Very slow wifi after upgrading STCK1A32WFCR to Windows 10

[itm60]

I needed to recover a STCK1A32WFCR which was not booting, so installed Windows 10 Pro from an ISO image. The installation went fine, and I then installed the following from the relevant Intel Compute Stick download page:

- BIOS Update for Compute Stick - FCBYT10H 

- Intel® HD Graphics Driver for STCK1A32WFC (3/1/2016)

- System-on-a-Chip (SOC) Driver Package for STCK1A32WFC (9/18/2015)

- Realtek* Wireless Driver for Windows® 10 for STCK1A32WFC (7/14/2015)

- Realtek* Bluetooth UART Bus Driver for Windows® 10 for STCK1A32WFC (7/14/2015).

The system boots and functions, but wifi performance (accessing both LAN and WAN resources) is unusably slow. Youtube streams pause/buffer every few seconds, and VLC streams from media on the LAN do the same.

I have a 2nd Compute Stick of the same model, but running the original Windows 8.1 O/S, and this does not suffer any of these problems when connected to exactly the same environment.

Any idea how the wifi performance can be made more usable?

[n_scott_pearson]

I suggest that you clean-reinstall the Wireless and Bluetooth drivers. Here is the process:

1. Very important! Disable Internet access. Unplug your router or delete router connection. Note I suggest the latter; you are going to lose it anyway. Regardless of method, this disconnection needs to survive reboots.
2. Uninstall the existing Wireless and Bluetooth drivers. Ensure associated software is deleted as well.
3. Reboot keeping Internet disabled.
4. Check if any Wireless and (non-Microsoft) Bluetooth packages still present. If not, go to Step 7.
5. Uninstall the Wireless and/or Bluetooth drivers still present. Ensure associated software is deleted as well.
6. Go back to Step 3.
7. Install latest Wireless and Bluetooth driver packages.
8. Enable Internet access. Create new persistent connection to your router.
9. Test.

Hope this helps,

...S

[itm60]

Thanks for the suggestion - I followed you instructions:

- "Forgot" existing wifi connections and disabled the wifi adapter
- Uninstalled the Realtek Bluetooth and Wireless software (from the "Add or Remove Programs" screen)
- Uninstalled the wifi and bluetooth devices in Device Manager
- Rebooted
- Reinstalled the Realtek Bluetooth and Wireless software (as downloaded from the Intel site)
- Rebooted.

I think the speed has improved slightly, but there is still alot of buffering, with both LAN and WAN streaming. I ran a speed test, which showed a download speed of 4.6mbps. My phone, connected to the same wifi access point, shows a download speed of 72mbps. 

Is there any way that I can verify that the correct drivers are being used?

[Hugo_Intel]

Hello itm60

Thank you for posting on the Intel️® communities.   

Due to this product being discontinued, Intel Customer Service no longer supports inquiries for it, I am glad to see that fellow community members have the knowledge and they jumped in and helped. You may also find the Discontinued Products 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".  

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

Best regards,  

Hugo O.   

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[n_scott_pearson]

The latest RealTek Wireless driver package (v3008.11.0515.2015) is available here:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/18490/realtek-wireless-driver-for-windows-10-for-stck1a32wfc.html.

The latest RealTek Bluetooth driver package (v1.0.98.50629) is available here:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/18489/realtek-bluetooth-uart-bus-driver-for-windows-10-for-stck1a32wfc.html.

There may be updates to these drivers available via Windows Update. These may be optional updates that you need to go into the Windows Update applet and release for install, however. I will verify this when I get down to my office later today.

Hope this helps,

...S

[itm60]

Thanks - those are the exact versions that I had already installed. This morning I fired up the ICS and it has no internet access at all (although connected to the usual wireless access point). I then updated the wireless driver (from Device Manager), using the Search option to find the latest drivers. 

Speed test is now showing my download speed as 0.21mbps! 

For a device like this, which is clearly intended to be primarily an internet device, it is absolutely bewildering that they paid so little attention to wireless network performance....

[n_scott_pearson]

First of all, I resurrected my FC ICS and ran a Bandwidth Speed Test. I got ~5 Mb/s up/down. Via Ethernet (by adding USB adapter), my results (consistent with other PCs over my anemic Internet capability) were ~30 Mb/s up/down.

Next, I checked that the drivers I had were consistent with the latest mentioned above. They were. I checked for an updated Wireless driver being available via Device Manager. There was, v3008.66.1013.2017. I let this version install, removed the USB Ethernet adapter and then enabled wireless. The ICS hung; locked up solid. I power cycled and it connected to my router just fine - but, the performance was again ~5 Mb/s up/down.

So, what does this tell us? Well, either the wireless capability of this ICS in general, or the RealTek Windows 10 drivers specifically, are absolutely awful. Considering your second FC running Windows 8.1 has better performance, I can only presume it's the latter. Maybe this is why the subsequent ICS generations (SC and CC) all used Intel wireless solutions...

...S