Two Inline Routers But No Internet Access

I am having issues getting my (now former) routers to have internet access. They also kept seeming to become unresponsive when trying to change the settings and continual resets were necessary. 2 of them have now lost a battle with a sledgehammer and before I acquire a new one I want to know if my laptop is somehow infecting these routers, because 3 of them had similar symptoms before they met their fate with a 12 lb sledgehammer.This is in an apartment complex. Next to the cable modem, there is a Netgear router. This router has 4 outputs with ethernet cable going to 3 different apartments, one of them is mine which is in a separate building 200 hundred feet away. Rather than run an ethernet cable this distance, I made a reflective enclosure installed it under a carport and broadcast a signal to my apartment, and this worked great for 3 years. When the router next to the cable modem failed and was replaced, my personal router would no longer transmit the internet to my apartment.