WiFi6 AX201 160MHz Capability Reset and WiFi Disconnection Issues

[kogies]

We are having persistent disconnects on our Enterprise WiFi with many devices, all with Intel AX201 WiFi6 adapters. It seems to be a compatibility issue between the Meru APs and Intel adapters, but on our large network it is the AX201 adapters with the most prominent issue.

I have read quite a few support articles and attempted quite a few adjustments as per below.

When the disconnect happens, it always coincides with the following series of event logs. The wireless security triad repeats every 3-10 seconds, which seems excessive? Then the capability change, CapabilityReset occurs and the wireless drops from anywhere between a couple of seconds, and 5 minutes.

      11004 - Wireless Security Stopped / 11010 - Wireless Security Started. /11005 - Wireless Security Succeeded. (These three repeat quite frequently, every couple of seconds?)

       4042   - Capability change on {...} (0x47008000000000 Family: V4 Capability: None ChangeReason: CapabilityReset)

We have tried, old and new drivers (22.40, 22.80, 22.120, etc.), changing 802.11r/k settings on APs, changing channel bandwidth (Auto/20MHz) in Intel drivers, changing to 'Wireless mode' in Intel drivers,  adjusted channelling/power levels of APs, and quite a lot else. Computers are predominantly Windows 10/11, it has happened on all AX201 devices for as long as we have had them, PSK networks have no issue with the adapter or drop-outs.

According to this link , it may be a compatibility with APs. Can you please explain what the '4042 - CapabilityReset' relates to in the driver? Is there a fix/setting to confirm Intel AX201 compatibility?

[Dezz]

Has anyone managed to find the fix for this? I'm new at a company where we're running WLC 9800 with multiple APs at remote sites configured with 802.1x EAP-TLS (cert based) and Dell Latitudes with Intel AX2xx (mostly 211) NICs. 

They've been experiencing WiFi drops for 'years' and there's been a significant amount of troubleshooting in the past already. 

The event logs, wlan reports and symptoms all match with the above and we're at a loss what to do next.

Drivers have been fully uninstalled and updated (various).

Timeouts changed on the Cisco WLC APs/WLC.

The NPS server logs indicate that the drops could coincide with the clients deciding to roam to another AP. This can happen a few times in a matter of minutes or hours, and when a client is sat literally between 2 APs which are in the same office as them.

The issue seems to be worse some days than others which makes no sense. Once the drop happens they struggle to reconnect and have 'no internet' for a period which is also mentioned above. 

FT/fast roaming has been enabled and disabled on the Cisco side - no difference. 

[Dezz]

Bumping this back up as we are seeing this same disconnect issue on multiple devices, with Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 adapters, as are many others in these community threads. We have tested the same laptops with a USB dongle (Realtek) which appear to be stable. 

[GEM1]

I am also having this issue with Intel(R) Wi-Fi 7 BE201 320MHz.  I've tried updating drivers to no avail.  When a disconnect happens it can be five to ten minutes sometimes before it reconnects again.

EventId Time Message

4042

2026-04-29T10:21:56

[‒]Capability change on {ca8800c2-9388-4856-8ba3-5d16e2c4688d} (0x47008000000000 Family: V4 Capability: None ChangeReason: CapabilityReset)