AX211 restarts my computer almost 10 times a day - no BSOD

[LittleNeighbour]

Like the title says, I believe it is the wifi card on my mobo that triggers restarts on my pc all **bleep** day. It can be anywhere from 5 crashes to 15+ crashes a day and it is making it impossible for me to do my work. I have to save every project I work on every 10 minutes. It is driving me absolutely insane. This has been going on for 7+ months now..

All parts were bought a year ago brand new at a retail store and function fine.

Rig: Gigabyte B660M DS3H AX DDR4 - This has the Intel 6E AX211 which I think is the source of the problem.

Intel i7-12700K

Lian Li Ghalahad 360

EVGA Geforce GTX 3060

Corsair Vengeance 16GB

Thermaltake Toughpower 850W Gold

Here are some things I have tried (there are a lot more probably, every time it crashes I try to apply some new fix)

CMD commands like sfc scannow and the likes

Changed bandwidth and power management settings for Wifi card

Crash monitoring software (HWinfo, WhoCrashed) set to monitor WHEA errors - it can't pick them up

Edited some registry keys I thought involved the card's permissions and startup

Undervolted the cpu

Changed c-states and other power config related settings in bios

Tested ram with memtest - memory is fine

Updated every driver under the sun. If it's on my computer it's the absolute latest available.

I do not have any unnecessary intel or geforce software installed.

One thing that I tried recently was running specific settings on Driver Verifier to cause a BSOD and produce a minidump. The restarts are just that; they don't produce any log files anywhere.

I scanned for all logs not related to Microsoft and got an immediate bsod. The minidump file it produced lead me to an old Razer driver so I deleted that and it still hasn't stopped. I've started running Driver Verifier all day every day and I can't replicate the BSOD like I did with the razer driver. With it gone and still running the verifier tool I know it's running and putting stress on the drivers, and it still crashes or restarts just like usual but with no BSOD, so it doesn't leave any more minidumps.

Here are the logs from Event Viewer>Windows Logs>System: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cfLmQZdxtZ3tAoDAVtmnI2x0OxXjiWYo/view?usp=sharing

These are directly tied to the Intel wifi card (the believed source of the problem) :

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bBg8MO1-07jZXPXUkrELUYflaAFyONs0/view?usp=sharing

Here is the link to the Minidump

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dC8ibt4ESD2AXe-XucgugpyOvk67FWmW/view?usp=sharing

I am 99% sure this is a driver/software issue. Nothing has ever been problematic with the computer except for these restarts which started about 7 months ago. I have no problems playing games or rendering schematics or videos, and the wifi card's connection has always been stable and solid, however everything I've noticed in the past 7 months of daily crashing (and hundreds of hours lost due to a crash with no noticeable trigger or cause) leads me to believe the wifi card is the problem. When it started crashing it automatically made a new priority log under event viewer for the card, and the system crash logs from event viewer match up perfectly with the wifi card's logs. Either way I am really hoping someone smarter than I can help me here, this crash is seriously driving me insane and I am going to throw my pc off my balcony soon if it doesn't stop. Please help me

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello LittleNeighbour,    

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities. I want to understand what happened just as much as you do, and to proceed I need to confirm the following:

1. What is the operating system installed as well as the version and build?

2. What is the BIOS version installed?

3. You mentioned that the Intel® Wi-Fi 6E AX211 is installed, but is the original adapter that came pre-installed on your computer or did you change/install the adapter to this one?  

4. Is the issue present only with Intel drivers or also with Gigabyte drivers?

5. Do you see any error (code 43 or code 10) in the device manager under the wireless adapter?

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician

[LittleNeighbour]

Hey DeividA, thanks for the reply

Rig is currently running Windows 11 latest build (KB5030301)

Bios is running latest Gigabyte F26 update

It is the original adapter, I didn't know it could be swapped out lol

Running Driver Verifier has only flagged Razer, Apple Charger and Intel drivers in the past (which deleting/reconfiguring sadly doesn't solve)

I do not see an error code under the wireless adapters in Device Manager.

Thank you for the quick reply and I hope to hear back soon

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello LittleNeighbour, 

Thanks for your response. To make you that I am following up correctly, I would appreciate it if you could confirm this information:

1. When you mentioned "deleting/reconfiguring", do you mean you performed a clean install of the drivers?

• Steps: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000022173/wireless.html

2. Are the BIOS setting on default?

3. Have you tried reinstalling Windows?

4. Did you try the old driver from Gigabyte (at least as a test)?

• Drivers: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B660M-DS3H-AX-DDR4-rev-1x/support#support-dl-driver-lan

5. Make sure you have your wireless adapter set based on the recommended settings for the Intel® Wi-Fi 6E AX211 (Gig+). This is to confirm that the adapter is properly configured:

• Steps: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000057574.html

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician

[LittleNeighbour]

Hey Deivid, thanks again for the quick replies.

Yes by deleting/reconfiguring I just meant doing a fresh install on the drivers. I should've chosen my words better haha. I've done this twice recently, once with the internet off to disable windows update from auto installing stuff I don't want. I was using the installs from the intel website so I will try with the ones from gigabyte. Thank you for that

The bios settings have been on default for a while, except my recent c state changes. The only changes I've ever made to the bios are undervolting or basic power config stuff that might help with my restarting. I've never overclocked, used any xmp profiles or the likes.

I have reinstalled windows, as well as cleaning it up and debloating. Sadly doesn't work

I have tried switching from current BIOS versions to the last and ones before it. No work:(

I will look into your suggestions and report back soon. Thank you

[n_scott_pearson]

You are having spontaneous system resets. The number one cause, far and away, for spontaneous system resets is bad memory. I suggest that you test your memory, using MemTest86 as you did before, but let it run for at least 24 hours.

As for other possibilities, 

• Have you tried disabling the AX211 module? This is done in BIOS Setup - if your BIOS supports this capability.
• Have you tried removing the AX211 module?

...S

[LittleNeighbour]

Hey Scott, thank you for the reply. I guess the last time I ran memtest was a while ago, few months back, so I will try running it again for a day and see what it says. As for the wifi card, I do not think there is a setting to disable the adapter via bios. I will double check and update. I haven't tried removing the unit from the motherboard ever either.

Thank you for the reply and I will be back soon

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello LittleNeighbour, 

Thank you for your time invested in this matter. I want to know if you were able to follow the information from the "Recommended Settings for 802.11ax Connectivity" article.

Also, did you try the recommendation from n_scott_pearson about running MemTest86 for 24 hours?

Let me know if you need further assistance.

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[LittleNeighbour]

Hey again Deivid,

Thank you for the helpful replies. I checked the card in Device Management and they were on the recommended settings by default. 

I haven't found the time to run MemTest like Scott said because I've been pretty swamped with work.  I will give it a go asap once I'm free for a few. Pertaining to Scott's suggestions, I checked the bios settings and I couldn't find anything related to disabling the Intel wifi card specifically. I use wireless so I disabled the onboard LAN support and maybe that'll do something (sadly probably not)

I know this article is new but I've been having this problem for a long time, and nothing has helped. Other forum boards have killed the thread or just stopped responding ;(  So as long as you're here to help, I'm here to try your suggestions. I just want my pc to work without crashing like the rest of the world haha.

Thank you Deivid and I hope we can get to the bottom of this

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello LittleNeighbour, 

I do appreciate your response. In this case, if you have updated your BIOS, drivers, and Windows, and even tried reinstalling the operating system, but the issue persists, my last recommendation would be to get in contact with Gigabyte.

Since the wireless adapter is built into the motherboard, Gigabyte may need to run some tests to confirm if the wireless card is defective. If there is a malfunction, Gigabyte must help you with further support or a replacement if needed.

Thanks for your comprehension.

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[LittleNeighbour]

Hey Deivid, sorry for my late reply.

Thank you for all your suggestions again. I ran memtest again as per Scott's suggestion and everything came back passing again so good to know it's not that.

I think your suggestion to download the drivers directly from the gigabyte website has (mostly) solved my problem. I used Virtualbox to run Kali for my class a while back and I would've started my course around the same time my crashing started. It's been removed from the system for a few months, but I think some residual buggy vnet driver was causing problems. After downloading and installing the drivers from the gigabyte website instead of intel I've noticed a big reduction in my crashes.

What makes me believe it was Virtualbox's fault is I redownloaded it yesterday to test something and my computer restarted 7 times back-to-back, similar to when the restarting problem was at it's peak. After noticing this I deleted everything related to virtualbox again, reinstalled the gigabyte specific driver and my crashing has almost completely stopped. I've been leaving my computer on overnight recently, and sometimes I turn on my monitor to see the system restarted, but it isn't crashing during any idle or intense load and I can actually get work done during the day. I don't wanna jynx it and say problem solved but I've been using the system for much longer uptimes and aside from the weird overnight restarts there haven't been any serious crashes or restarts. Thank you so much Deivid,  I would've never noticed those Gigabyte specific drivers if it wasn't for you. If the issue still persists I will email Gigabyte and ask. Deivid you are the man