I need help with a MikroTik cAP lite (RBcAPL-2nD r2), RouterOS 7.22.1.
The problem is very strange: after a normal reboot or power cycle, the device usually does not boot normally. It gets stuck with three solid LEDs: PWR + ETH + AP/CAP. They do not blink, they just stay on.
What I observed:
If I hold the reset button before powering it on, the three LEDs turn on solid immediately.
If I power it on without holding reset, I see a slightly different LED order: first PWR and ETH, then AP/CAP.
Hardware reset is extremely unreliable. It works maybe 1 out of 500 tries. Most of the time the device does not react as expected and just ends up with the same three solid LEDs.
Sometimes I can still access it over Wi-Fi and through WinBox, but after the next reboot the same problem returns.
Ethernet access is also unreliable. In some cases Windows even says that the network cable is not connected.
I already tried:
/system reset-configuration caps-mode=no
disabling CAP mode
reconfiguring it as a simple standalone AP
powering it both from microUSB and via Ethernet/PoE
None of this fixed the issue permanently.
Additional note:
/system routerboard settings set force-backup-booter=yes fails with: “failure: not allowed by device-mode”
At this point I am trying to understand what this LED state actually means:
Is solid PWR + ETH + AP/CAP a known boot state?
Is the device stuck in CAP mode, boot loop, or some RouterBOOT/bootloader issue?
Could this be a bad reset button or broken main bootloader?
Is there any reliable recovery method besides trying reset endlessly?
Can this be recovered through Netinstall if Ethernet link is unstable?
Are there known reset pads/test points on the board for this model?
If needed, I can provide screenshots, config export, and photos of the PCB.
IF the issue is the reset button, you can open the case and short the terminals of the reset button.
You need that anyway if you need to put it in netinstall mode.
See:
The cAP lite is a 16 Mb device, that may be too "tight" for a normal 7.x upgrade and doing a netinstall would be anyway a good idea as it could remove some "cruft" resulting from previous upgrades.
Personally I wouldn't even think of using 7.22.1 (because - notwithstanding how Mikrotik categorizes it as "stable" - it is still - in my perverted mind[1] - "highly experimental").
The symptoms you report may also be connected to a failing power supply, first thing would be to try with another surely workling one, DC power supplies have often this failure mode when they still provide the right voltage but not (anymore) enough amperage when - like at booting time - there can be a peak of absorption.