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Very slow download speeds with intel wifi 6 ax200

sid39
Novice
86,543 Views

I'm using a new Acer laptop with Intel wifi 6 ax200 adapter. Until a few days ago, I used to get really good speeds but now the download speed seems bottlenecked, the upload speed is fine but not as high as it used to be. 

I have attached a screenshot testing the speeds.

I have already tried rolling back the driver but it did not make a difference.

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1 Solution
sid39
Novice
86,371 Views

Hey, well as a last resort I tried installing an older version of the OEM driver and it seems to work. It could be that the new driver has some compatibility problem with my windows 10.

ver: 21.70.06 works fine ( OEM ) 

View solution in original post

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38 Replies
Zoley
Beginner
7,760 Views

By the way my situation just worsened, I just upgraded my computer and the new motherboard has an ax210 integrated. There is no default w10 driver and file transfer speeds with your driver is garbage.

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
7,754 Views

@Zoley,

It sounds like you need to do a clean install of the Intel drivers. Here is the proper process; follow it exactly

  1. Download - but do not install just yet - the latest Bluetooth and WiFi driver packages for your adapter. Here are the current links for downloading these drivers: Wireless: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/19351 and Bluetooth: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/18649
  2. Very important: Disable Internet access. Unplug Ethernet cable and/or disable wireless. Keep disabled until told to re-enable.
  3. From the Apps & Features applet, check for any instances of Intel PROSet/Wireless Software and Intel Wireless Bluetooth. If none, skip forward to Step 6.
  4. Uninstall each instance of Intel PROSet/Wireless Software and/or Intel Wireless Bluetooth that is present. When prompted, choose to "Discard Settings".
  5. Manually reboot your computer, keeping Internet access disabled throughout.
  6. From the Device Manager applet, check the Network Adapters section for an entry for Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX210 and check the Bluetooth section for an entry for Intel Wireless Bluetooth that has an intel driver associated with it. If neither is the case, skip forward to Step 10.
  7. Right click on the entry for Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX210 and uninstall it, choosing to (checkmark) Delete the driver software for this device.
  8. Right click on the entry for Intel Wireless Bluetooth and open its properties. If it has an Intel driver associated with it, then uninstall it, choosing to (checkmark) Delete the driver software for this device.
  9. Go back to Step 5.
  10. (Optional but recommended) Clean out all temporary files using the Windows Clean Disk tool. Ensure you have enabled cleaning of System Files. I recommend that you then checkmark all categories offered, even if no files currently in this category (so it leaves it set up for next invocation).
  11. (Optional but recommended) Clear each of your browsers' cache.
  12. Install the Bluetooth driver package (my rule: always install Bluetooth first).
  13. Install the Wireless driver package.
  14. Manually shutdown and reboot your computer.
  15. Reenable Internet access. Restore Ethernet cable and/or reenable wireless.
  16. Test.

Hope this helps,

...S

P.S. If this process doesn't alleviate the issue, do not respond here. Instead, open a new conversation specific to your issue. Use the Ask a Question button on the main page of the Wireless forum to do so.

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Zoley
Beginner
7,694 Views

The computer upgrade included a fresh install of windows 10 pro (latest build by latest media creator tool) and since it had no driver for the ax210 as I mentioned above, I had no internet until I installed the latest Intel driver for it. You can't get a cleaner install than that. File transfer speed is garbage out of box. After getting all the updates from Microsoft I even tried removing (like step 7 above) the driver to see if there is an alternative now, but sadly, no. It's still beyond my understanding why we still have a problem present over 3 years and multiple product generations. It will be interesting to see how the internet speeds will turn out once proper fibre gets installed (hopefully in 8 days), because the current VDSL2+ doesn't have the bandwidth to hit the file transfer speed cap. Link speed is still 866 by the way, 5ghz.

 

Will start a new thread once I have the fibre connected then. Thanks for the reply.

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
7,674 Views

You are missing the whole point of this process. If you have Internet access available, then Windows Update is going to interfere with the operation and potentially put back the wrong thing. Only by following this process to the letter will you actually do a proper clean install of the latest drivers.

...S

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Zoley
Beginner
7,672 Views

I'll write it down again: I've done a fresh install of fresh w10pro (to a fresh nvme drive in a new mobo with a new cpu and new ram modules), had no driver for the ax210 (integrated in the new mobo) and had no other means to connect to the internet, installed the latest intel driver for it and the speed is garbage out of box. So again, everything that was installed today was also downloaded today (to get the driver I had to go to a different machine) and had no internet connection until everything was finished. After the removal try, windows had nothing to put back on by the way, just had a network class unknown device until reinstalled the intel driver for the 2nd time.

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
7,659 Views

What kind of router are you connecting to? 

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Zoley
Beginner
7,640 Views

BiPAC 8800AXL R2 with 2.52.d18 firmware. The manufacturer used to trade under the brand name Billion, now they call the consumer line-up Zcomax.

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
7,629 Views

Ok, this is a Wireless-AC router. The first thing I would thus suggest is that you change the 802.11n/ac/ax Wireless Mode parameter from 802.11ax to 802.11ac. Reboot after making this change, just to be safe.

Hope this helps,

...S

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Zoley
Beginner
7,624 Views

It hasn't changed a thing. As I mentioned above I first experienced the issue with a 9260 and that can't do anything newer than 802.11ac. I bought my ax200 after that thinking that newer hardware will work better, only to find out how wrong that thought was. After heading down the rabbit hole I found the already mentioned basic driver solution for those cards, but have nothing for the new, integrated ax210. I don't know whether MS is actively blocking something related to the intel drivers in windows or intel is unable to write a decent windows driver for their own hardware.

 

I get that what I want to achieve to work is most likely a niche use case (file transfer to/from a wired to router NAS (or in this case a raspberry pi) to/from a windows 10 pro PC only connected via wifi), but why is this something that a MS basic (generic?) driver can do at good speed and the manufacturer's own specific driver can only produce reduced speed while having the same link quality/link speed with the very same hardware?

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
7,617 Views

Ok, let's get one misconception out of the way. There is no driver (basic or otherwise), from Microsoft, that will support the Intel wireless adapters. When you uninstall the latest driver, you end up using whatever version of the Intel driver is in Microsoft's database. Please tell us what driver this is.

I had a secondary thought: you stated that this was a new machine. Before ytou installed these drivers, you had already manually downloaded and installed the Chipset Device Software and Intel Management Engine packages, right?

Finally, yes, it's true; Intel cannot write decent drivers. There are always complaints posted here regarding their drivers not installing properly or not uninstalling properly (or both). Why Intel cannot put one group in charge of the production and release of all drivers, I will never understand. We fought for this back in the early 2010's, but were essentially ignored by a lot of the product groups. They all had bad cases of NIH. I gave up; I retired in 2015. Now, I try so hard to defend them and the hard work they do, but they regularly shoot themselves in the foot.

...S

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Zoley
Beginner
7,609 Views

Sorry about jumping to conclusions about that driver that worked, but the driver provider field says Microsoft, so I thought they have something to do with it... I attached a picture of it to my first post, but I'll attach it to this one again. The version is 21.10.2.2.

On this new machine the wifi driver was last to install, I had everything else downloaded before I started the process as I knew that I will need those and were hoping that I won't need the wifi one. By the way I don't think it matters, but on this machine the wifi and bluetooth drivers are the only intel ones as I changed teams regarding the CPU. Oh and the integrated network would be intel too, but I disabled that one in the bios as I have nothing to plug into it.

You gave me an idea to test out, once I manage to switch from FTTC to FTTH internet connection so I get more than one angle to test speed wise I will start digging for old drivers to test and will put in the ax200 too. If I can find old enough drivers, as I already sort of tried this at the very end of 2020 when I switched from 9260 to ax200 with no joy.

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
7,591 Views

Yea, that's the Intel driver that Microsoft brought forward as 'their' compatibility driver. It's age is belied by the (Ma.Mi) version number (21.10 vs. 22.130; they jumped to 22.0 after 21.120, BTW). I suppose that, because they hacked it, it's ok that the MS name went on it.

Faced with a Wireless-AC router, the 9260 and the AX210 are going to be in the same performance category: limited to 1733Mb/s (600Mb/s on 2.4GHz and 1133Mb/s on 5GHz). In my experience, I have never seen any (Intel or otherwise) Wireless-AC card that achieved better than an 866Mb/s connection on 5GHz, but perhaps that's the limitations of my routers - and (I just checked) it was; they only supported 866MHz. I routinely get 1133Mb/s with my AX200 and AX210 adapters, but that's with a Wireless-AX router.

I have most releases in my archive. Do you want to try a few driver versions between the 'basic' and current drivers? Perhaps we could figure out where the problems started and give Intel some useable feedback...

...S

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Zoley
Beginner
7,569 Views

I do get the 866 link speed visible on properties, had that with all 3 devices if my memory serves right (not 100% on the 9260). I would have no issue with that if I could get the file transfer speed to get near it instead of hovering around 10-15%... If you could find a way to give me access to them old drivers I'd be happy to sink a couple hours into finding out whether any of them would make any difference and if all goes well after saturday, I should be able to test general network speed too, not just file transfer. I should also get a 802.11ax router that I plan to re-purpose as access point, for testing (I don't expect a high quality product as it will come from the ISP, hence the AP only plan).

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
7,558 Views

I sent you a PM.

...S

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Zoley
Beginner
7,516 Views

Thanks for all the drivers, I also managed to grab a few more different versions from Gigabyte's site. Sadly my internet upgrade is delayed, due to some ducts in dire need of repair and the ISP's team is waiting for council permit for that. Once all done I will test both ax210 and ax200 with everything (my 9260 is now several countries away) and I also went ahead and purchased a competitor's 6E solution to rule out other HW or setup causes on my end. This will take several weeks to complete (due to the ISP delay), but I will report back here once I'm done.

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Zoley
Beginner
7,501 Views

In the end I decided to sink a few hours into this on my second day off (today). I ended up setting up the HW I just replaced test bench style, next to the router. Test hw is an i7 6700k in an Asus rog maximus viii hero with a gigabyte ax200 card, wd black WDS500G2X0C nvme storage and corsair vengeance lpx ddr4 2400 memory modules.

If I connect the I219-V I get about 80-90 MB/s with windows default and 100 MB/s with latest intel drivers, so the environment and the other connecting devices are working great with more bandwidth available than I want to achieve.

With the ax200 I started installing the drivers starting from the oldest versions and the older ones did work great. The last one that worked well was the 21.80.2, had 70-80 MB/s with that (and all previous ones). The first garbage one is 21.90.3, with around 10 MB/s maximum. I don't know what you guys (intel) have changed there that still remains unchanged in the latest version, but royally screwed my use case, especially since the ax210 is not supported until 22.0.0, so there is no good driver for that one.

The ax200/201 owners can downgrade to 21.80.2 as a workaround/solution in this use case, but a fix for this would be greatly appreciated as I'd love to use what I paid for.

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Zoley
Beginner
7,485 Views

After my previous post I realized that I focused on 5ghz band only and haven't changed anything else in the setup.

The channel I had set my router is 100, with 80mhz width. Now I also tried 36 and 120, no change in speeds.

When I moved on to 2.4ghz band to test I found that with the latest driver file transfer speed isn't great either, but still about 50% quicker than what I get on 5ghz, which is bonkers. Not surprisingly, older drivers work better on that band too, up to and including driver 22.40.0 I get speeds between 20-25 MB/s and then with 22.50.1 suddenly even 20 MB/s is unachievable, stops around 16 MB/s going forward, so there's another change in the driver, this time for the older standards. Link speed 300/300 on the ax200 next to the router by the way.

At least with this I can downgrade to 22.0.0 on my ax210 and switch to the crowded 2.4ghz band (link speed 300/300!) to copy my files twice as quick than I could over 5ghz band, also interfering my wireless keyboard+mouse, rendering the computer useless for the duration. Still about one third of the speed I should have on wifi 5...

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UrFixer
Beginner
7,316 Views

Found the solution for all those who have the same problem.

Run CMD as admin and type next: netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal
For some reason it was bottlenecking my download/upload speeds (1.2 mb/s | 100 mb/s) and now it's 600/600

Hope it will help you. 


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