Wi-Fi 6E AX210 160MHz Frequent Disconnects

[sexyjeep]

I have been having random 2-8 seconds disconnects every hour while using this (built onto my motherboards) for the past year.  Most of my applications, browsers, and games handle the brief disconnects well, but "stutter" when the issue occurs.  However, in newer games like HELLDIVERS 2, or when watching a live video feed (like a Twitch stream), I'll actually get booted from the game and/or the stream will stop playing for a moment before resuming.

I first started having the issue in April of 2023 when I built a brand new computer from scratch (new everything).  I had went with the ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z790 Hero motherboard, which had this Intel Wifi built-in.  Within the first week I started noticing these little 2-8 seconds disconnects.  At first I thought maybe it was my router, possibly my Internet, or maybe even a Wifi band or channel setting on my router.  However, over the past year I have been able to rule all of that out via the following troubleshooting steps and occurrences:

1.  I have 3 computers in my house, all with different Wireless adapters, but all configured on the same 5Ghz band, same power settings, using the same channel, and all moved to be in the same room for testing purposes.  I opened Task Manager on each machine to monitor the Wifi, as well as a command prompt with a constant ping to google via: "ping 8.8.8.8 -t".  I then opened a twitch stream on each machine and sat back and waited.  Within 30 minutes the issue occurred again, and when I looked at the command prompt the pings had completely stopped as well as all the traffic in the Task Manager.  On the other two computers, everything was still working great!  No packet loss on any pings, no drops in Task Manager's Wifi chart, and the streams never cut out.  This verified for me, 100% that the issue was not my Internet nor issue on the router - it's limited to just the built-in Wi-Fi on the motherboard.

2. I've removed all software via Programs & Features and drivers from the Device Manager for this card, and one-by-one went through a series of different drivers to see if maybe this would help.  I have fully tested/vetted all of the following drivers and the problem still persists:

- 22.190.0.4

- 23.10.0.8

- 23.40.0.4

3.  I've upgraded my M.2 drive from a PCI 4.0 to PCI 5.0 and had to completely re-install Windows, which was convenient, because maybe the issue was with the previous install of Windows possibly being corrupt...?  So in September of 2023, I purchased a new drive, got the latest version of Windows 10 Pro (I was running Windows 10 Pro previously), and started with the base driver of 22.190.0.4 because back at that time, this was still the latest driver available from ASUS for this Wifi chipset.  Within the first day, I began having the same issues again.  I now know this is not an hard drive related issue nor OS corruption.  It's consistent across hardware and software changes.

4.  On April 14th of 2024 my 13th gen Intel processor (13900K) burned up due to all the 13th and 14th gen issues that I am sure most of you in the tech sector are aware of by now.  I went through the process of RMA-ing my processor through Intel and they verified that the processor had bad cores and issued me a refund for the original purchase price.  Their 13th and 14th gen processors are completely out of stock right now due to all the issues.  I took the money and bought the brand new 14900KS to give that a try.  Due to all the troubleshooting I/we did, I ended up needing to re-install Windows from scratch again when I put the new 14900KS in.  I completed this on April 17th.  At this time, ASUS had a newer driver available for the Wifi (23.10.0.8), so I installed it, finished configuring Windows, and by the end of the day, the Wifi issue had returned.  The only thing I could think (at this point) was that maybe the motherboard was bad...?  However, all the reddit posts and forums (like this one) have shown hundreds of people who suffer from my same issue, so it seems like this is a widely known enough issue that it makes me feel like my motherboard is likely not the issue, but I am trying to be open-minded.

5.  Well, on May 12 of 2024, guess what?  My 14900KS processor died!  Same as the 13900KS - multiple cores on it burned up and my computer wouldn't boot, you couldn't re-install Windows, etc... All the same issues I was having with the old 13900KS.  So I returned the processor to Amazon and got a full refund, and decide to switch to AMD.  I needed to get a new motherboard for this, but needed something that had all the same outputs, design, and supported the memory kit that I already own.  I saw that ASUS makes an identical MAXIMUS Hero motherboard for AMD as the Intel variant I had, cool!  It's the 'ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR X670E Hero'.  It even has the EXACT same Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210 160MHz Wifi chipset that I previously have had on the Intel board.  So I bought a Ryzen 9 7950x3d and paired it with this board.  I then had to re-install Windows yet again, and when it came time to install the Wifi drivers I started with the '23.10.0.8' as it was the latest on the ASUS website for this new board.  Once I got all my apps installed, I pulled up a twitch stream and played some games and waited...  Yulp, within the first hour, the exact same random and short Wifi disconnects were still happening...  It's now been 4 days and I get at least 10-15 a day while I am working or gaming.  Ugh...

6.  I then went to Intel's website to see if there were any newer drivers than what ASUS even knew about for this chipset, and I found one!  It was a driver version of 23.40.0.4.  I had really high hopes for this, got it installed last night, and within 30 minutes the Wifi was still randomly cutting out for 2-8 seconds.  This morning, the issue is still happening.

Summary:

At this point, I've done more troubleshooting on this specific issue (I feel) than just about any other post I've seen on this specific Wifi's chipset, and I haven't even gone into all of the other troubleshooting I've done within the advanced setting/properties of the adapter on both my old Intel board and now the new AMD board.  The issue is clearly not a setting, competing software interfering, corruption, or anything like that.  It's the chipset itself or the driver.  So far, I haven't seen a single post of anyone with success on this on any online community/platform.  The only thing I've seen is that people have given up and are purchasing a 3rd party Wifi adapter for their machine, or going hard wired.  It very much feels like all the issues being pointed out on this, and detailed documentation on it is falling on def ears at Intel.  Sadge.

If anyone has any further insights on this, questions, or something I can try, I am not completely close minded on this yet, but it's not looking good.

[RamyerM_Intel]

Hello sexyjeep, 

Thank you for posting in the communities. To set your expectation, I might need to coordinate this with our team for proper investigation as I can see you have already tried extensive troubleshooting. To do that, I kindly ask for your SSU logs. Additionally, are there other devices as well wherein this issue is present? Please also share with me the software that you have used or a screenshot of the frequent disconnects that you encountered. This way we will have a clearer picture of its occurrence. I will be waiting for your reply.

Ramyer M. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[sexyjeep]

Ramyer,

You had asked additionally, if there are other devices as well wherein this issue is present.  By even asking me this, it tells me you didn't either read my original post or took the time to properly digest it.  Asking for a screenshot of Windows Task manager where it shows a constant connection/stream of 7Mbps and then dropping to zero activity for 2-8 seconds is a waste of my time and an insult to everyone who has been facing this issue over the past several years.  There's an underlining issue here where Intel is refusing to address the concerns regarding this Wireless controller and entertaining the idea of more logs or screenshots, which have already been given to Intel support on this issue 1,000 times over is just copy pasta.

**Update**

After further searching the web for more users with this issue, I had uncovered a honey hole.  There was a reddit forum where a user had talked about a driver version 22.110.1.1 from a couple of years ago, where Intel identified a random disconnect issue in the Wi-Fi 6E AX210 160MHz chipset.  The disconnect/bug occurs when the wireless tries to re-authenticate over WPA2 security and causes the connection to drop for several seconds.  The patch notes for driver version 22.110.1.1 talk about this issue and how it was resolved in this version.  One would think, that every version after this would also include that fix, but anyone who has this issue knows that's not the case.  On the ark.intel.com website, the drivers for this chipset don't even go back any further than 22.190.0.4, so to get a hold of the 22.110.1.1 driver took a lot of searching.  I eventually found a website that had it and I downloaded it.  I then had a hell of a time installing it, because when trying to launch this 2+ year old driver, it kept telling me I had a newer version installed and refused to install.  I then found another reddit forum where a user had found a way to clear out all the temp cached files within Windows, which finally then allowed me to install the 22.110.1.1 driver.

Since the install of this driver (22.110.1.1), where the notes for the driver specifically mention fixing this disconnect issue, I've had ZERO problems.  It has been two weeks running on this driver and not a single disconnect has occurred with my wireless.  My streams no longer randomly stop, my games don't crash, and my Task Managers WiFi always shows a constant stream of data being passed through the chip.  I highly suggest that Intel take more time to seriously look into this issue as all the drivers later than this version are susceptible to having the issue.

For as much as I "Google" issues, find solutions, and fix problems, I figured I would give this issue my "all" and document as much detail as I could in the hope of giving back to others.  Hopefully someone else who is struggling with this can read this post and find that it works for them too.

[RamyerM_Intel]

Hello sexyjeep, 

I understand your frustration and appreciate the effort you've put into resolving this persistent connectivity issue. It's clear that you've done extensive research and troubleshooting to address the problem. Ensuring your satisfaction and resolving any issues with our products is a top priority for us.

It's encouraging to learn that the connectivity problem has been resolved, and we share your view on the importance of addressing common issues to ensure the quality of our products. The driver version 22.110.1.1 that you've pinpointed is indeed a critical discovery.

The consistent and uninterrupted connection you've achieved since installing this driver clearly demonstrates its effectiveness. We would be grateful if you could share the forums and threads that have informed your troubleshooting process, allowing us to conduct a more in-depth investigation and implement the necessary actions. Additionally, providing the system logs from your computer would enable us to examine your system configuration in detail and offer tailored support.

Ramyer M. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[RamyerM_Intel]

Hello sexyjeep, 

I am just checking in on this thread. Feel free to reply to my previous one so we ca properly investigate this for you in detail. 

Ramyer M. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[sexyjeep]

Ramyer,

I didn't want to share the links to other sites as I wasn't sure if that was against the rules on this forum, but since you have asked me to post them, I will share (see below).  It has now been several weeks on this driver and still not a single disconnect, but I did notice the other day when checking on the driver version that Windows shows it's now on version 22.250.1.2.  I think Windows Updates might have come in and automatically included an update for the old driver that I found that had fixed this issue and updated it.  However, since being on this new version, I still haven't had any disconnects.  So perhaps, installing the 22.110.1.1 driver first is what's needed to resolve the issue and any subsequent updates after that are still fine.  This seems to be the case, as again, I am still working just fine despite the driver having been updated to 22.250.1.2 without my acknowledgement.

The only other thing I want to point out is that ever since installing the driver that fixed my issue (22.110.1.1), my computer has developed a memory leak.  I have 64GB of memory and only have about 15GB of it ever used at any given time.  However, again, since I installed this older driver to fix my Wifi, my memory now keeps going up, and up, and up each day, until it eventually eats of all 64GB of my systems memory.  It takes about 8 days before my system reaches 64GB used, at which point the only resolve is to reboot my computer.  When you look at the Task Manager it only ever shows about 15GB of memory in use, but yet all 64GB will be consumed after 8 days.  I've even tried using Wise Memory cleaner and some memory cleaning tools from GitHub, but they only free up around 4GB at any given time, so that's not a solution.  I never had any of these issues prior to installing the 22.110.1.1 driver so the memory leak would appear to be within the driver.  I ran "poolmon" to see what process, software, or driver was eating it all up, but it only shows 'Proc' as the process that's holding it all - System Processes.

The 22.110.1.1 driver can be downloaded here: https://www.driverscloud.com/en/services/GetInformationDriver/75026-130946/intel-wifi-221101-driver64-win10-win11exe

The instructions for getting the older driver to install when/if you get a message that you already have the latest driver can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/zigcqt/cannot_downgrade_intel_wifi_drivers/

[RamyerM_Intel]

Hello sexyjeep, 

Thank you for sharing this information. Kindly please allow us sometime to analyze this information and I promise to get back to you as soon as possible. 

Ramyer M. 

Intel Customer Support Technician

[RamyerM_Intel]

Hello sexyjeep, 

Thank you for patiently waiting. Upon coordinating with our team, we want to let you know that we have recently released a new driver 23.60.0 version. Kindly please try to updating to this version to address the random disconnects that you are experiencing. 

Let us know if this works. I will be waiting for your reply. 

Ramyer M. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[RamyerM_Intel]

Hello sexyjeep, 

I hope you are doing well. Were you able to follow our previous recommendation? I am just checking in to make sure everything is alright in your system. Should the issue still persists, feel free to let me know.

Ramyer M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[sexyjeep]

Hello,

My apologies, I didn't see your last post from 6/26/2024.  I just downloaded the latest driver (23.60.0) and will install it today to see how things go.  However, as mentioned in my last post, since downgrading all the way to the (22.110.1.1) driver which had resolved the issue, my PC has since grabbed a newer update of the driver via Windows Updates without my knowledge and despite being on a newer version, the disconnects have still not returned.  My assumption is that maybe whatever was in that 22.110.1.1 driver grandfathered me in so that any subsequent updates don't cause the issue.  So if I install this new driver and still don't have any disconnects, it could just be because we're upgrading an already existing driver where the issue was fixed.  A true test of this new driver (to be 100% sure) would be to completely wipe out everything on my machine and install this latest driver.

Regardless, I'll install it and if the issue returns I will let you know.

Lastly, a friend of mine who is an IT Admin at a large hospital said that they also had all the same problems I had been having with your previous drivers for this series of Wireless.  He said that they were able to resolve the short disconnects by disabling "CCKM" on their wireless access points and wireless routers.  Apparently, if you're using wireless equipment that has a setting to enable or disable "CCKM", then disabling this option will fix the issue while using any of the previously botched Intel drivers.  I thought this was very interesting and wanted to share it as well.

Thanks,

Jeepy

[sexyjeep]

Ramyer,

I clicked the link from your 2nd to last post to download the 23.60.0 driver and just installed that.  However, this is for Bluetooth only.  This did not do anything to the Wireless driver.  Did you post the wrong link?  Regardless, installing this didn't change anything to the Wireless driver for my Wi-Fi AX160.  It did update the Bluetooth driver though.

Jeepy

[n_scott_pearson]

Here's the link for the corresponding WiFi driver: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/19351/intel-wireless-wi-fi-drivers-for-windows-10-and-windows-11.html.

Hope this helps,

...S

[sexyjeep]

Since installing the 23.60.0 from the link Ramyer posted, I have had two random disconnects for 1-3 seconds just like I always had before.  Ever since 5/29/2024, I have not had so much as a single hiccup watching live streams nor listening to music all day while I work (average 12 hours a day).  Since the install this morning the issue has returned and now happened twice.  Nothing else has changed on my system.

Per the link n_scott_pearson just replied with, I will try to install that next and see what happens moving forward.

Jeepy

[RamyerM_Intel]

Hello sexyjeep, 

I am sorry to hear about this results and I would like to apologize as well providing you an incorrect link as the one I have inserted is for the Bluetooth drivers.  Allow me to make it up to you.

As for n_scott_pearson, thank you for providing the correct link for the wireless installation. This is indeed the best way to empower our community. 

Feel free to install the version 23.60.1 and let us know if the disconnects still exists. I will be waiting for your reply. 

Ramyer M. 

Intel Customer Support Technician