Starlink Router, How to reset and troubleshoot?
The Starlink system is so new that the product has not been proven yet and remains to be seen how the future will look for them. But so far so good, the Starlink router has proven to be both fast and reliable....at least for the most part. There has been a few little hic-ups along the way.
Noooooo! The Red Light of Death on your Starlink Router, what to do!
First off, panic! The Red light means you’ve lost connection, you have no internet! No Tv Streaming, No video games, No Alexa! Oh my…but wait all hope is not lost. There are a number of things you can do if the red light has shown up for you.
We need to establish at just what point did the red light show up, are you just activating and haven’t used the system yet or its worked perfect for months but just the other day it reared its bright little red laser beacon. If you're new then keep reading if your system has worked for a while then you can skip down to the next step, but please feel free to keep reading if you wish. Always good to do a review.
If you're new and the dish has just been activated then be patient. It can take awhile for these little systems to come online. I’ve heard of them starting up the next day after sitting left powered on. However with the dozen installs we’ve done we ran into a few issues but by far the majority we’re plug and play and the issues we did have we’re solved within a few hours.
First Check Location...
My first experience with the Starlink Red Light was due to a location error. The physical address Starlink had on record was different from my actual location. This was a tough one to figure out as it booted up and worked fine but then would go out a few minutes later, repeating this cycle over and over no matter what adjustments I made. It would run 150Mb, then 7Mb, then the red light would flash on. As it turned out we checked the profile settings in the Starlink Account and found the address was out by 10 miles, it was several Canadian township roads away. So with a quick adjustment inside the Starlink account and voila, it started working, the red light stayed out, speeds also improved hitting over 200Mb speeds. Now I don’t presume this will be a big issue but it did happen again to us at another job site. So now we're in the habit of checking that the location in the account matches our GPS location. It takes minutes to do and can be a big time saver. This must be done online as it can’t be done through the APP The steps are simple.
Go to Starlink.com and login to your account
On the far top right of the screen there is a profile icon, login here
1. Click on the Icon and select profile.
2. Find the addresses section and click edit.(The little pencil Icon)
3. Select Location Map (Black Button)
Make sure the Icon is directly over your map location. If you gave them the wrong address completely then contact Starlink and see what they can do, you can also try to resubmit your new location which we did and it worked for us.
2nd Check be patient soft reset
Okay so we’ve established that our location is fine but we still have the red light. Be patient, leave it powered on for an 1hr. Well you're waiting, you can follow the troubleshooting list in the Starlink app and submit a ticket to let them know at www.starlink.com, if after some time your patience has worn thin then the next step for us is a soft reset on the Starlink.
Starlink soft reset/reboot. Locate the power brick that comes with the Starlink system. A soft reset is simply unplugging the unit from the electrical outlet for 30 seconds, then plugging it back in and waiting 10 mins for the system to reboot. System rebooting can be done though the Starlink app for the modem and router as well, I just prefer the other way as then I know for sure everything has been powered down.
3rd Factory Reset
Well we’ve waited for 10, 20, 30 minutes and still the red light flashes. Next step is to factory reset the router. Flip the router upside down looking at the bottom of the router, there is a tiny little hole. Inside the tiny little hole is a button that takes a very thin stiff object to pressure down, a tack or pin works just fine. Press down briefly, 2-3 seconds and then the blue light should flash quickly before the router reboots. Because we're factory resetting the router the network ssid and password will need to be redone through the Starlink app, I know this is a pain. To make it easier use the same ssid and password then hopefully every device that was previously on the network will automatically configure and hook up. If you change the ssid and password then plan on going through your network devices and connecting them to the new network id.
CHECKLIST
Check Starlink account address settings
Wait an hour, email Starlink through the app and submit a ticket.
Soft Reset
Factory Reset
4th Step Patience...
This little process takes a couple hours to complete but so far it has held true and we’ve been able to get back online, knock on wood as this won’t always be the case. Sometimes equipment fails, if this is the case then follow up with the ticket and make sure to let them know and hopefully then send out equipment asap to get you back online again. Enjoying all the novelties that come with having a true high speed internet system for your home.
Our experience with Starlinks customer service has been good. Yes it is all done online, there is no talking with a rep on the phone but that is just the way it is nowadays. There is a thank you email that gets sent out if they received your ticket giving you a timeframe that you can expect a follow up response to come. I have seen this take 24 hours, and then you're waiting for equipment to be delivered. Very annoying but this is hopefully an anomalia, as by far the majority of systems have held up very well, with very little issues and speeds well beyond its competitors.
So far we’ve been able to fix all but one system in which the Starlink router crashed. We were able to take another router the client had and installed it into the Starlink modem and it worked well. So they didn’t lose their internet while waiting for the replacement router to be delivered. So there are always options. If you’ve run into issues and have found some workarounds then let us know below, we would love to hear from you. Make sure to sign up to stay up to date on our latest news and reviews.
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