Killer Intelligence Center Slow Upload Speed

[MidwestSteve]

I have the Killer E2400 Gigabit Ethernet Controller on my Dell XPS 8930 PC and slow upload speeds. This started several months ago.

When the prioritization engine is enabled in the Killer Intelligence Center (v. 3.1422.1129.1) my upload speed is less than 1Mb. Disabling it fixes the problem, however, after any reboot, the prioritization engine feature is automatically re-enabled. Uninstalling the software also results in an upload speed < 1Mb. 

How can I either uninstall the software (preferred, as I have no other need for it) or have the prioritization engine always disabled after restart?

[Steven_Intel]

Hello MidwestSteve,

Thank you for posting on the Intel️® communities.   

Due to this product being discontinued (Killer E2400), Intel Customer Service no longer supports inquiries for it, but perhaps fellow community members have the knowledge to jump in and help. 

You may also find the Discontinued Products website (https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/discontinued-products.html) website helpful to address your request.  

You can get the specifications and verify this product's discontinuance status at the Intel® Product Specifications website > Product Status > "Discontinued". 

Feel free to check the Customer Support Options for Discontinued Intel® Killer™ Wireless and Intel® Killer™ Ethernet Products (https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000059296/wireless.html)

Please keep in mind that this thread will no longer be monitored by Intel. Thank you for your understanding.  

Best regards,

Steven G.

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[Heyix]

Hi MidwestSteve, I've got the same problem on the same Dell XPS with my Killer E2400. Since a few weeks (last network-update I took in Feb 23) I got pretty slow upload speed and got in contact with my DSL-Provider here in Germany. During a time consuming process I/we figured out that the KillerNetworkService.exe finally is main source of the problem - disabled I've full upload performance, enabled (after every restart automatically) I only get max. 1/10 of the (upload)speed.

But this only affects the LAN-part and only the upload speed.
Via WLAN with the same card I've full speed (up and down) all the time.

Since 10th Jan 2023 Dell delivers this update 33.22.1182, A50 for Killer Ethernet Controller as "recommended".

As you mentioned above I don't even need this tool and want to get rid of it or disable it continously. Therefore I asked the Intel Support and received a quite similar answer: The E2400 (may be little too old) has now reached the "community support" lol

In my personal view a quite a bit too easy "solution" - a few weeks ago they publish a recommended update that causes significant problems and now the product switched to "community support" (nice word creation btw.).

I doubt that the community will be able to publish a further update of the driver, but possibly there is someone out there to help us getting rid of the tool or going back to the previous version...

So a broad call to the technichal community: How to deinstall the KillerNetworkService.exe file?

Thanks, Ralf

[Johan4]

I have got exactly the same problem. Same computer, same network card, same update.

Any help would be highly appreciated.

/Johan

[Marcia-HSPH]

Hi Johan4, Heyix, MidwestSteve and Steven Intel,

I too have the exact same problem with Killer  and a Dell 8900, as I imagine everyone does who has this software.  For now,  I just switched to WIFI from the Ethernet connection since as mentioned previous that works. 

 In the meantime, I have been researching the issue, and complete removal of Killer seems to be the answer since.  If you want to take a look at some other Forums that have recommended a Killer complete removal tool  follow 

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/782698/slow-upload-speed-all-of-a-sudden/page-2 

and toward the middle of the post NJJoe recommended 

https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/killer_software_uninstaller.html

I have not tried this yet, but it looks promising.  

[Johan4]

Thanks for your support.

In my case it doesn't help to switch to wifi. It's equally slow.

However, I have now disabled all services related to Killer and it seems to work for me. I have got my full upload speed back.

[MidwestSteve]

Thank you for the link to the Killer removal tool. It's been a week since I ran that and the problem of sometimes slow uploades is fixed.

For future readers - tool is here (same link from Marcia-HSPH's post):  : https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/killer_software_uninstaller.html 

[AUEagle]

I hope the software removal tool does the trick.  I've had this issue a handful of times over this past year.  I'll do an uninstall of the Killer Dashboard and then reinstall the previous version from the Dell website.  Then uninstall the Killer control dashboard and everything works fine.  Then 1 day later, the Killer Control Dashboard is mysteriously reinstalled.  The Killer uninstall program did find a handful of Killer related files that apparently did not uninstall using the standard Windows uninstall method.  

[MidwestSteve]

It came back! It friggin came back!!! My hatred for this software is through the roof. Have no idea how it got reinstalled.

What was really frustrating was my browser had been slow for a while. Thought it could be the latest round of Windows patches, so wasted hours rolling those back. Just happened to check in the running proceses today and there was the dreaded Killer stuff again. ARRRRGHHHH!!!!  Come on Intel!!

Running the removal tool again. Hopefully it's permanent.

[KateG]

Same issue here with a Dell XPS 8390 with Killer E2400 Ethernet; upload speeds are always <1mbps but when I disable the KillerNetworkService.exe process, it immediately returns to normal speeds. I've had so many issues with this card in recent years; it's incredibly frustrating and I'm not at all happy that Intel dropped support for these cards once they acquired Killer. 

[Manfred_GE]

Hello Ralf,

I got the same problem even with the E2400 card. I follow your hint and disabled "KillerNetworkService.exe".

Then to upload speed change back to normal from  "0,2" Mbps  to 60 Mbps.

To download speed is still the same with 265 Mbps.

Best regards

Manfred

[Andrul]

It's sad that Intel is not supporting a product included on my Dell that I purchased a year ago.  Boy am I glad I came across a thread that's actually helpful instead of being told "ask somebody else or go buy a new NIC."

Anyways,  go to this article https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000058906/wireless/wireless-software.html

Follow the uninstall part of the clean install instructions and do not reinstall the Killer application.  A regular uninstall will not clear the settings on the chipset itself, you have to do the manual steps as well.  I've seen no difference in download speeds and uploads are now matching the DL speeds.  I think Intel named the application perfectly as it KILLS your network performance.

[Hannah_Qe]

Sounds good, and it works, for a while (at least on my Dell tower). But then the Killer suite always reappears, and my upload speed diminishes almost to zero. I've long ago totally dispensed with the Microsoft Store and the Dell bloatware. I'm completely uninstalled and reinstalled the Killer suite and then disabled it, all to no avail. Sometimes I'm fine for hours and hours, but then, BANG, it's back in place, and because it takes a restart to get rid of it (yet again) it's a proverbial pain the the ol' patootie. I need fresh ideas. Anyone got any?

[LGC1]

Also have the Killer E2400 Gigabit Ethernet Controller on my Dell XPS 8930 PC and slow upload speeds. Which I had found this thread earlier. Spent over 2 hours disabling groups of programs and restarting after each disabled group before narrowing it down to the Killer. After reading all the text on trying to remove the program I just disabled the Killer app on start up. Life is good now, 18.1 up, before >1. 

[MidwestSteve]

Two things seem to be working for me.

First, I installed the latest drivers from https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/19779/intel-killer-performance-suite.html . Restarted. Did not install the Killer Control Center as I've had problems with that in the past. After installing the latest drivers my upload speed was normal, and that's the first time I've had that in a long time with the Killer services running.

Second, for good measure, I went to services.msc and set all services that start with Killer* to Startup type = Disabled. This prevents the services from starting. Rebooted a couple of times to test, and the Killer services are not running.

Fingers crossed this works for a long time!

[LGC1]

Thnaks MidwestSteve for that information. I just did your second method which seems to be working. When I have some spare time I'll try your solution #1.

[Gi_Nattak]

Hey guys, I just recently did a complete reinstall of Windows 10 and came across this issue today when putting everything back to the way I had it more or less, and I thought it was my modem acting up or my ISP throttling me, but my other devices were not experiencing the slow upload speed issue... Anyways long story short I searched for 'slow upload speed dell xps', as I too have a Dell XPS 8930, and came across this thread and the answer being the Killer software (more like malware...).

I actually ran into this SAME issue like four years ago when I first got this computer, or sometime shortly after, but I had forgotten all about it until this thread jarring my memory.

I just signed up here to say that a really simple way to get Killer fully disabled is to disable it's services in msconfig (Windows key+r for Run, then type msconfig and enter). I also uninstalled the 'Killer Performance Suite' in apps of course, though that wasn't as problematic -- it's all staying disabled by turning off its services in msconfig, along with a ton of other services a clean windows install gave me...

Make sure to also disable the xTendSoftAPService and xTendUtilityService by Rivet Networks, as that is Killer software also.

Now my upload speed is back to how it was and my task manager services are back to just important microsoft processes along with my hand-picked ones, in case anyone was having an issue with that also.

Good luck, hope this helps!

EDIT: ADDED PICS

[LGC1]

Thanks, didn't realize xtend.... was also a Killer "piece of work"

[jbike]

I just gave up on the built in Ethernet adapter on my Dell xps8930 PC. I did get the Killer Performance suite modified, but after an update, the slow upload throttling came back. I tried uninstalling and just using the drivers, but Killer kept coming back like a bad penny. I bought a TP-Link 2.5GB PCIe Network Card (TX201) – PCIe to 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet Network Adapter for $25 from Amazon. Works perfect, no Dell updates to screw  up the works.

[Editor]

I had the exact same problem with the E2400 on a Dell XPS 8930 running Windows 10.  The problem started immediately after I allowed Windows Update to install an update involving this controller.  After trying for a long time to diagnose the problem with no success, I surrendered, and solved it by simply (1) disabling the E2400 controller completely (using Device Manager in Windows 10), then (2) plugging a $20 ethernet adapter made by "IOGear" into an unused USB-C port, and finally (3) plugging my ethernet cable into the IOGear adapter instead.  Now I have the same great 1-gigabit upload and download speeds that I had before Windows Update made everything go sideways, and all it cost me was $20 and a spare USB-C port.  Give it a try!

[jbike]

I did try that, as I already had that adapter for my laptop. I got full speeds up and down. I totally agree the Intel update keeps trying to install Killer. I eventually bought a Ethernet card as it looks a bit better than the USB dongle. I get full up and down speeds with it as well.