Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX210 160MHz Issues

[K45]

On April 25th-26th last week I started encountering speed and connectivity issues with the Wi-Fi connection on my desktop PC which utilizes the built in network card on the MSI MAG Z790 Tomahawk WiFi.

The device utilized for the network card is Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX210 160MHz

Issues immediately began when I started using my PC after work, couldn't maintain a connection to any game I played without disconnecting and having to reconnect manually to my wifi network. After a few of these instances I did a speed test and when I was even able to perform an internet speed test I was getting below 1mbps in both download and upload. I was only able to perform these speed tests in between fighting with my wifi network disconnecting and having to manually reconnect.

Initially I thought my ISP was throttling my bandwidth or something, but they verified this wasn't the case and the issues were only persisting on my desktop PC.

I spent my entire weekend troubleshooting and trying to resolve this issue. Reinstalling windows updates, locating the most recent driver and attempting to reinstall it. Both intel, and MSI only offer downloads for the most recent driver version 23.40.0.4., and I even reinstalled my entire operating system from scratch. At this point I was assuming my network card imploded on itself or something.

I was able to find a temporary solution. 

By right clicking the Wi-Fi card in device manager, choosing properties, then choosing the menu for "advanced" - I was able to select 802.11a/b/g Wireless Mode and 802.11n/ac/ax Wireless Mode, and selected 2.4GHz 802.11b/g and 802.11n respectively. I also set the option under "Preferred Band" to "Prefer 2.4GHz Band"

Boom! Immediately reconnected to my wifi network with a stable connection. For the first time in 2 days I was able to use the internet and load more than 1 webpage at a time without disconnecting entirely from my network. I ran a speed test and my typical 200-600mbps download and 80-200mbps upload were no holding steady at about 15-20mbps download/upload. But at least it was actually working.

This shows that the issue was the 5 and 6ghz network bands and the wifi card being completely incapable of using them. As long as I was forcing the wifi driver to utilize only 2.4ghz, I could maintain a connection.

I've limped my computer usage on this solution for the last week, as after spending 2 straight days racking my brain over this I was just happy to have some form of internet again.

I reattempted a better solution for this tonight. I searched everywhere for a rolled back version of the driver, as my existing driver had a very recent update and I suspected this to be the cause of my issues. Neither MSI or Intel offer the rolled back 23.3.0.6 driver ANYWHERE that I could find. Intel only offers an automated installer which puts you on the current version, even when selecting the prior version from their download list.

My solution: Head back to device manager, select the wifi card, right click, select "Properties", choose the tab for "Driver" and choose "Uninstall Device". - When choosing this option, a popup will come up, there's a checkbox that says "Attempt to remove the driver for this device." Check that box, confirm the uninstallation, and reboot the PC.

After doing this, my driver was rolled back to 23.30.0.6, in spite of the multiple operating system reinstalls and wipes I performed, the most recent driver was persisting. This method is the only solution I've found to rollback to the 23.30.0.6 version.

After verifying the driver version had rolled back, I connected to my wifi network, and immediately was able to connect and maintain said connection to my network. This driver rollback method automatically reconfigured my advanced settings to select the band automatically with a preference for 5GHz or 6GHz. After viewing my Hardware Properties in my PC's Wi-Fi settings, I was able to verify 5GHz was the band I was connected to. And my internet speeds are back to the normal 200mbps+ upload/download.

I just built this PC a little over a month ago and have had no issues with it AT ALL until this happened. I am absolutely disappointed with the lack of  support or even having the ability to manually download the rolled back driver, which probably would have saved literally DAYS of my life working on this issue. As I have now found and given a brief look over on this board, it appears im not the only one whos having issues with this specific Wi-Fi driver/device. And the moderation/support troubleshooting methods do nothing to address this issue. Intel, please update this driver and resolve this issue soon. I have paused all automatic updates on my PC for the next 3 weeks and genuinely hope you'll push an updated driver which resolves this ASAP.

Hopefully if you're having the same issue and have found this, it helps you too and saves you the hours of your life I have lost to this.

[Mike_Intel]

Hello K45,

Thank you for posting in Intel community Forum and thank you for sharing your recommendations.

For me to also check this issue, can you help generate the SSU logs of your system?

Kindly download the utility here:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/18377/intel-system-support-utility-for-windows.html

If you have questions, please let us know. Thank you.

Best regards,

Michael L.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Mike_Intel]

Hello K45,

I hope this message finds you well. 

Were you able to check the previous post?

Please let us know if you still need assistance.

Best regards,

Michael L.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Mike_Intel]

Hello K45,

I hope you are having a good day.

I am sending another follow up on the information that I requested. 

Since we have not heard back from you, I need to close this inquiry. 

If you need further assistance, please post a new question as this thread will no longer be monitored. 

Thank you and have a great day. 

Best regards,

Michael L.

Intel Customer Support Technician