WiFi Instability

Count von Schwalbe · Jun 30, 2022

So one of my family members works from home every day, using a laptop provided by her workplace. Her laptop wifi WiFi will occasionally disconnect for 5-10 seconds at a time, at widely varying intervals. I have been attempting to figure out what is going on, but have been unable to nail down the issue.

She works for a fairly small company, so it resources are limited. The laptop does not give her administrator privileges, so I cannot attempt reinstall of drivers, and as the drive uses Bitlocker, I will not risk using other drives in the system.

The IT tech apparently reinstalled drivers, with no effect.
The WiFi card works in another laptop in the limited time I had to test it.
When the WiFi disconnects, the associated section in Task Manager's performance tab disappears. I have not been able to ascertain if this also happens in Device Manager. Disabling and re-enabling the device in Device Manager does not help.

Any ideas about the cause of this would be appreciated.

Shrek · Jun 30, 2022

The Wi-Fi disconnects or the Internet?

Count von Schwalbe · Jun 30, 2022

Shrek said:
The Wi-Fi disconnects or the Internet?

The WiFi. I have internet to every other device in the house, and it loses connection to the router entirely.

The issue does not happen with Ethernet connection, but that is only a partial solution.

nguyen · Jun 30, 2022

1. Try to find the power saving option within the Wifi card driver and disable it

2. On your wifi router, look for the Transmitting Power option and set it to Low instead of High (better stability)

ThrashZone · Jun 30, 2022

Hi,
Check using wired internet see if it cuts out.

Count von Schwalbe · Jun 30, 2022

nguyen said:
1. Try to find the power saving option within the Wifi card driver and disable it

2. On your wifi router, look for the Transmitting Power option and set it to Low instead of High (better stability)

would power-saving kick in even under full load? The main time we see the issue is on Zoom calls, as we use wired most of the rest of the time.

ThrashZone said:
Hi,
Check using wired internet see if it cuts out.

No issues there, but we only have wired in one part of the house, and don't really feel like tearing the walls out until we are done with some other projects.

maxx2575 · Jun 30, 2022

hey make sure you dont have the router in a stuffy area as overheating can cause these problems

ThrashZone · Jun 30, 2022

Count von Schwalbe said:
No issues there, but we only have wired in one part of the house, and don't really feel like tearing the walls out until we are done with some other projects.

Hi,
Looks like that location is their new office :laugh:

1freedude · Jun 30, 2022

Could be overheating. How is the performance while "active"?

While not ideal, a workaround could be a USB wireless dongle.

Count von Schwalbe · Jun 30, 2022

ThrashZone said:
Hi,
Looks like that location is their new office

It is, but that's not the only place we use it.

1freedude said:
Could be overheating. How is the performance while "active"?

While not ideal, a workaround could be a USB wireless dongle.

It seems to ramp up bandwidth very slowly. Not sure about the max bandwidth as it is increasing slowly over a full speed test.

System Name	Work Computer \| Unfinished Computer
Processor	Core i7-6700 \| Ryzen 5 5600X
Motherboard	Dell Q170 \| Gigabyte Aorus Elite Wi-Fi
Cooling	A fan? \| Truly Custom Loop
Memory	4x4GB Crucial 2133 C17 \| 4x8GB Corsair Vengeance RGB 3600 C26
Video Card(s)	Dell Radeon R7 450 \| RTX 2080 Ti FE
Storage	Crucial BX500 2TB \| TBD
Display(s)	3x LG QHD 32" GSM5B96 \| TBD
Case	Dell \| Heavily Modified Phanteks P400
Power Supply	Dell TFX Non-standard \| EVGA BQ 650W
Mouse	Monster No-Name $7 Gaming Mouse\| TBD

System Name	HP Compaq 8000 Elite CMT
Processor	Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550
Motherboard	Hewlett-Packard 3647h
Memory	16GB DDR3
Video Card(s)	Asus NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 2GB GDDR5 (fan-less)
Storage	2TB Micron SATA SSD; 2TB Seagate Firecuda 3.5" HDD
Display(s)	Dell P2416D (2560 x 1440)
Power Supply	12V HP proprietary
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

System Name	Work Computer \| Unfinished Computer
Processor	Core i7-6700 \| Ryzen 5 5600X
Motherboard	Dell Q170 \| Gigabyte Aorus Elite Wi-Fi
Cooling	A fan? \| Truly Custom Loop
Memory	4x4GB Crucial 2133 C17 \| 4x8GB Corsair Vengeance RGB 3600 C26
Video Card(s)	Dell Radeon R7 450 \| RTX 2080 Ti FE
Storage	Crucial BX500 2TB \| TBD
Display(s)	3x LG QHD 32" GSM5B96 \| TBD
Case	Dell \| Heavily Modified Phanteks P400
Power Supply	Dell TFX Non-standard \| EVGA BQ 650W
Mouse	Monster No-Name $7 Gaming Mouse\| TBD

System Name	The de-ploughminator Mk-II
Processor	i7 13700KF
Motherboard	MSI Z790 Carbon
Cooling	ID-Cooling SE-226-XT + Phanteks T30
Memory	2x16GB G.Skill DDR5 7200Cas34
Video Card(s)	Asus RTX4090 TUF
Storage	Kingston KC3000 2TB NVME
Display(s)	LG OLED CX48"
Case	Corsair 5000D Air
Power Supply	Corsair HX850
Mouse	Razor Viper Ultimate
Keyboard	Corsair K75
Software	win11

System Name	Ghetto Rigs z490\|x99\|Acer 17 Nitro 7840hs/ 5600c40-2x16/ 4060/ 1tb acer stock m.2/ 4tb sn850x
Processor	10900k w/Optimus Foundation \| 5930k w/Black Noctua D15
Motherboard	z490 Maximus XII Apex \| x99 Sabertooth
Cooling	oCool D5 res-combo/280 GTX/ Optimus Foundation/ gpu water block \| Blk D15
Memory	Trident-Z Royal 4000c16 2x16gb \| Trident-Z 3200c14 4x8gb
Video Card(s)	Titan Xp-water \| evga 980ti gaming-w/ air
Storage	970evo+500gb & sn850x 4tb \| 860 pro 256gb \| Acer m.2 1tb/ sn850x 4tb\| Many2.5" sata's ssd 3.5hdd's
Display(s)	1-AOC G2460PG 24"G-Sync 144Hz/ 2nd 1-ASUS VG248QE 24"/ 3rd LG 43" series
Case	D450 \| Cherry Entertainment center on Test bench
Audio Device(s)	Built in Realtek x2 with 2-Insignia 2.0 sound bars & 1-LG sound bar
Power Supply	EVGA 1000P2 with APC AX1500 \| 850P2 with CyberPower-GX1325U
Mouse	Redragon 901 Perdition x3
Keyboard	G710+x3
Software	Win-7 pro x3 and win-10 & 11pro x3
Benchmark Scores	Are in the benchmark section

System Name	old betty (rebuilt)
Processor	Ryzen 5 3600
Motherboard	GIGABYTE AB350-GAMING 3
Cooling	AMD stock cooler
Memory	16GB 3200
Video Card(s)	GTX 1070 FE
Storage	SATA 1TB Samsung EVO 860 SSD
Display(s)	main 1080p 144hz/secondary 1080p 60hz
Case	Rosewill CHALLENGER S
Audio Device(s)	built-in motherboard amp/dac with AKG K240's (the new ones dont get too excited)
Power Supply	EVGA 600Watt bronze+
Mouse	SteelSeries Sensei 310
Keyboard	Corsair K55 RGB
VR HMD	HTC VIVE (og)
Software	windows 10

Processor	Xeon x5650
Motherboard	SABERTOOTH X58
Cooling	Fans
Memory	24 GB Kingston HyperX 1600
Video Card(s)	GTX 1060 3GB
Storage	small ssd
Display(s)	Dell 2001F, BenQ short throw
Case	Lian Li
Audio Device(s)	onboard
Power Supply	X750
Software	Mint 19.3, Win 10
Benchmark Scores	not so fast...