AX210 Bluetooth vanishing and reappearing

[MirazMac]

I bought an Intel Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX210 160MHz (Non vPro) from Mouser.com, 4 months ago. And installed on my ASUS TUF F15 (FX506LH) laptop. Everything was working fine. But for the last few weeks I've been experiencing a strange issue. The Bluetooth is constantly disappearing and reappearing. Specially when the laptop is being moved. So I thought maybe there is a loose connection. I opened it up and reseated the card (it was already set perfectly). Still the same thing. However, the WiFi works fine.

OS:  Windows 10 22H2

I'm on the latest driver version: 23.50.0.2

I have tried everything. Complete clean re-install of the drivers. Using DDU. Turned of power savings from device manager. Did a hardware electrical reset by pressing the power button for 60 seconds. Tried disconnecting every device from the laptop and it still caused the issue. There is no fix.

Please provide meaningful suggestions. If you're gonna suggest the vanilla, "turn off the internet, download and reinstall drivers, rollback to a previous version". Then it's better you don't reply at all, I'm sorry but I have tried all these without any results at all. Thanks in advance.

Whenever the Bluetooth disconnects/vanishes I get the following in the Event Viewer:

Event 18, BTHUSB

Windows cannot store Bluetooth authentication codes (link keys) on the local adapter. Bluetooth keyboards might not work in the system BIOS during startup.

No other Bluetooth/Wireless related errors in the event viewer other than this.

[AlfredoS_Intel]

Hi Mirazmac,

Thank you for posting in Intel Communities.

We know how bothersome it is to intermittently lose the bluetooth feature of your system. We will work with you to sort it out.

Thank you for the extensive troubleshooting that you have done and for sharing it on your thread. We will take note of those steps as like you we also want to avoid suggesting repeat recommendations to you.

Please allow us to ask the following information, so we can find new suggestions for you to try:

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, https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/18377/intel-system-support-utility-for-windows.html. 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* https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000057926/memory-and-storage.html for instructions.

2. Do you have disconnection problems with your external USB devices as well?

3. When the issue happens, do you feel that the laptop’s temperature is very high?

We will wait for your reply.

Best Regards,

Alfred S

Intel® Customer Support Technician

[MirazMac]

1. Here's the SSU report. Please note, I did change some adapter settings to mitigate the issue which I have left as is. But the issue is persisting even on the default settings as well.

2. No, the USB and other connected devices work just fine. Matter of fact, I have disconnected all external devices and tried and it is still causing this issue.

3. Temperature has nothing to do with it. It happens even when I just booted the OS. 

Some additional information that I have noticed:

I have successfully verified that it is happening when the laptop is moved, or shaking, or if I turn up the laptop fan, basically movement. But the network card is perfectly seated with both antennas properly connected, no movement there, not even micro-movements. So could there be any other loose components that might cause this issue? Which is very unlikely, because everything else is working just fine. 

Another thing is, the issue still occurs even if I Turn Off Bluetooth or disable Intel Wireless Bluetooth from the device manager.  And when the Bluetooth causes issues for few times, WiFi stops working as well. So I need to disable WiFi from device manager and enable again, to get it back again.

Also when the WiFi stops working too (after Bluetooth's vanishing and reappearing for a couple of times), I see spams of WHEA Logger, Event 17, warnings on Event Viewer.

A corrected hardware error has occurred.

Component: PCI Express Root Port
Error Source: Advanced Error Reporting (PCI Express)

Primary Bus:Device:Function: 0x0:0x1D:0x0
Secondary Bus:Device:Function: 0x0:0x0:0x0
Primary Device Name:PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_06B5&SUBSYS_1E911043&REV_F0
Secondary Device Name:

This is a nightmare. I can't get anything done. I'm using wired keyboards, headphones, despite having a brand new modern WiFi6 card, ridiculous. Please give me some solution, even if that's not possible give me a REASON. People are literally fixing their dead CPUs by reballing and here I can't get WiFi and Bluetooth working in 2024. Every WiFi card sucks, the Mediatek one this laptop had originally sucked. People suggested Intel, so I bought Intel and it worked for 4 months and now it sucks. I don't know what to do anymore.

[AlfredoS_Intel]

Hi Mirazmac,

Thank you for posting your reply in Intel® Communities.

Based on the information that you have shared, it really seems that that there is hardware issue with either the port of the laptop or the board where the port is attached to, since micro movements causes Bluetooth to disappear, not to mention that the original card also had problems.

Please note that due to Regulatory Information Regarding Wireless Hardware Installation or Upgrade (https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005687/wireless.html) we do not suggest for customers to install a different wireless card on the system, as it has to be certified by the manufacturer.

Nevertheless, since you came to use for help, please allow us some time check this if we can provide you recommendations aside from the norms. We will get back to you once we have an update.

Best Regards,

Alfred S

Intel Customer Support Technician

[MirazMac]

Now the Bluetooth has vanished completely. Not even restart/hard reset brings it back. WiFi continues to work.

And I see this:

Thanks for your response. But that makes zero sense to me. The card is firmly attached, what else would I need to do prevent micro movements? And regarding the laptop's port, if it was defective why did it take 5-6 months of usage of both the cards  for this to happen? Makes no sense at all. I didn't ask you to suggest some other WiFi card. I asked for reasons why this might happen, other than a defective card.

Also on a related note, can you confirm if my laptop supports CNVI or not? 

It uses Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-10300H CPU and Intel 400 Series Chipset.

[AlfredoS_Intel]

Hi Mirazmac,

Thank you for waiting for our update.

We brought up your issue to our engineers to provide you and exhaust every possible recommendation from our end.

Here are their recommendations:

1. Try to update the BIOS firmware of your laptop to the latest version 11/26/2021

2. Please install Windows patches. The last update was dated Feb2024.

3. We presume that the Mediatek card and AX210 are using the same PCIe slot. If yes, do they use a PCIe connector?

4. If both the WiFi and BT (Mediatek and Intel) are having the same intermittence issue when the laptop is moved, shook, or the fan is turned up or any basic movement, please consider checking with the laptop manufacturer to confirm the correct slot and antenna connector. For AX210 System Interface Type are WiFi (PCI-E) BT (USB), https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/204836/intel-wi-fi-6e-ax210-gig.html

5. Regarding your question if your laptop supports CNVI, as much as we would like to assist you, that information can only be obtained from your laptop manufacturer.

We look forward to your reply.

Best Regards,

Alfred S

Intel Customer Support Technician

[MirazMac]

1. The BIOS is already updated to that version.

2. Sure, I don't see how that will help but ok.

3. I don't know if it's PCIe or not. It's using M.2 NGFF 2280 form factor, that uses an E key. It uses PCIe internally I think?

4. The MediaTek card didn't have any issue on movement. It was simply a below-par network card, with no driver support/updates, which I chose to replace with the superior Intel Ax210NGW. And it worked smoothly for 4 months. 

5. How unfortunate, ASUS doesn't know either. Tech support in 2024 is an absolute **bleep**-show. Just tell me if Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-10300H CPU and Intel 400 Series Chipset are CNVI compatible or not. These two are your products.

[AlfredoS_Intel]

Hi Mirazmac,

Thank you for the answers that you have provided.

Please allow us time to check each one to determine if there is something else we can provide you.

While we are checking, we need to find out if your issue is caused by a faulty PCIE Express Windows component.  Kindly provide a saved log from Windows Event Viewer. To do this, please follow the instructions below:

1. Open Event Viewer by searching for it on Windows

2. On the left pane expand Windows logs then select System.

3. Go to the right pane options and click on “Filter Current Log”

4. On the Box that appears put a check on Critical, Warning and Error then click ok.

5. After that you will notice that the item on the top middle box will all be errors, critical or warning messages. Click on “Save Filtered Log File As”. Save it to a folder of your choice and attach the file on your reply post.

We will wait for these logs.

Best Regards,

Alfred S

Intel Customer Support Technician

[MirazMac]

There are like thousands of logs even with the filter. I couldn't upload the evtx file directly, so I have zipped it.

[AlfredoS_Intel]

Hi Mirazmac,

Thank you providing those information.

Please allow us some time to check on this. 

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

Best Regards,

Alfred S

Intel Customer Support Technician

[AlfredoS_Intel]

Hi Mirazmac,

Thank you for waiting for our update.

Our engineers reviewed your event logs

While we were checking, these questions came into mind which will help us find a recommendation for your issue:

For reference from log provided on Jun21 the AX210 BT hardware ID is PNP Device ID:"BTH\MS_BTHPAN\6&37C95F0D&2&2" and Wireless hardware ID:PNP Device ID:"PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2725&SUBSYS_00248086&REV_1A\4&11E73242&0&00E8"

From both event log shows Event ID:7=Component: PCI Express Root Port Error Source: Advanced Error Reporting (PCI Express) PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_06B5&SUBSYS_1E911043&REV_F0, and event ID:219 The driver \Driver\WudfRd failed to load for the device PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1903&SUBSYS_1E911043&REV_02\3&11583659&0&20. Hardware ID are USB port issue in hardware is not for wireless card AX210. The error with the driver \Driver\WudfRd failing to load is associated with the Windows User-Mode Driver Framework (UMDF), which is used by certain drivers to run in user mode. The specific devices mentioned in your error messages seem to be related to input devices, possibly a game controller or HID (Human Interface Device). Our engineers still suggest for you to check the PCIe slot issue with laptop hardware support.

We hope for your understanding regarding the findings. We know that this may not be the answer that you prefer; however, as much as we would like to help you, the logs point out a PCIe slot issue (M.2).

Best Regards,

Alfred S

Intel Customer Support Technician

[MirazMac]

So I took it to a local repair shop. Strangely I couldn't recreate the issue in front of them. No matter how much I lifted and moved the laptop around, nothing. I did show them the event logs.

So they did a checkup and found no issue with the motherboard or the slot. No bent pins or rusting. Cleaned the connector, antennas, antenna terminal with isopropyl alcohol(I think), then re-inserted and tightened it. Then placed some Kapton tape on top the antennas.

And told me if it still happens it means the card is defective because no way it can move now. It's been few days haven't faced Bluetooth disconnection since. Let's hope this solves the issue and I find some mental peace.

[AlfredoS_Intel]

Hi Mirazmac,

Much obliged for the update.

We admire the workarounds that you tried on the system to make the bluetooth connection stable.

We hope also that the things that you have done will complete solve your issue.

We will check with you one last time then we will close the thread.

Best Regards,

Alfred S

Intel Customer Support Technician

[AlfredoS_Intel]

Hi Mirazmac,

We need to close this thread since we have not gotten a response from you: maybe because you are busy or preoccupied at the moment.

We hope that the ingenious fix that you have done is still effective.

We were waiting for your feedback since it is important for us to give you the right solution on your concern.

As much as we would like to continue assisting you, we need to close it to avoid overwhelming your inbox with notifications.

We hope for your consideration and understanding on this one.

If you need any additional information, please submit a new question as this thread will no longer being monitored.

Thank you for contacting Intel® and have a great week!

Best Regards,

Alfred S

Intel Customer Support Technician