AX201 Authentication did not complete within configured time

[LobangBoy]

I am sorry. I don't mean to create another post for the same issue. But when I tried to reply Carmona's post, this forum displays the error "Correct the highlighted errors and try again. The message subject contains... which is not permitted in this community. Please remove this content before sending your post."

Latest update (15 July 2024): After many days of further troubleshooting, I managed to "workaround" with this issue by going into the wireless adapter properties and change the Wireless Mode to 802.11AC, instead of 802.11AX.

However, now it becomes Wifi 5, instead of Wifi 6 and the network speed has been reduced.

Would appreciate if someone can assist to investigate on this issue further. So far only happens to AX201 wifi adapters on Thinkpad T490 and T14 models. See below for details.

======================================================

My 1st post:

I go straight to the point...

1) Radius server using Microsoft NPS

2) 802.1x authentication

3) Windows 10/11

4) Happened to both new and old laptops (so unlikely caused by hardware failure)

5) Mainly happen to my Thinkpad T490 and T14 laptops with Intel AX201 wifi adapters. T14 is the latest procurement which is supposed to replace T490.

Problem description:

Whenever affected laptops boot up in the morning, the wifi icon become disconnected. The user can either reboot laptop or click on "Connect" button manually to get connected again. Otherwise, users just have to wait for 5 mins for wifi to get connected again. Don't ask me why 5 mins. 

Event Viewer shows (in sequence):

1) Wireless security failed.

Reason: 802.1x authentication did not complete within configured time
Error: 0x5B4

2) Wireless network is blocked due to connection failure.

Failure Reason:802.1x authentication did not complete within configured time
Length of block timer (minutes): 5

3) WLAN AutoConfig service failed to connect to a wireless network.

Failure Reason:802.1x authentication did not complete within configured time
RSSI: -37

Troubleshoot steps done but did not resolve the issue:

1) Updated AX201 driver to latest 20.60.1.2.

2) Upgraded the BIOS to latest firmware version.

3) Disabled Power Management on AX201 in Device Manager.

4) Reinstalled OS.

As mentioned, strangely this issue mostly happened on AX201 adapter. Other models of wifi adapters don't seem to have this issue.

Kindly help as I am going to procure more T14 laptops which will come with AX201 too.

=========================================================

Carmona's reply:

Hello LobangBoy,

Thank you for posting in our communities.

Please check your device manager to see if there are any error messages. 

How to check the device manager to see if there are any error messages:

Device Manager > Network Adapters > Double-click on Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 and check the error code and error description in the General tab. 

Then, please share the error message with us. 

Furthermore, have you made any changes to the device before the issue occurred? The queries that I am asking will help us quickly isolate the issue.

We look forward to your response!

Best regards,

Carmona A.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[AlfredoS_Intel]

Hi Lobangboy,

Thank you for reposting in Intel Communities.

I appreciate your kind gesture to get excerpts of the answers that you provided on the other thread.

I will go more in-depth since you shared more detailed information in your post.

1. It would really help us if we can get more information about your system. Please download and run our Intel® System Support Utility from this page. To run it, please press "Scan". After the scan is finished, click next and there will be a save button, giving you an option to save the logs to a text file, please do so and attach the file on your reply. You can refer to How to get the Intel® System Support Utility Logs on Windows* for instructions.

2. May we know the brand and model of your router?

We will be waiting for your response.

Best Regards,

Alfred S

Intel® Customer Support Technician

[LobangBoy]

Hello Alfred,

Sorry for the late reply as I was busy lately.

Sure, I shall follow your steps to retrieve the system support logs and send to you on next Monday 22 Jul.

By the way, my temporary workaround to change from 802.11AX to 802.11AC, doesn’t seem to work well too. After a few days, the issue returned again.

We are using Ruckus Access Point R650.

[AlfredoS_Intel]

Hi Lobangboy,

Thank you for reposting in Intel Communities.

I appreciate your kind gesture to get excerpts of the answers that you provided on the other thread.

I will go more in-depth since you shared more detailed information in your post.

1. It would really help us if we can get more information about your system. Please download and run our Intel® System Support Utility from this page. To run it, please press "Scan". After the scan is finished, click next and there will be a save button, giving you an option to save the logs to a text file, please do so and attach the file on your reply. You can refer to How to get the Intel® System Support Utility Logs on Windows* for instructions.

2. May we know the brand and model of your router?

We will be waiting for your response.

Best Regards,

Alfred S

Intel® Customer Support Technician

[AlfredoS_Intel]

Hi Lobangboy,

Thank you for letting us know that you need more time to get the information that we asked.

We will wait for your post with the data attached.

Best Regards,

Alfred S

Intel Customer Support Technician

[LobangBoy]

Hello Alfred,

Please refer to attached information as requested (support log).

Back to this issue (please take a look at below events from Event Log again): See below

I observe that many laptops with AX201 are also facing the same issue as mentioned in the beginning of my problem description. 

But some laptops with AX201 will "reconnect" immediately, while some will wait for 5 mins to "reconnect" again. For users who do not wish to wait for 5 mins to reconnect, they can simply reboot the laptop to resolve.

Also, I wish to highlight that all the laptops are enabled with "Fast Startup". Meaning to say when the users shut down the laptops at the end of the day, the laptops actually went into hibernating/sleep. The next morning when users press the power button to boot up, the laptop will wake up accordingly. I suspect the below events could be caused by this "Fast Startup".

In summary, I can accept below events from happening but I don't understand why some AX201 will reconnect immediately, whilst the problematic ones need to wait for 5 mins.

I need the AX201 to reconnect immediately if it cannot complete the 802.1x authentication in time. Not to wait for 5 mins.

Kindly assist.

==============================================================

Event Viewer shows (in sequence):

1) Wireless security failed.

Reason: 802.1x authentication did not complete within configured time
Error: 0x5B4

2) Wireless network is blocked due to connection failure.

Failure Reason:802.1x authentication did not complete within configured time
Length of block timer (minutes): 5

3) WLAN AutoConfig service failed to connect to a wireless network.

Failure Reason:802.1x authentication did not complete within configured time
RSSI: -37

[LobangBoy]

Hello Alfred, 

Please refer to attach screenshots of Event Viewer for Reconnect Immediately and Reconnect After 5 Mins.

Reconnect After 5 Mins is the one that is not ok.

If you do a comparison, for working laptops that reconnect immediately, it will somehow "Connect To Last Good Network".

For problematic ones, it will not Connect To Last Good Network but will wait for 5 mins to reconnect instead.

[AlfredoS_Intel]

Hi Lobangboy,

Thank you for waiting for our update.

I deeply analyzed the logs and information that you have provided so far and I would like to ask your cooperation to try installing our latest generic driver, 23.60.1. Check if there will improvements.

We look forward to your feedback regarding our post.

Best Regards,

Alfred S

Intel Customer Support Technician

[LobangBoy]

Hello Alfred, if you read the beginning of my post, I had already updated my AX201 driver to 23.60.1.2 from your website.

Kindly assist to investigate further. Thanks.

[AlfredoS_Intel]

Hi Lobangboy,

Thank you for your response and confirming that you have tried the driver,

We will continue checking this and the information that provided is invaluable to us.

Please allow us some time to check on this. We hope for your understanding regarding this

We will get back to you as soon as we have updates.

Best Regards,

Alfred S

Intel Customer Support Technician

[AlfredoS_Intel]

Hi Lobangboy,

Thank you for waiting for our update.

After checking your concern, we need to clarify some things:

1. The problem description was stated as “Whenever affected laptops boot up in the morning, the wifi icon become disconnected. The user can either reboot laptop or click on "Connect" button manually to get connected again. Otherwise, users just have to wait for 5 mins for wifi to get connected again. Don't ask me why 5 mins.”

Does this mean that you can connect using 802.11ax on radius authentication successfully, but when the laptop is turned on and rebooted, the connection is lost, and you need to connect manually after waiting for 5 minutes?

When using 802.11ac, it solved it for a few weeks, but the issue returned?

2. Please confirm that the advanced settings of your laptop reflect the recommended settings for 802.11AX as listed here, Recommended Settings for 802.11ax Connectivity.

We look forward to your answers that is helpful in our investigation.

Best Regards,

Alfred S

Intel Customer Support Technician

[LobangBoy]

Does this mean that you can connect using 802.11ax on radius authentication successfully, but when the laptop is turned on and rebooted, the connection is lost, and you need to connect manually after waiting for 5 minutes?

Reply: All our laptops have no issue connecting to 802.11ax on radius authentication. Yes, for the problematic laptops, when user boots it up early in the morning, the connection is lost. This happens daily.

User can either click on "Connect" manually, or wait for 5 mins for laptop to connect automatically, or reboot the laptop. All these 3 methods will work.

When using 802.11ac, it solved it for a few weeks, but the issue returned?

Reply: This is the tricky part. Somehow it seems to work again. I am still monitoring the situation on 4-5 laptops to have a reliable conclusion.

Please confirm that the advanced settings of your laptop reflect the recommended settings for 802.11AX as listed here

Reply: Done since day 1 of troubleshooting. 

Kindly assist in further investigation. Thanks.

[AlfredoS_Intel]

Hi LobangBoy,

Thanks for the confirming those details.

We will incorporate these things to our investigation.

We will post back as soon as we have updates.

Best Regards,

Alfred S

Intel® Customer Support Technician

[AlfredoS_Intel]

Hi Lobangboy,

I have sent you an e-mail to the e-mail address associated with your community profile to get advanced logs that can be sensitive when uploaded publicly, thus we need to communicate email. We will be waiting for your reply on the email.

Best Regards,

Alfred S

Intel Customer Support Technician

[AlfredoS_Intel]

Hi Lobangboy,

Thank you for your response and providing the advanced logs,

This will be very helpful in our investigation of the issue.

Please allow us some time to check on your concern. We hope for your understanding regarding this

We will get back to you as soon as we have updates.

Best Regards,

Alfred S

Intel Customer Support Technician

[AlfredoS_Intel]

Hi Lobangboy,

Thank you for waiting for our update.

While investigating your concern our engineers would like to get more information. Kindly answer the following:

1] When did the issue start happening?

2] “It might have more to come as we plan to acquire more laptops of the same specifications.” What is the project and what are the specification, network environment/services (ISP, Access Points, group policy, Security) or hardware (Servers/Clients) configuration change compared to before deploying these specifications or settings?

3] “But some laptops with AX201 will "reconnect" immediately” Are all of the Lenovo client with AX201 are Windows 11 Business Build 22631 connect to same AP, same location and same SSID=SCM LAN with same channel 120, 5GHz/160 MHz, Authentication:"WPA2-Enterprise”?

4] What are the AP settings for SSID=SCM LAN channel set, Channel Width, security, wireless mode? How many APs are in office and are all APs using any AP controller management or any limitation of clients connected to the said AP?

5] Do you have same issue if reported laptops with AX201 connect to SSID of 2.4GHz/20MHz?

We look forward to your reply regarding our post.

Best Regards,

Alfred S

Intel® Customer Support Technician

[LobangBoy]

1] When did the issue start happening?

Few months back... not sure exactly when. Do you need to know the exact date or something?

2] “It might have more to come as we plan to acquire more laptops of the same specifications.” What is the project and what are the specification, network environment/services (ISP, Access Points, group policy, Security) or hardware (Servers/Clients) configuration change compared to before deploying these specifications or settings?

The project is basically our regular laptop replacement for those obsolete or decommissioned laptops. It will be Lenovo Thinkpad T14 model and since it is a replacement model for T490 (the model which is currently facing this issue), it will most likely come with AX201 wifi adapter too. In fact we have a few T14 laptops now in office which we discovered that come with AX201. Everything else shall remain the same i.e. network environment/services, ISP, Access Points. No change to everything else except the laptop replacement only. 

3] “But some laptops with AX201 will "reconnect" immediately” Are all of the Lenovo client with AX201 are Windows 11 Business Build 22631 connect to same AP, same location and same SSID=SCM LAN with same channel 120, 5GHz/160 MHz, Authentication:"WPA2-Enterprise”?

These laptops are mostly Windows 10 22H2 build. Yes, they connect to same AP, same location and same SSID same channel 120, 5GHz/160MHz, Authentication:"WPA2-Enterprise".

4] What are the AP settings for SSID=SCM LAN channel set, Channel Width, security, wireless mode? How many APs are in office and are all APs using any AP controller management or any limitation of clients connected to the said AP?

As mentioned in the checklist, we have 2.4GHz running on 20MHz and 5.0GHz running on 160 MHz. There are a total of 8 Ruckus R650 APs in my office and we are using Ruckus Smartzone 104 wireless controller. There is no limit set on the clients connected to the said AP.

5] Do you have same issue if reported laptops with AX201 connect to SSID of 2.4GHz/20MHz?

Not sure because all the problematic laptops are mostly connected to 5.0Ghz / 160MHz.

Kindly assist further. Thanks.

[AlfredoS_Intel]

Hi Lobangboy,

We are grateful for quickly reverting to us.

We will take note of your answers as we continue investigating the issue.

Please allow us some time to check on your concern. We hope for your understanding regarding this

We will get back to you as soon as we have updates.

Best Regards,

Alfred S

Intel® Customer Support Technician

[AlfredoS_Intel]

Hi Lobangboy,

Thank you for waiting for our update.

Here are the suggestions of our engineers:

1] Please try to test new SSID for 5GHz/40MHz and 80MHz

2] Test 5 GHz band, use channels 36, 40, 44, or 48

3] Test 2.4 GHz band/20MHz, use only channels 1, 6, or 11

4] Change MIMOPowerSaveMode change from Auto SMPS to "No SMPS" reboot PC (you can do this first before the others)

We look to the results of the following.

Best Regards,

Alfred S

Intel® Customer Support Technician

[LobangBoy]

Hello Alfred,

Thanks for following up.

Yes, indeed I need some time to liaise with my WIFI vendor to achieve what you have proposed.

Unfortunately for a start, I can only accomplish the following,

4] Change MIMOPowerSaveMode change from Auto SMPS to "No SMPS" reboot PC (you can do this first before the others)

I am unable to achieve item 1 to 3 because channelization (40/80MHz) and channel management (36/40/44/48) are performed at AP levels, which means I need to do it for all the APs since the affected clients can bring his /  her laptops and move around the office. It will thus affect the non-affected laptops as well as mobile phone users too. The impact is huge.

Let me try item 4 first and see how it goes.

In addition, if you don't see any reply from me, means I am either in the process of implementing the change or monitoring the issue.

Unfortunately, only when the issue does not happen again for more than 2 weeks then I can consider case closed.

I did mention before this issue is intermittent. Some time if it doesn't work, it may take a while for it to happen again. 

Thanks.

[AlfredoS_Intel]

Hi LobangBoy,

We are just following up.

It looks like you need more time to carry out the recommendations that we have provided.

Best Regards,

Alfred S

Intel Customer Support Technician