Wireless card time

[biffzinker]

Had a Belkin N150 work great for 2½ years but it started getting flaky Wifi, and some other minor issues. Replaced it with a Linksys WRT1200AC, no complaints from anyone on Wifi since including me.

 

[Toothless]

I may have found my issue.

I used to use a powered USB hub to power my DWA card instead of normal USB port power since I was using a USB extension cable. I plugged the card into a port on my motherboard and it has no issues except placement which nearly halves my connection speed.

Either i go big and get a PCI card or get a powered USB hub again and suffer drivers more. This is a nightmare.

 

[jsfitz54]

Have you tried this Driver: https://www.mediatek.com/products/broadbandWifi/rt2870

I had two DWA-160's, they tend to get hot so I removed the plastic shell on one.

 

[Toothless]

Have you tried this Driver: https://www.mediatek.com/products/broadbandWifi/rt2870

I had two DWA-160's, they tend to get hot so I removed the plastic shell on one.

Do you remember which versions and how hard/easy it was to remove the shells?

 

[jsfitz54]

Does this help: Finally found shell, Ver. B1, Firmware 2.0.

That's a laptop antenna attached. (from ebay)

Shell is a PITA to get off, you have to work it slow.

Try the driver anyway.

 

[Toothless]

Does this help: Finally found shell, Ver. B1, Firmware 2.0.

That's a laptop antenna attached. (from ebay)

Shell is a PITA to get off, you have to work it slow.

Try the driver anyway.

View attachment 91736

Is the antenna a thing that can be added on? I have a spare antenna set from a desktop that doesn't need it and if it helps with signal then I'm all game.

 

[Asuredawn]

Is the antenna a thing that can be added on? I have a spare antenna set from a desktop that doesn't need it and if it helps with signal then I'm all game.

If it's for a (half-) miniPCIe card it should work. If it's for an m.2 card it probably won't. M.2 cards use a similar but slightly smaller connector for their antennas.

 

[jsfitz54]

Is the antenna a thing that can be added on?

Yes, I was surprised when I opened it up to find the two antenna contacts. So it is an add on, there was no factory antenna.

 

[Toothless]

Okay so going off of what @jsfitz54 said I decided to try cooling this thing. Ghetto time!

The card.

I was trying to figure out how am I going to cover this and remembered my AM1 rig is overheating. (Yes that's a thing with how hot it is in my room)

Cover off, and saw there is an extra fan header.

I have a fan that splits in a way. (Blur warning)

And I have a tiny fan with an extender.

SOOOOO you can guess what happens next.

I'm downloading, watching a long video, and testing it more to see if it was thermals causing issues. I also did find the ONE driver that worked with the card so we'll see how good/bad this goes. I'll keep you all updated.

 

[steen]

Version A2 if that helps.

A2=Atheros AR9170/AR9104 - as per your pics.

Just grab the latest Win10 WHQL driver set (v10.0.0.352) from the link I gave you. Connect directly to front or back USB port. Don't connect via a HUB. Use a USB extension cable to position the USB adapter for better reception.

 

[Toothless]

A2=Atheros AR9170/AR9104 - as per your pics.

Just grab the latest Win10 WHQL driver set (v10.0.0.352) from the link I gave you. Connect directly to front or back USB port. Don't connect via a HUB. Use a USB extension cable to position the USB adapter for better reception.

I found the drivers which worked perfectly as they were hidden on one of my drivers, in a few folders, few folders more, and yeah.

The reason I said a hub is to get more power to it as that proved to work before (speed difference was about 75%) however with the thermal issue I'm probably going with that Rosewill PCI card anyway and push this little guy off to one of my other rigs.