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Wireless AC 9560 Keeps Dropping Connection

Philon
Novice
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Hello,

 

I have a Thinkpad X1 Extreme running Windows 10 1809 with the wireless AC 9560 adapter that came with it. A few months in, the wi-fi keeps dropping. I've done a ton of troubleshooting, and have not been able to fix it.

 

The drops are almost always associated with "SuspectArpProbeFailed" in the WLAN report. The connection to the wireless router remains, but I lose internet. Running troubleshooting usually fixes it.

 

I've attached my SSU results for more info about my machine and drivers.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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30 Replies
Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
21,010 Views

Philon, Thank you for posting in the Intel® Communities Support.

 

In order for us to provide the most accurate assistance, we just wanted to confirm a few details about your system:

Is this a new computer?

Did you make any recent hardware/software changes?

Did you check with your Internet service provider to make sure the Internet is working properly?

Does the problem happen at home or work environment?

 

We recommend to install the Wireless driver provided by the manufacturer of the computer since that driver was customized by them work with your specific platform.

 

I looked on Lenovo's web site, and the latest Intel® Wireless driver they have available is version 21.10.1.0u, which is basically the same version already installed on your platform, still, we can always test that driver:

https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/cr/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-x-series-laptops/thinkpad-x1-extreme/downloads/DS504899

 

Since the laptop is using the Intel® Wireless-AC 9560 card, we can also try to install Intel® Generic Wireless driver version 21.40.2:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/29082/Windows-10-Wi-Fi-Drivers-for-Intel-Wireless-Adapters?product=99446

 

Once you get the chance, please let us know the results.

 

Regards,

Alberto R.

 

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

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Philon
Novice
21,010 Views

Hi, Alberto:

 

Thank you for the response! Here are the answers to your questions:

  • This is not a very new computer (received December 2018) but the problems did become apparent a couple of months after owning it (noticed it was a big problem around February 2019).
  • I did not make any major software changes. I did undervolt my system using Throttlestop as soon as I got it as well as installing a VPN, but otherwise have just been updating the OS and software for it. And I've made no hardware changes at all since purchasing it
  • The internet is working correctly. I have several other devices connected to the same Wi-Fi router, and none experience this dropped connection problem.
  • The problem happens at home, but I do work from home. I believe it occurs away from home, too, but I use my laptop infrequently away from home, so I'm not positive.

 

One other possibly relevant detail: this seems to occur solely on the 5 GHz band. I've not experienced these dropped connections when connecting to 2.4 GHz bands. But I also use 5 GHz more frequently.

 

I will wait for the next dropped connection and if it happens, I'll try installing the generic wireless driver you linked to and post the results.

 

Thanks again.

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
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Hi Philon, You are very welcome, thank you very much for providing those details.

 

Perfect, excellent, once you get the chance, please let us know the results of testing Intel® Wireless driver version 21.40.2.

 

Just for testing purposes, do you have the option to disconnect all the Wireless devices from the Router and connect just the laptop to it and test it that way?

By any chance, do you have the possibility to connect the laptop to another router or network?

What is the model of the Router?

 

Regards,

Alberto R.

 

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

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Philon
Novice
21,010 Views

Hi, Alberto:

 

It would be difficult for me to disconnect all wireless devices from my router without disrupting thinks, so I'm afraid I can't do that.

 

I can try a different network next week to see how things go. I did use a different network while travelling, and if I recall correctly, it did happen less frequently but still happened.

 

My home router is an Archer C7 v2.

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
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Hi Philon, Thank you very much for letting us know that information.

 

Please try to connect the laptop to a different network and let us know the outcome so we can further assist you.

 

Regards,

Alberto R.

 

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
21,014 Views

Philon, I just wanted to check if you were able to connect the laptop to a different network and if you need further assistance on this matter?

 

Regards,

Alberto R.

 

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

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Philon
Novice
21,014 Views

Hi, Alberto:

 

Thanks for following up! I'm still testing things out, but haven't tried a different network yet. I hope to do so next week.

 

I was testing the idea that my VPN may have been the problem, and things have been running smoothly with my VPN disabled for the past few days, which is why I was silent.

 

However, just now, I experienced a brief disconnect on my home network without the VPN running. It looks like it was due to the driver security starting and stopping rapidly before disconnecting. Here's what I saw on my wlan report around the time of the disconnect. The time of disconnect was around 17:21-22:

screenshot.jpg

Event viewer showed telemetry fields and analysis usage around this time before an LSO was triggered (that's the warning at the top)

screenshot.jpg

The browser event was: The browser has forced an election on network \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{5DA1C0B3-1912-425C-BAC7-65B265DA2F16} because a master browser was stopped.

 

I don't know if this is helpful? I'm still running the driver from Lenovo; I haven't installed the generic driver you linked to above.

 

Thank you again for the follow up. I appreciate it! I

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
21,013 Views

Hi Philon, You are very welcome, thank you very much for sharing that information and the pictures, it is very useful and helpful.

 

Based on the fact that the problem does not happen that frequently with the VPN disabled and the wireless connection works better that way, it indicates that the issue is not related to the Intel® Wireless driver, it seems that the problem is actually related to the security protocols and the configuration of the Router/Access Point or the VPN, especially if as you mentioned the issue happens with only the 5.0 GHz band.

Those other devices working with that same network, are they connected to the 5.0GHz or 2.4GHz band?

Is there any chance that you can visit your workplace and connect the laptop to the Wireless network in there?

 

Once you get the chance, please let us know the results of connecting the laptop to another network and if the problem also happens with the Intel® Wireless driver installed.

 

Additionally, please verify the link below for the for the recommended settings for the Intel® Wireless Adapter:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005544/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking.html

 

Regards,

Alberto R.

 

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

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Philon
Novice
21,009 Views

Hi, Alberto:

 

All devices except for my printer are connected to the 5GHz band on the same router. I have picked up my phone (connected to the router's 5Ghz band) at the time my wi-fi on my my laptop drops, and didn't note any connection issues with the phone. Nor has anyone in my household ever noticed a problem with the 5Ghz band at all (and there are no VPNs on those devices). That makes me think that it has SOMETHING to do with my laptop in particular, be it the Intel driver, the card, the VPN, or the router's connection to this specific laptop. I just haven't quite figured out what yet!

 

I will bring my laptop to work in different locations and using different routers on Monday and report back then. Over the weekend, I'll try using my VPN again and see if I have the same problems I did previously.

 

Thanks as always for your persistence and help! I really appreciate it.

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Philon
Novice
21,009 Views

Brief update: I've noticed more drops with the VPN off, so I've completely uninstalled it and did a network reset. I'll see how my system behaves over the weekend on my home network without the VPN. If it's fine, I'll try it on a another network on Monday, then repeat with the VPN installed.

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
21,009 Views

Hi Philon, You are very welcome, thank you very much for letting us know those updates.

 

Great, no problem at all, take all the time you need to do those testings, please let us know the results once you get the chance so we can further assist you, it will help us to confirm if the VPN is actually the root cause of this scenario.

 

Regards,

Alberto R.

 

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

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Philon
Novice
21,009 Views

Another brief update: pretty much ruled out the VPN being an issue. I uninstalled every component by hand and still had disconnect problems on my home network with the usual rapid disconnect/reconnects shown above or the other common error message I've seen in wlan report: suspectArpProbeFailed.

 

I'll keep the VPN uninstalled while I continue testing at home and on another router.

 

I tried reinstalling the Lenovo driver and had the same problems.

 

So, I then updated the driver from Lenovo's to the one linked to in your first reply by disabling and deleting the old driver, then installing the new one. I'll see how that goes on my home network.

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
21,009 Views

Philon, Thank you very much for sharing those updates, we really appreciate it.

 

Yes, it seems that actually the VPN is not the source of the problem, it seems to be related to a different factor.

 

Once you get the chance, please let us know the results of testing your home network to verify what is the behavior of the Wireless connection.

 

Regards,

Alberto R.

 

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

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Philon
Novice
21,008 Views

Hi, Alberto:

 

Brief update, with some good AND bad news!

 

This weekend, my connection was dropping every hour or so on my home network, so out of frustration I used a whole bunch of commands I picked up from attempting to troubleshoot in the past at once. Specifically, I did reset the catalog (netsh winsock reset catalog , then netsh int ip reset reset.log hit), flushed DNS (ipconfig /release , ipconfig /flushdns , ipconfig /renew), and because the failures were due to SuspectArpProbe failure, also did: NETSH INTERFACE IPv4 DELETE NEIGHBOR . I then rebooted.

 

The good news is: it worked for a while! No disconnects on 5GHz home network for several days, so I didn't bring my laptop to a different network.

 

Until today. The same problem's now cropped up again: disconnects. I get a DNS client error in event viewer, which precedes SuspectArpProbeFailed as the reason for disconnection on my wlan report.

 

So, I'll take no action for now, and tomorrow will try a work network to see if the same behavior occurs.

 

I still haven't reinstalled my VPN.

 

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
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Hi Philon, Thank you very much once again for keeping us updated with all the different troubleshooting steps that you are trying.

 

Sure, go ahead and test the laptop with the work network, please let us know if the issue persists.

 

Regards,

Alberto R.

 

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
21,010 Views

Hi Philon, I just wanted to add another update on this matter.

 

This kind of issues, in some cases, is related to the channel width, so please try the following troubleshooting steps in order to try to fix this problem:

  • Enter "Device Manager"
  • Select "Network Adapters"
  • Right click on the Intel® Wireless-AC 9560 card
  • Choose the "Advanced" tab
  • Under "Property" look for "Channel Width for 5GHz", where it says "Value" most of the times it says "Auto", please change that to "20MHz only" and test the Wireless connection that way.

 

Regards,

Alberto R.

 

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

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Philon
Novice
21,010 Views

Hi, Alberto:

 

Did my experiment on a two networks outside of my home network: one at 5GHz and one at 2.4GHz. Both experienced no noticeable drops, and I noticed no errors in the WLAN report. I only used them for a few hours, so it's possible I could have experienced issues if I used them for longer, but this is at least some evidence that it may be something to do with my home network.

 

I haven't experienced any serious drops on my home network today, but did notice a brief disconnect on a WLAN report I ran after using my home network for about an hour.

 

I'll continue testing on my home network tomorrow and see if there are any drops. If there are, I'll then try adjusting the channel width as you suggested. I'll post an update in a day or two.

 

Thank you again for your continued support.

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
21,010 Views

Hi Philon, Thank you for all your updates.

 

Go ahead and continue with the testings and let us know the outcome once you have the opportunity.

 

Regards,

Alberto R.

 

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

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Philon
Novice
21,010 Views

Hi, Alberto:

 

Brief update: after a couple of days of my wi-fi behaving on my home network at 5GHz, it's back to dropping with a similar pattern: on the event log, I get a DNS client event, shortly followed by a SuspectArpProbeFailed event in the wlan report, all resulting in my wi-fi disconnecting.

 

As usual, it stays disconnected and is repairable using the "troubleshoot problems" option by right-clicking on my wi-fi icon in the taskbar. The troubleshooter reports that the problem was that "the default gateway was unavailable".

 

I pinged my default gateway IP during the drop and had 100% packet loss from my laptop. All other devices in my household are, as usual, fine during the drop.

 

Since it's misbehaving again, I've taken your advice and set the 5GHz bandwidth to 20Hz from "auto" and will see how that works. I'll post on how that's working after I've used it for a bit.

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
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Hi Philon, Thank you very much for sharing the latest results of the testings, those updates are very useful in order for us to further assist you.

 

Great, perfect, go ahead and set the 5GHz bandwidth to 20Hz from "auto" and once you get the opportunity let us know the results.

 

Any questions, please let me know.

 

Regards,

Alberto R.

 

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

 

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