AX200NGW not connect with Wi-Fi 6 protocol 802.11ax in Win 10 on Lenovo X1E2

[tarh]

Hi all,

laptop Lenovo X1 Extreme Gen 2 never connects with 802.11ax, only with 802.11ac (max 866/866 Mbps) with any AX access points and routers (connection is very stable). Lenovo supplies limited drivers shown on screenshot, but if I install the latest drivers from Intel, the result is the same. In advanced options of Wi-Fi adapter are correct settings, I compared with other laptops that work with 802.11ax protocol. I did a clean reinstall of drivers. SSU is in attachment.

Maybe Lenovo thinks: enterprise-level laptop = laptop with reduced performance, but is it possible to enable 802.11ax protocol for my case?

[Jean_Intel]

Hello @tarh

Thank you for posting on the Intel️® communities.  

To have a better understanding of your issue, please provide me with the following:

1. When did it start to happen?
2. Is this issue happening at the home, office environment, or both?
3. Is this the original adapter that came pre-installed in your system, or have you changed/installed a new adapter recently?
4. Is the 802.11ax configured to run in the 2.4GHz or 5GHz band?
5. Are other systems capable of connecting to the 802.11ax network?

Best regards, 

Jean O.  

Intel Customer Support Technician

[tarh]

Hi @Jean_Intel ,

thanks for the answer and questions )

1. This has been since the purchase of the laptop.

2. both

3. This the original adapter that came pre-installed in my system

4. My settings are in SSU

IEEE11nMode:802.11n/ac/ax Wireless Mode:"4. 802.11ax (3)"

RoamingPreferredBandType:Preferred Band:"3. Prefer 5GHz band (2)"

5. Yes, I was recently given a second Dell laptop with AX201, it connects with Wi-Fi 6 protocol 802.11ax 1200/1200 Mbps - this is why i have a question to Lenovo )

Best regards

[Jean_Intel]

Hello tarh,

Thanks for your response, the information provided has been useful.

Reviewing the SSU report you provide us with, I noticed that you are still running the Lenovo driver; I would like to confirm which Intel driver you installed on your system before.

Please provide me with a complete report for the Intel System Support Utility (Intel SSU)  

• Download the Intel SSU (https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/18377/25293/intel-system-support-utility-for-windows.html)

• Open the application and click on "Scan" to see the system and device information. By default, Intel SSU will take you to the "Summary View." 

• Click on the menu where it says: "Summary" to change it to "Detailed View." 

To save your scan: click on "Next"; then "Save." 

Best regards, 

Jean O.  

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[tarh]

Before that the Intel driver was installed: WiFi-22.120.1-Driver64-Win10-Win11.exe

Could Lenovo restrict the connection protocol? For example, by chipset driver or an antenna configuration.

[Jean_Intel]

Hello tarh

Regarding your question, OEMs can perform some changes and limitations to the wireless adapters; usually, this is to meet some regulatory restrictions. If you want, you can contact Lenovo to confirm if they did any limitations for your unit.

I hope you find this information helpful.

Best regards, 

Jean O.  

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[tarh]

Hello Jean O.,

I appreciate your information.

So I Enable Throughput Booster and U-APSD than click OK, after adapter reconnect, I've got Wi-Fi 6 protocol 802.11ax 1200/1200 Mbps. The speed was maintained until the laptop was rebooted, then the protocol returned to 802.11ac 866/866 and did not change anymore. Sometimes the protocol can become 802.11ax after changing advanced settings of the adapter and reconnect. This is strange adapter behavior.

[Jean_Intel]

Hello tarh,

Thanks for reaching out to me.

As you assumed, this is strange behavior for the adapter. However, I would like to confirm some valid information to have a better comprehension of your issue:

1. What is the model of your APs and router?
2. Are the APs and router firmware up to date?
3. The Intel SSU report you attached has only information related to wireless; please create a complete report to gather vital information about your system.  

• Download the Intel SSU (https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/18377/25293/intel-system-support-utility-for-windows.html)

• Open the application and click on "Scan" to see the system and device information. By default, Intel SSU will take you to the "Summary View." 

• Click on the menu where it says: "Summary" to change it to "Detailed View." 

To save your scan: click on "Next"; then "Save." 

 Best regards, 

Jean O.  

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[tarh]

Intel has LAR (Location aware regulation)/DRS feature. In my UA (Ukraine) region, the AX protocol was locked, but now it is unlocked. How can I get a driver for my region or How can I disable or bypass Intel LAR (Location aware regulation)/DRS? How can I update firmware for AX200?
BIOS updating will not help, especially since I do not have the "Enable Wi-Fi 6" in BIOS settings.

AX210 works with AX protocol.

[Jean_Intel]

Hello tarh,

As for your questions, the AX protocol shout is enabled by default on your unit; unless the OME limits it. Lenovo may have an answer to your questions and may provide you with steps on how to enable the AX protocol on your system.

I hope you find this information helpful.

Best regards

Jean O.  

Intel Customer Support Technician

[tarh]

Hi @Jean_Intel ,

I don't understand your company's denial of an obvious problem. I just rolled back to the very old Intel driver version 21.0.0.5 and got AX protocol.

I don't want to use the old driver because it's not secure and doesn't work WPA3 and not a stable link, when will you be able to release a new working driver?

[Jean_Intel]

Hello tarh,

I want to confirm where you are trying to set the AX protocol and a detailed description of the steps you try for this configuration. These will help me try and replicate the issue.

Best regards

Jean O. 

Intel Customer Support Technician

[tarh]

I have 2 laptops: Dell with AX201 and Lenovo with AX200.
I am connecting to an AX access point, such as a Samsung S21 or TP-Link Archer AX10.
Dell with OEM drivers ver. 22.40.0.7 always connects with AX protocol 1200/1200 Mbps,
Lenovo with OEM drivers always connects with AC protocol 866/866 Mbps.

Lenovo OEM drivers:
https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/at/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-x-series-laptops/thinkpad-x1-extreme-gen-2/downloads/driver-list/component?name=Networking%3A%20Wireless%20LAN

There are 2 OEM drivers with versions: 22.40.0.7 and 21.0.0.5. They have AC protocol limitation (screenshot of the first post).

However, if I install on Lenovo non-OEM Intel driver with version 21.0.0.5, I get AX protocol with speed less stable than Dell (433 - 1200 Mbps), but if I update driver to latest version from Intel site, I get AC protocol 866/866 again.

That is, your earlier driver versions did not restrict the protocol by region, and you can now do it in new driver versions.

[Jean_Intel]

 Hello tarh,

I appreciate the information you provided.

Where did you find the Lenovo non-OEM Intel driver with version 21.0.0.5? As well, what do you mean by 'Lenovo NON-OEM driver? This driver is not listed on the Intel Download website for the wireless driver, so I would like to confirm where you find this driver.

Best regards,

Jean O. 

Intel Customer Support Technician

[tarh]

> what do you mean by 'Lenovo NON-OEM driver?

I installed driver on my laptop Lenovo not from Lenovo website, but presumably from Intel website or from Microsoft Update Catalog.

> Where did you find the Lenovo non-OEM Intel driver with version 21.0.0.5?

I uninstalled WiFi adapter and drivers and then installed it manually through Device Manager from the list of available drivers on the computer (Browse my computer for driver software -> Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer -> Show compatible hardware)

[Jean_Intel]

Hello tarh,

I want to suggest this time to try a clean installation of the latest Intel Driver; I understand you have already tried this step. However, I would like to confirm if the issue persists while running this driver, and I want to provide you with our steps for this process in case you want to try.

Latest Wireless Driver (https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/19351/windows-10-and-windows-11-wi-fi-drivers-for-intel-wireless-adapters.html)

Clean installation steps (https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000022173/wireless.html)

Let me know the outcome of this step.

Best regards, 

Jean O.  

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[tarh]

Hello @Jean_Intel ,

I installed last version 22.120.1.9 and got Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) 866/866 (Mbps) WPA3-Personal, before and after laptop reboot no connect with AX.

[Thomas_I_samohT]

Hello,

I seem to have a similar problem which occurs only with the 2 newest Intel driver versions 22.110.x and 22.120.x.

My home WiFi has a router (AVM Fritzbox 6660 Cable) with WiFi 6 (AX) and a repeater (FritzRepeater 2400) which only supports WiFi 5 (AC on 5 GHz).

With the newest drivers two of my laptops with Intel AX201 and AX210  will only connect to the repeater with AC speed, even when I am very close to the Router. However, as soon as I remove the repeater from the network the laptops will also connect to the router with WiFi 6.

My conclusion is that the NIC doesn't work properly in a mixed environment where the access points support different WiFi standards (at least in my case).

And the workaround is to continue using an older driver version. After some testing it seems that 22.100.x is the last driver that doesn't have an issue with my mixed environment. With this driver roaming works as desired, i.e., when I am close to the router it will connect directly to the router with WiFi 6 speed and when I am closer to the repeater it connects with WiFi 5.

Don't know why, but apparently Intel introduced this issue recently with driver version 22.110.x

Regrards

Thomas

[Jean_Intel]

Hello tarh,

Thank you for the information provided.  

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

Best regards, 

Jean O.  

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Jean_Intel]

Hello Thomas_I_samohT.

Thank you for posting on the Intel️® communities.  

Please submit a new question on the Nuc community forums, and provide a detailed explanation of the situation to have a more personalized troubleshooting step for your issue. If you'd like, you can try my suggestions from this thread.

Best Regards,

Jean O.  

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Thomas_I_samohT]

Hello Jean,

You mean I should open a new thread (discussion) in the Intel Communities / Intel Support Forum / Wireless Section to describe the issue I have?

FYI: I already did a clean driver installation, although it doesn't seem to be fully "clean" because whenever I install new driver version with installer from Intel website, and then perfom clean "uninstall", the installer of an older driver version will not work and keeps telling me, that a newer version of the product was already installed. Example: as soon as I have installed driver 22.120.x with installer from Intel website, I will not be able to install driber 22.100.x with installer, even after performing clean uninstall of 22.120.x before installation.

So the only way to install an older driver is to download cab file from Windows Update Catalog, extract and install drivers manually be device manager.

Thanks & KR
Thomas