Re:Poor download performance with WiFi 6 AX201 160MHz

hij2001 · ‎10-07-2021

I have an HP Spectre x360 notebook, 10th Gen Core i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB Optane SSD, and a WiFi 6 AX201 160MHz network adapter. I've been running Windows 10 and just upgraded to 11 and the problem continues.

From the same location and using the same one of two access points I have, the download speed is 30-50% of the download speed I get with my iPhone 12 Pro or my M1 based MacBook Air. The original driver was the Intel signed driver from September 2020, I just updated it to the v22.80.1.1 driver from the Intel download site, but there is no appreciable difference in performance between these two drivers.

I have utilized the advanced setting optimization guide at https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005585/wireless/legacy-intel-wireless-products.html, and all of this effort is to no avail. There is an occasional situation where a Speedtest run will show speeds comparable to my Apple devices, but extremely rarely. Does Apple have WiFi expertise that exceeds Intel?

What else can you recommend?

Thanks and regards,

Howard

AndrewG_Intel · ‎10-08-2021

Hello @hij2001

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.

In order to check this behavior further, could you please provide us with the following information?

1- We understand that the system is currently running Windows* 11 but the issue was also present on Windows* 10, is this correct? When did the behavior start to happen? Were you able to have your wireless connection in a normal/expected performance before? Please provide details.

2- Do you remember if this issue happened after a new Windows update or Wireless/Bluetooth driver update? Or is it happening since the first day that you have the computer?

3- Is the Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 the original wireless adapter that came pre-installed in your system or did you integrate/replace it?

4- Have you tried a different router or Access point for testing purposes? Maybe one that is AX compatible? Have you rebooted your access point, router, modem? Please provide details.

5- Router/Access point brand and model:

6- To have a baseline, could you please define what would be "optimum speed"? Please provide details about your current Internet Speed/Bandwidth plan and some screenshots showing how you monitor the speed.

7- Have you checked if this behavior happens testing only the computer and the router? (no other wireless devices connected to the wireless network during this test).

8- Run the Intel® System Support Utility (Intel® SSU) to gather more details about the system:

Download the Intel® SSU and save the application on your computer
Open the application, check the "Everything" checkbox, and click "Scan" to see the system and device information. The Intel® SSU defaults to the "Summary View" on the output screen following the scan. Click the menu where it says "Summary" to change to "Detailed View".
To save your scan, click Next and click Save.
Once you have saved the file (.txt file), please attach it to your reply.

To upload and attach a file, use the "Drag and drop here or browse files to attach" option below the response textbox.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

hij2001 · ‎10-08-2021

Andrew -

Thanks for the prompt response! My responses are inline below.

Regards,

Howard

----------------------------------------------------

In order to check this behavior further, could you please provide us with the following information?

1- We understand that the system is currently running Windows* 11 but the issue was also present on Windows* 10, is this correct? When did the behavior start to happen? Were you able to have your wireless connection in a normal/expected performance before? Please provide details.

h>> The WiFi performance has remained consistent for as long as I've had my system. The difference has been more noticeable since I upgraded my internet service from 400 to 800 Mb/s a couple of months ago. I used to get download speeds of 170-250Mb/s before, and now I can get 175-360Mb/s, while my Apple devices now consistently get 350-550Mb/s. Upload seems to be fine - my Xfinity service is spec'ed at a disappointing 20Mb/s unload and I consistently get 23-24Mb/s on all devices.

2- Do you remember if this issue happened after a new Windows update or Wireless/Bluetooth driver update? Or is it happening since the first day that you have the computer?

h>> Consistent from the first day through multiple Windows and driver updates. I was briefly encouraged immediately after the Win 11 upgrade when I checked and exceeded 450 Mb/s while sitting over the Linksys router in my office which would suggest higher speeds are possible, but alas that was the one and only time. As noted in my initial post, I had been running the Sept 2020 Intel signed driver and tried updating to the new Sept 2021 driver, but no significant change.

3- Is the Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 the original wireless adapter that came pre-installed in your system or did you integrate/replace it?

h>> The original adapter in the HP OEM configuration.

4- Have you tried a different router or Access point for testing purposes? Maybe one that is AX compatible? Have you rebooted your access point, router, modem? Please provide details.

h>> I have two router/APs in my home. The router is a Linksys EA7500 AC1900 Multi User-MIMO which replaced one of my two Asus RT-AC66U 3x3 AC1750 routers when the one attached to my Xfinity modem would not reliably remain connected. The Linksys is connected to the Asus via a GB Ethernet wired connection, and the Asus is running in AP mode. I did a factory reset on the Linksys router when I replaced my modem since that is the only time the router determines the modem data rates - not on a standard restart. I have since restarted both units several times, with the results remain the same - the Apple Macbook Air and iPhone 12 Pro are consistently achieving the expected speeds, the HP is not. The other interesting thing is that in using the Speedtest app, the Apple devices quickly ramp up to their maximum speed and stay there, while the HP with the Intel adapter slowly ramps up and then slows down and possibly oscillates in speed, finally settling at the lower end of the range.

5- Router/Access point brand and model:

h>> As stated above.

6- To have a baseline, could you please define what would be "optimum speed"? Please provide details about your current Internet Speed/Bandwidth plan and some screenshots showing how you monitor the speed.

h>> Optimum speed would be the full 800-900Mb/s coming from my Xfinity modem, but that's not realistic. I think that it should be very realistic to have the HP with Intel adapter achieve speeds equal to the Apple devices. I can provide screenshots, but I'm simply using the Ookla Speedtest app for windows and iOS. I will either select Comcast as the test server or allow the app to pick the best server. In each test case, I use the same test server for all devices.

7- Have you checked if this behavior happens testing only the computer and the router? (no other wireless devices connected to the wireless network during this test).

h> While I have numerous wireless devices connected to my network, I am not doing any streaming or other high bandwidth-consuming activities while running the speed tests. And of course, the conditions for each test are identical for the three devices - I have them all sitting the same distance from whichever AP I'm using, and only test one at a time within a span of a couple of minutes.

8- Run the Intel® System Support Utility (Intel® SSU) to gather more details about the system:

Download the Intel® SSU and save the application on your computer
Open the application, check the "Everything" checkbox, and click "Scan" to see the system and device information. The Intel® SSU defaults to the "Summary View" on the output screen following the scan. Click the menu where it says "Summary" to change to "Detailed View".
To save your scan, click Next and click Save.
Once you have saved the file (.txt file), please attach it to your reply.

h>> Attached

hij2001 · ‎10-11-2021

Andrew -

Thanks for the prompt reply! I responded to this two days ago and now when I returned I find that it was apparently not posted, so will attempt to do so again, but will definitely save a backup copy outside of this forum. Answers inline below.

Regards,

Howard

1- We understand that the system is currently running Windows* 11 but the issue was also present on Windows* 10, is this correct? When did the behavior start to happen? Were you able to have your wireless connection in a normal/expected performance before? Please provide details.

h>> The performance has always been consistent across multiple Windows and driver versions, but became more obvious after I upgraded my Xfinity internet from 400 to 800Mb/s. The Apple devices saw a doubling of their prior download speeds while the Intel WiFi 6 only achieve 1/3 - 1/2 the speed.

2- Do you remember if this issue happened after a new Windows update or Wireless/Bluetooth driver update? Or is it happening since the first day that you have the computer?

h>> This has been consistent from the first day and across multiple WIndows and driver updates.

3- Is the Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 the original wireless adapter that came pre-installed in your system or did you integrate/replace it?

h>> Original OEM adapter.

4- Have you tried a different router or Access point for testing purposes? Maybe one that is AX compatible? Have you rebooted your access point, router, modem? Please provide details.

h>> I have two router/APs to cover my house, and the difference in performance is constant across both. My router is a Linksys EA7500 AC1900 which replaced one of my two Asus RT-AC66U dual-band AC1750 Gigabit routers when it couldn't maintain a connection to my modem. The second RT-AC66U is hardwired to one of the Gb ethernet ports on the Linksys and is running in AP mode. I did a factory reset on the LInksys router after upgrading my internet service so it picked up the new provisioning information, and have done a restart of both the Linksys and Asus units several times since. Once again, both Apple devices are working fine, so my wireless infrastructure is solid.

5- Router/Access point brand and model: h>> As above.

6- To have a baseline, could you please define what would be "optimum speed"? Please provide details about your current Internet Speed/Bandwidth plan and some screenshots showing how you monitor the speed.

h>> Optimum speed would be to get the full 800-900Mb/s coming out of my modem, but that's not realistic. I think that it would certainly be reasonable for the PC and Apple devices to achieve comparable speeds. The Apple devices are typically getting 450-550Mb/s, while my PC is getting 175-350Mb/s. All systems get 23-24Mb/s upstream against Xfinity's disappointing 20MB/s spec.

7- Have you checked if this behavior happens testing only the computer and the router? (no other wireless devices connected to the wireless network during this test).

h>> Once again, all systems are operating in the same environment, sitting side by side in the same location and running the speed tests individually within minutes of each other. While I have a couple of dozen devices connected to my network, none of them are streaming during these tests.

8- Run the Intel® System Support Utility (Intel® SSU) to gather more details about the system:

Download the Intel® SSU and save the application on your computer
Open the application, check the "Everything" checkbox, and click "Scan" to see the system and device information. The Intel® SSU defaults to the "Summary View" on the output screen following the scan. Click the menu where it says "Summary" to change to "Detailed View".
To save your scan, click Next and click Save.
Once you have saved the file (.txt file), please attach it to your reply.

h>> Attached.

AndrewG_Intel · ‎10-13-2021

Hello hij2001

Thank you for your response. We do apologize for the inconvenience with the posts.

We would like to clarify regarding the previous point # 7. We understand that you performed Speed tests individually, and even if "the other devices might not be streaming" when you test the Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201, still the devices are connected to the same network, and we are not sure if any other data is running in the background (OS updates, device synchronizations, apps running services in the background that communicate over the Internet and consumes bandwidth, other communication between the devices and the router, etc.).

Depending on your bandwidth, or the capacity of your wireless access point, adding more clients (connected devices) to your network may decrease the throughput, resulting in lower download speeds while maintaining the same connection rate.

There are also other factors that may affect your throughput, such as network overhead, user congestion, obstacles (such as walls), interference (Bluetooth®, other sources of 2.4GHz radio waves, neighboring networks using the same channels), and environmental factors.

Therefore, the best would be to test making sure that all other devices are not connected to the network while testing the behavior with only the Router and the Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201. This way, we may discard issues from other devices interfering with the bandwidth/speed available. If you could try this, it would be appreciated. This is also considering that the Intel® SSU report shows that the "Receive Rate" is 866.7 Mbps.

Also, we noticed that the system is running the latest generic drivers. It is important to mention that the driver or software for your Intel® component might have been changed or replaced by the computer manufacturer (OEM) and we recommend using the OEM drivers as the first option. Reviewing the HP* website for this computer HP* Spectre x360 Convertible 13t-aw000, we noticed that the latest driver versions available are:

Intel Bluetooth Driver Version 22.20.1.1 Rev.P
Intel WLAN Driver Version 22.60.0.6 Rev.A

We would recommend performing a Clean Installation of Wireless and Bluetooth Drivers; however, it seems they are listed as compatible only for Windows 10 so we recommend checking with HP* Support if these drivers will work on Windows* 11 or if they have any other drivers available. If so, you may perform the clean installation with those drivers.

If no drivers are available from HP* compatible with Windows 11, as a second option you may try the clean installation using the latest Intel® Generic drivers. (Version 22.80.1):

Finally, we also recommend checking with the Router manufacturers to verify if there is any firmware available or recommendations that may help to improve the performance.

Please feel free to share the outcome of the steps.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

hij2001 · ‎10-13-2021

Andrew -

Thanks for the prompt response. My responses inline below.

Regards,

Howard

--------------------------------------------------------------

We would like to clarify regarding the previous point # 7. We understand that you performed Speed tests individually, and even if "the other devices might not be streaming" when you test the Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201, still the devices are connected to the same network, and we are not sure if any other data is running in the background (OS updates, device synchronizations, apps running services in the background that communicate over the Internet and consumes bandwidth, other communication between the devices and the router, etc.).

h>> My Asus router app has a Real Time Traffic display which I used to confirm the bandwidth being used before and after the tests.. When not running the tests, the network traffic is between 10-100Kb/s with an occasional peak of 300Kb/s for short bursts in both directions. Clearly not an issue.

Depending on your bandwidth, or the capacity of your wireless access point, adding more clients (connected devices) to your network may decrease the throughput, resulting in lower download speeds while maintaining the same connection rate.

h>> Understand, but clearly not the case here.

There are also other factors that may affect your throughput, such as network overhead, user congestion, obstacles (such as walls), interference (Bluetooth®, other sources of 2.4GHz radio waves, neighboring networks using the same channels), and environmental factors.

h>> All valid, but I'm sitting 10 feet away from the Asus access point while doing the tests right now, and sit above the Linksys router when in my office, so no obstacles obstructing my 5GHz WiFi connection. There are certainly other wireless networks from my neighbors, but once again, the APs should be finding the clearest channel on which to operate, and all of these environmental issues are the same for the Apple devices which are clearly not being affected.

Therefore, the best would be to test making sure that all other devices are not connected to the network while testing the behavior with only the Router and the Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201. This way, we may discard issues from other devices interfering with the bandwidth/speed available. If you could try this, it would be appreciated. This is also considering that the Intel® SSU report shows that the "Receive Rate" is 866.7 Mbps.

h>> There is no easy way for me to disconnect all other devices from my wireless network, and as I mentioned above, the residual bandwidth being used is never more than 300Kb/s for short bursts - otherwise it's well under 100Kb/s. The fact that the SSU report shows that the Receive Rate is 866.7 Mb/s simply reinforces that the adapter is not performing well. It also tends to show 2-3x the latency of the ping at the beginning of the Ookla Speedtest relative to the Apple devices.

Also, we noticed that the system is running the latest generic drivers. It is important to mention that the driver or software for your Intel® component might have been changed or replaced by the computer manufacturer (OEM) and we recommend using the OEM drivers as the first option. Reviewing the HP* website for this computer HP* Spectre x360 Convertible 13t-aw000, we noticed that the latest driver versions available are:

Intel Bluetooth Driver Version 22.20.1.1 Rev.P
Intel WLAN Driver Version 22.60.0.6 Rev.A

h>> Interesting that the HP support assistant program checks regularly for driver and BIOS updates but has never recommended the WLAN driver, and the last one that WIndows update installed was the Intel signed driver from September 2020. Driver change made no difference between the Intel drivers. I just downloaded the HP driver and tried to install it, and as it started executing the command line screen displayed in the attached rtf file. It said only that it attempted to execute the install, but no other messages, error codes, or additional steps, My first attempt was running from my user account elevated to admin, and then with the super admin, all with the same results. Perhaps because I'm now running Windows 11?

We would recommend performing a Clean Installation of Wireless and Bluetooth Drivers; however, it seems they are listed as compatible only for Windows 10 so we recommend checking with HP* Support if these drivers will work on Windows* 11 or if they have any other drivers available. If so, you may perform the clean installation with those drivers.

If no drivers are available from HP* compatible with Windows 11, as a second option you may try the clean installation using the latest Intel® Generic drivers. (Version 22.80.1):

h>> As of now, there is no Windows 11 choice for OS on this system at the HP support page, though they do provide instruction on how to upgrade to 11. I have already done both a clean and update install for the Intel 22.80.1.1 driver.

Finally, we also recommend checking with the Router manufacturers to verify if there is any firmware available or recommendations that may help to improve the performance.

h>> The Linksys router automatically updates firmware, and I have manually verified that the firmware is the latest version. The Asus router requires that I manually update the firmware, which I check quarterly, and which is running the current version.

hij2001 · ‎10-14-2021

Andrew -

One more update. I was able to do a forced install of the HP driver. This improved the latency on ping time but did not improve the download speed. Do you have a diagnostic tool that I can run on my system to determine if there is a hardware problem with the adapter?

Thanks and regards,

Howard

hij2001 · ‎10-18-2021

@AndrewG_Intel -

Any additional suggestions on additional diagnostic tools or other means to resolve this issue?

Thanks and regards,

Howard

AndrewG_Intel · ‎10-18-2021

Hello hij2001

Thank you for your response and for all the details and clarifications. Please allow us to review further this behavior and as well to check about your request. We will be posting back in the thread as soon as more details are available.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

hij2001 · ‎10-18-2021

Excellent Andrew - Thank You!

Your continued support is sincerely appreciated.

Regards,

Howard

AndrewG_Intel · ‎10-22-2021

Hello hij2001

After checking this further, the best is to go with the OEM, this is since bad performance can be related to hardware failures too.

Answering your question, we would like to inform you that we do not have a tool to diagnosticate if the card is defective. Our recommendation is to go to the OEM to verify the performance and if possible a hardware inspection, also, they may provide a warranty if needed.

It is worth mentioning that we have plenty of Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 cards integrated into different systems and they do not have the same behavior so we can discard issues with the driver or the AX201 cards; however, there is always the chance to have failures in specific systems that OEMs configured, defective hardware or issues in the overall network configuration. For your convenience, here is the link to HP* Support.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

hij2001 · ‎10-23-2021

Andrew -

Thanks again for the followup. Unfortunately, the system is out of warranty, and while inconsistent wireless download speeds have always been a problem, the extent of the problem has become more obvious since we got new iPhones and my wife's M1 based MacBook air, both of which demonstrate consistently high performance.

With no joy running the HP driver over the last week, I went back to the MS Update recommended driver version 22.80.1.1. After restarting the system I saw 322 Mbps download on the first Speedtest, though it peaked at over 400 Mbps in the middle of the test - another common behavior of this system, along with much longer ping times. So it's clear that both HP HW and SW are capable of higher performance, just not with any degree of consistency. I'd be happy if even that level of performance was consistently attained compared to the 5-600Mbps performance of the Apple systems, but subsequent tests were lower as shown by the test result histories attached.

BTW, you'll see clusters of test results between 5-600Mbps and 3-400Mbps on Apple with corresponding clusters at half that speed or less on the HP. The higher numbers are connecting to my Linksys router, the lower through the Asus AP in a different location.

Sadly, I guess my best long term solution is to go with Apple...

Regards,

Howard

AndrewG_Intel · ‎10-28-2021

Hello hij2001

Thank you for your response and for this feedback. Please allow us to take a look into these details and we will be posting back as soon as possible.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

AndrewG_Intel · ‎11-02-2021

Hello hij2001

Thank you for your patience in this matter.

We have double-checked internally and we want to confirm that we don't have a tool to diagnose the wireless card. Our best recommendation is to perform a clean driver installation and make sure that the BIOS and Chipset drivers are the latest ones provided by the computer manufacturer.

However, if you tried this and the issue still remains our final recommendation is to verify this behavior further with your computer manufacturer for a physical inspection and validate the card functionality.

Having said that, we will be proceeding to close this request. Thank you for your understanding.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

hij2001 · ‎11-03-2021

Andrew -

I appreciate your support and follow up, but having tried all of the options you've described, it appears that I will simply have to deal with the inferior performance of the Intel 6 product, or determine whether there is a competitive product that I can obtain and install in my system.

Given my overwhelmingly positive experience with our Apple M1 MacBook and iPhone devices, my next purchase decision will certainly be more open to their consideration, which is disappointing for this Intel retiree...

Regards,

Howard

AndrewG_Intel · ‎11-04-2021

Hello hij2001

You are very welcome and thank you for your response and for your feedback, it is really appreciated and we understand your point.

We will proceed to close this thread now. If you need any additional information, please submit a new question as this thread will no longer be monitored.

It has been a pleasure to assist you and thank you for all your efforts.

Sincerely,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician