behaviour and how they signal certain modes. My device seems to do some kind of reset and after some while it’s starting an WiFi LED carousel. That seems to indicate something, a specific mode. Would love to know.
I don’t know about Mac OSX, but in Linux (Arch Linux in my case) you can easily use both Winbox and Netinstall (Windows native) with wine. Using Netinstall you need to ensure your firewall is (temporarily) disabled. Personally I flashed cap AC from Arch Linux yesterday with no issues at all.
I can fix your problem for $69 
Reset button is depressed prior to applying the power chord and kept depressed until the lights blink or not.
It can be tricky and obviously MT didnt think about people with only one arm/hand… not that user friendly
(unless one is an arachnid or octopus)
I actually got one of the two devices working with the right Reset-Power-ButtonPush-Process 
Unfortunately the other one seems not to react on any of the three modes (though confirmed by the LED flashing, solid-on or off). It finally always enters a mode, where Power LED and User LED are on, while NET is flashing.
I’m still working on getting access to a device via Netinstall with either MS Windows or Linux and physical network connection to the device. My setup based on Macs is not allowing to do that at the moment (neither per WINE since outdated for Macs and I’m too lazy to compile it by myself, nor per VMs as these have no physical connection to the device).
The time I invested made me also think wether I should just spend the approx. 60$.
if you feel inclined to purchase check out the TP LINK EAP245, cheap prices these days and it handles vlan tags etc.
Does everything the Capac does with better and more stable wifi throughput. On the downside its not a winbox config which I am rather fond of now.
The reset is straightforward and you can compare devices.
What I learned about the TP LINK EAP245 makes me hesitating, as they seem to require a cloud or app-based setup or it requires a central control instance. One of the reasons why I after some test setups also refrained from going with Ubiquiti Unifi, who are known for their good APs in the SOHO and medium sized company sector. From a professional perspective, beside performance, independency is another key factor. Therefore I would love MikroTik to release a WiFi AP with the power comparable to e.g. the Unifi lineup. For the time being, I deal with performance restrictions.
You can see RouteOS version installed on the “unresettable” device?
I still have a previously configured WIFI without an IP on the device, which I try to correct.
It mean you configure THIS device, but you lost access to it?
Or ANOTHER device?
“device is then just simply rebooting the previous faulty config”
if someone has activated the protected routerboot, you can not reset the device on unusual way,
you must press the reset button for exactly 300 seconds (start when regulary blinks 1sec on / 1sec off) and wait 3/4 minutes for format internal FLASH,
then is visible on netinstall.
And is possible than someone set the latest reformat-hold-button-max to different value, you must only guess the right time from 10 seconds to 600
more detail:
http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/problems-getting-mikrotik-to-work-with-dsl/442/1
OK, I finally can report success on recovering the second of two devices which were in any weird mode and did not accept a reset. It took me several tries and finally Netinstall discovered the device. I think it is related to a button-procedure, where I kept RESET pressed for more than 30sec regardless of the LED already turned off after 15s.
Thanks for the help here in the forum.
Maybe this helps somebody
Just to be clear they have a stand alone mode that I access via my PC or an APP. DONT NEED CLOUD!
But the good news is that you have access to your capacs back dont need to spend more money!!
For 2.4ghz make sure you avoid other channels in your area
For 5Ghz found settings Band: 5GHz-N/AC and ChannelWidth: 20/40MHz Ce worked best.
Avoid capsman if you dont need it, learn how to configure capac for wifi first and get the config solid before deciding to add another layer of complexity.
CAPsMAN is easy to set up for basic use, check this out: https://youtu.be/taQ70m0DVYA