AX200/201 speeds crippled after Windows 23H2 update

[dainbrump]

I have updated to Windows 11 23H2 and Official Intel 22.250.1 for the wifi drivers. I am stuck at slightly better than ISDN speeds (~180kbps) on a 2.5gbps fiber connection. All other devices (Android and Linux mixed) report between 200 and 600mpbs. I have 2 Windows 11 machines with the latest windows updates and the latest Intel wifi drivers. One has an AX201 adapter and the other has an AX200 adapter. They are both struggling from the crippled wifi speeds. As a test, I booted up one of the Windows machines to a USB live image of Manjaro Linux and tested the wifi speed to make sure it wasn't a hardware issue. When I tested the speed, it was reported as 612mbps. So I know for a fact that it isn't some hardware gone haywire.

What I have tried:

• Uninstalling the drivers and reinstalling with 22.250.1. No change.
• Uninstalling the drivers and trying a "rollback" to 22.240.1. Won't install because the 22.250.1 driver is apparently still floating around somewhere and I can't get rid of it no matter how many times I try your "clean install" process.
• Flushing DNS cache and resetting winsock. No change.
• Windows Network Reset utility. No change.
• Windows SFC scan and reboot. No change.
• Safe Mode boot with Networking. No change.
• Tried forcing Preference to 5ghz. No change.
• Changed 802.11a/b/g mode to 5ghz and 2.4ghz. No change for either mode.

Something between 22H2/23H2 and the Intel 22.250.1 drivers pooched something up in a big way. My machine is unusable for most purposes. Thankfully, my primary work machine is on Linux and hasn't had these issues. But I'd be willing to bet there are plenty of other people out there not in my position and struggling with this exact issue.

I've run the support utility and attached the output.

[dainbrump]

Noticed a typo in the title. It is 23H2, not 23H3. Apologies for any confusion.

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello dainbrump,  

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities. I want to understand what happened just as much as you do. 

It will be a pleasure to assist you on this matter, and to proceed further I would like to confirm this:

1. Is this the original adapter that came pre-installed on your computer or did you change/install the adapter to this one?   

2. Is the Bluetooth working?   

3. Are both of your machines from the same manufacturer?

4. Is this issue also present while using the 5GHz band?

5. Have you checked this issue with the laptop manufacturer?

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[dainbrump]

1. Is this the original adapter that came pre-installed on your computer or did you change/install the adapter to this one?

Yes. In both machines, it is the adapter that was shipped.

I have ordered an AX210 (not Intel branded) to test. A $20 spend to either validate / get more details or resolve the issue seemed like a good investment to me.

2. Is the Bluetooth working?

Bluetooth audio connects without issue. Bluetooth file sharing between my phone and laptop works fine.

3. Are both of your machines from the same manufacturer?

One is a Dell G3 3579, the other is a Sager Notebook. The only similarity between the two machines are:

- Both are updated to 23H2 and latest Intel Wifi drivers (22.250.1)

- Both are using an Intel AX200 series wifi/bluetooth adapter

- Both are experiencing the crippled download speeds.

Very specifically, the download speeds are in the 180-260 kbps range on both machines. The upload speeds exceed 300mbps on average. So, I can serve the heck out of data. I just have to wait for the carrier pigeons to arrive with any response.

4. Is this issue also present while using the 5GHz band?

Regardless which band is used, the results are the same. I've tried switching between bands, changing the ax modes, altering a number of different band/frequency related settings. Same issue. Again, this issue only happens on Windows specifically. If I USB boot to any flavor of Linux (old or new, Debian-based or not) and run a speed test, the wifi works like a beast with over 400mbps up and down.

I've even tried connecting the ethernet port (Realtek on both machines) directly to a range extender and over ethernet I get the expected speeds. This is very specific to the latest Windows updates, the latest Intel Wifi drivers or a combination.

5. Have you checked this issue with the laptop manufacturer?

Dell has nothing reported as of yet. Sager has nothing reported either. Both have suggested to, and I have, both laptops running the latest BIOS, latest firmware (where applicable), latest drivers for all hardware.

In addition to all of the other previous steps I tried, I recently rebooted my router / mesh network. I factory reset the mesh just in case something I "tweaked" screwed something up. Using factory defaults and the latest firmware on all of my mesh APs, I still get the dead downloads on these two machines in Windows. I get fantastic speeds when not using Windows on them and no issues with any of my other devices. 

My home network:

I have a 2.4gbps fiber connection directly into an Asus RT-AXE7800 (2.5gbps port). I have meshed an RT-AX55 and 2 ZenWifi XT9's. The mesh is set for dual-band to support some older systems. The mesh is stable with nearly flawless connectivity between the nodes. The speed test directly from the root node shows 2.38gbps download and ~2gpbs (1.99gbps-2.02gbps) upload. It doesn't get much better than that.

The download speed death happened only after I ran a system update for Windows and drivers only. No new software had been installed or updated for days prior the update. And none have been installed since (Intel SSU aside). I am at an absolute loss here and the nuclear option of reinstalling Windows is a non-starter. For one thing, I have far too many apps perfectly configured to my needs and going through that process is just not going to happen. And the other thing, since this happened after a Windows / Driver update, I have very little confidence that this won't happen again.

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello dainbrump, 

Thank you for the information provided 

I will proceed to check the issue internally and post back soon with more details. 

Best regards, 

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[dainbrump]

So it turns out that the AX210 adapter I ordered was an Intel. I just swapped it out and exactly the same issues. Downloads are bricks and uploads are blazing. USB boot to Linux results with full speeds over wifi. Now I am completely convinced that this is restricted to a Windows / Intel driver situation.

[windows_guru]

Could be some corruption in Windows which affects performance

[dainbrump]

Another thing I noticed. While in Windows, the download speeds reported by speedtest.net fluctuate before leveling out. It'll burst to 2.8mbps then drop to 680kbps then burst back up to 2-3mbps then back down to 500-600kbps and it repeats a few times getting slower over time until it finally settles at about 300kbps and slowly comes down to about 180-190kbps. Upload speeds ramp up really, really fast to about 350mbps and stabilize at around 400mpbs after a second and stays there for the duration of the test. When I USB boot to Linux, I get same behavior in download as I do in upload - ramps up really fast to about 350mbps and levels out around 400mbps in both download and upload. Certainly a Windows specific issue, but so far as I can tell, only impacting my devices with Intel specific wifi adapters. My daughter is on Windows using an ASUS wifi adapter and not experiencing this issue, but my other laptop with an Intel AX adapter is.

[dainbrump]

On further examination looks like it's behaving like there is major packet loss on downloads over wifi specifically. Ethernet connections appear to be stable. Since the ethernet device is Realtek and wifi is Intel AX series, it seems that the core of the issue is something in the wifi driver or how Windows is processing wifi data. I've about reached the extent of my "expertise" in network troubleshooting. Hopefully all of this helps narrow things down a little more.

[3Fees]

Hi:

I'm running Intel AX201 with latest Intel Driver 22.250.1.2 with wifi 6 router connected to a cable modem, Windows 11 Pro 22H2 and enabled  23H2 same speed before and after, Windows update did not fully activate 23H2 , I looked on you tube and found the way to enable it completely, I was missing the copilot(preview) icon on the task bar and in settings.

Cheers

3Fees

[dainbrump]

Thanks for the suggestion. I found several videos for "activating" 23H2 and they all walked through essentially the same steps. I followed those. Verified 23H2 is installed completely. I verified CoPilot was installed. I didn't have it enabled because I really don't want to talk to my computer. But I enabled it just in case there was something about it. No joy.

Same issue. Download speeds are abysmal compared to the upload speeds. Slightly better than before but only by a marginal amount. Using speedtest.net, the download gauge flutters up and down quite dramatically before finally settling in right near the end of the download test. The upload speed gauge ramps up to a max speed really quick and stays there for the duration of the test. This is leading me to suspect that there are dropped packets happening somewhere. Unfortunately, I wouldn't really know precisely how to verify that in windows. Still researching that aspect.

 

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello dainbrump, 

Thanks for your patience. I am still investigating this behavior with the latest Windows update, and to continue I would like to confirm a couple of details.

1. When you say in both systems it is the adapter that was shipped, do you mean it was the original adapter? Or, did you purchase and integrate both adapters recently?

2. Did you test a different AP/network?

Best regards, 

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[dainbrump]

1. They are the adapters that shipped with the laptops. I only recently tried switching to the AX210 adapter on one of the laptops as a test and got the same download issues.

2. I have tried 2 different wifi networks. Mine in Virginia and my father's in Pennsylvania. Both on completely different provider networks, both with different router hardware. The speed issue is consistent on both and limited to my Windows installation. My phone and other devices show zero speed issues on either network. I tried USB booting the laptop to Linux while on both and the speed issue disappears. The issue is very clearly narrowed down to the driver, Windows update or something got completely hosed on my Windows installation. Since I installed no new software aside from the windows update and driver update for almost a week prior to the issue showing up or since, these are the only "culprits" I can think of. 

[dainbrump]

Ah. I misread your first question. They are the original adapters that shipped with the laptop from factory.

[3Fees]

Do a ping test for packet loss and post results.
https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/answer/How-to-test-for-packet-loss-on-a-broadband-connection

Cheers
3fees

[dainbrump]

Wired directly to a 10/100 port on a hub that is directly connected to my router.

  

 

  

  

[dainbrump]

Wifi within 15 feet, clear line of sight to my primary router.

  

 

It didn't even bother to try the 10MB download tests. The first test ran for 30 minutes and never finished. These are the results after I reloaded the page.

[3Fees]

Go to Device manager and then wifi tab, click update driver, let me pick driver and select the driver that was present when download/upload was the same and running at rated speed. If that does not work then try resetting windows firewall to default settings and see if that helps.

Cheers

3Fees

[dainbrump]

Exact same machine USB booted to Linux. Test over wifi.

 

Prior to this issue surfacing, I was getting similar results in Windows over wifi.

[3Fees]

Go to Control Panel> click network and sharing radio button> click connection wifi in blue type> see wifi status>IP4 connectivity should show "Internet", IP6 connectivity "No network access", media state "enabled", SSDI "yours", Duration XX:xx, speed "1.2Gbps, 433Mbps, etc", Signal Quality s/b 5 bars >click wireless property radio button> security tab> WPA-3 personal, encryption type AES, then network security key. Next under "properties" lower left hand corner>click, in the networking tab everything should be checked except "Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Protocol." sharing the next tab-unchecked.

M$ put out a patch today for 23H2 download that over hard wire connection and see if that helps the wifi issue.

btw I ran the same ping packet loss test and lost "0" packets.

I looked up Windows 11 wifi connecting to router from fiber optics its no different than cable to router, Can boot into bios and set for default and make sure wifi is enabled and reboot.

The other item I'm not sure of is whether 23H2 is looking upstream to find a Fiber optic modem or modem and assign it some number beyond assigning numbers to the router, typically its modem to wifi, direct connect to router omitting  modem may have been plugged by M$, I'm not sure about this.

Cheers

3Fees

[Malin]

I have the similar issue after upgraded to 22.250.1 with 23H2.  Finally I resoved this problem by rollback the WIFI driver to 22.0.1.5