ax210 window 10 21h2 not showing 6GHz networks

[btegu]

I purchased a new wifi 6e router ASUS AXE11000 and ax210 cards for PC's. My google pixel 6 phone can see and connect to the 6GHz network but my two ax210 PC's running 21H2 win10 19044.1348 with intel (latest 22.90.0) drivers only show 2.4 and 5GHz networks. I am only finding late 2020 early 2021 articles for 6GHz support should this be working currently?

What is the model of the Router? ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000

Is this a new computer? no

When did you purchase it? 2011 / 2020

When did the issue start? when trying to use 6GHz on windows 10 computers for the first time

Did you make any recent hardware/software changes that might cause this issue? no

The wireless card, did you purchase it separately or did it come installed on the computer? both computers wifi cards were replaced with ax210 models

Does the problem happen at home or in the work environment? home

[Alberto_R_Intel]

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

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

You mentioned you are using 2 PC,s what is the model of the motherboards?

When did you purchase the Intel® Wi-Fi 6E AX210 cards?

Were you able to use the 6GHz network ever on these specific PCs?

Please attach the SSU report of each PC so we can verify further details about the components in the platforms, check all the options in the report including the one that says "3rd party software logs":

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25293/Intel-System-Support-Utility-for-Windows-?product=91600

Any questions, please let me know.

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Alberto_R_Intel]

Hello btegu, I just wanted to check if you saw the information posted previously and if you need further assistance on this matter?

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[btegu]

I have also performed the reinstall intel drivers from scratch on both PC's with no change.

You mentioned you are using 2 PC,s what is the model of the motherboards?
PC1 Asrock x570 extreme4 wifi ax
PC2 Asrock z87 extreme9 wifi ac

When did you purchase the Intel® Wi-Fi 6E AX210 cards?
They have been working fine otherwise, I just recently purchased the Wifi 6e router to try 6Ghz for the first time.
PC1 Ordered on August 15, 2021 OKN wifi 6E AX210 module
PC2 Ordered on September 1, 2021 NICGIGA WiFi 6E 5400Mbps AX210 Wireless PCIe Card

Were you able to use the 6GHz network ever on these specific PCs?
No

Should this be working on Windows10? All I can find are very old articles on the subject.

[Alberto_R_Intel]

btegu, Thank you very much for providing that information and the SSU reports.

Should this be working on Windows10? We recommend to contact Microsoft support to confirm that information:

https://support.microsoft.com/

Based on the information shown in the SSU reports, we can confirm that the wireless driver version currently installed in the computers is 22.90.0.5, which is the latest wireless driver provided by Intel®. The Intel® wireless drivers are generic, meaning they might and might not work on your specific PCs. 

We always recommend to install the wireless drivers provided by the manufacturer of the board, since those drivers were customized by them to work with your specific platform. I looked in AsRock's website and the latest wireless driver version for the X570 Extreme4 WiFi ax they have available is 22.70.2.1G, for testing purposes, we can try a clean installation of that driver following the instructions in the links below:

https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X570%20Extreme4%20WiFi%20ax/index.asp#Download

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000022173/wireless/intel-wireless-products.html

Then, I looked for drivers for the Z87 Extreme9/ac board and there are no wireless drivers available for that model:

https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z87%20Extreme9ac/#Download

It is important to mention that when you install the wireless card on a laptop that is what is called "Wireless Integration", and the thing about that process is that there are a lot of components that come into play, like for example: board, m.2 ports, Wireless card, drivers, PCI adapters and antennas, all those parts need to be fully compatible for the proper functionality of the Wireless connection. There is also regulatory information about the "Wireless Integration" that you can verify in the following links:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005687/network-and-i-o/wireless.html

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005846/network-and-i-o/wireless.html

Still, in the next link, you will find additional details about how to Enable Wi-Fi 6E/ 6GHz Band Using Intel® Wi-Fi 6E (Gig+) products:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000059385/wireless/intel-wireless-products.html

We also advise, to get in contact directly with ASRock support to make sure the latest BIOS version is currently installed in your machines or to gather the instructions on how to do that:

https://www.asrock.com/support/

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[btegu]

I contacted Microsoft and Asus prior to Intel and they have yet to respond. Thank you for your prompt responses. I was hoping maybe you already just knew if it works on Windows 10.

I dual booted into Linux and installed the Intel driver

(https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005511/wireless.html)

and Linux can see 6Ghz, so the hardware is fine.

Your Intel support article says try Windows 11 preview version which I can not since I have no required TPM. I have seen older versions of this article saying use Win10 preview, is there a download available for that older Win10 driver?

I see the same topic from other users of this forum and some third party sites saying Intel driver version 22.45.1.1 is what works for Windows 10 6Ghz. They provide files but I am reluctant to install from a third party site or user upload. On the Intel support page for ax210 the driver drop down only goes back to 22.70.0, Can you provide a direct link for 22.45.1.1 I could test?

Thanks.

[XenuIsWatching · Accepted solution]

I spend HOURS on the same issue. None of the links or any of the intel support articles worked... I believe this is from a bad driver regression that intel introduced with their later driver revisions. I could not see my 6GHz SSID with the latest 22.90.0.0.

The number of things I tried.

1. Updating Windows 10 to 21H2... which I did
2. Checking to make sure I am in the USA where 6GHz is allowed by the FCC.. which I am
3. Verifying that can I get 6GHz SSID working with Linux Kernel 5.11... which I did. (this proves that my hardware is all working okay and is likely a software/firmware issue)
4. Trying to get windows insider builds... which I can't because it's all windows 11 right now, and my processor is a 6th gen core and only >=7th gen are supported and I don't have TPM 2.0 on my machine.
5. Yelling at my computer for a while until I started inventing new swear words...

What found was that reverting back to an old driver, 22.45.1.1, manually after uninstalling (and deleting) the old driver from the device manager worked. I really wished the intel support engineers and QA in their department would do more testing before pushing out releases. I tried even releases such as 22.80.0.0 and 22.70.0.0, but both of those did not work.

To remove the existing intel wireless driver. I followed the following steps

1. Open Windows Device Manager
2. Find `Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX210 160MHz`
3. Right click it and select `Uninstall Driver`
   1. Check the box that says `Delete the driver software for this device`
4. Reboot machine
5. Open Windows Device Manager
6. Find `Networking Device` under the `Other devices`
   1. If it's not seen, there. You've probably got another older driver that needs to removed. Repeat Steps uninstalling, until it shows up under other devices
7. Right click it and select `Update Driver`
8. Select `Browse my computer for drivers`
9. Download and unzip attached zip file
10. Select the unzip folder location and just start clicking next all the way through
11. Watch as you'll now see 6GHz in wifi networks

[AidanB]

Following your instructions worked for me. I had to repeatedly uninstall the WiFi adapter driver and restart, each time resetting it to a previous driver version all the way down to 22.0.1.5. At this point, attempting to uninstall it appeared to remove it, but it came back with the same version on a reinstall. I installed 22.45.1.1 that you attached, and now connecting to 6 GHz works. (I am running Windows 11)

[gammafilter]

Just tried with the WiFi-22.150.0-Driver64-Win10-Win11.exe.  this didn't work. Maybe this is a "old compurter" problem.

However the old 22.24.1.1 drivers attached here do work! Thanks was the exact problem I was having.  with the 22.150 driver only saw 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz.  With old 22.24 drivers saw all 3.  

One interesting thing i experienced was if I set the preferred band to 6Ghz in the adapter config it doesn't connect to 6Ghz but switch to 5ghz.  Turning it back to "no preference" reconnected it to 6Ghz.  Note my 5Ghz and 6Ghz share the same SSID and pw.  I'm going to separate them to do some more playing...

Thanks again!

Gamma

Have a 4th Gen i5 on an old hp.  So can't upgrade to windows 11 yet cause no TMP.

Here's my specs:
OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise
Version 10.0.19044 Build 19044
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name xxxxxx
System Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
System Model 23-p027c
System Type x64-based PC
System SKU xxxxxx
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4570T CPU @ 2.90GHz, 2901 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date AMI 80.08, 3/4/2014
SMBIOS Version 2.8
Embedded Controller Version 255.255
BIOS Mode UEFI
BaseBoard Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
BaseBoard Product 2B0D
BaseBoard Version A01
Platform Role Desktop
Secure Boot State On
PCR7 Configuration Binding Not Possible
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "10.0.19041.1806"
User Name DOUBLE-TROUBLE\gamma
Time Zone Mountain Daylight Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 16.0 GB
Total Physical Memory 15.9 GB
Available Physical Memory 11.9 GB
Total Virtual Memory 18.3 GB
Available Virtual Memory 14.5 GB
Page File Space 2.38 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
Kernel DMA Protection Off
Virtualization-based security Not enabled
Device Encryption Support Reasons for failed automatic device encryption: TPM is not usable, PCR7 binding is not supported, Hardware Security Test Interface failed and device is not Modern Standby, Un-allowed DMA capable bus/device(s) detected, TPM is not usable
Hyper-V - VM Monitor Mode Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Second Level Address Translation Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Virtualization Enabled in Firmware No
Hyper-V - Data Execution Protection Yes

[Angst]

Same issue and same resolve as XenuIsWatching.

On my Win11Pro Lenovo Legion 7-16ACHg6 laptop, with an AX210 wifi card, I connect to 5G and 6G just fine.

But, on my Win10Pro Asus TUF A17 FA706IU laptop, running the same wifi card and most recent driver, I can only see 2.4G and 5G. After trying all above suggestions, sans XenulsWatching's solution, etc., I eventually rolled back driver to v. 2.45.1.1 and voila, 6G now appears and connects just fine.

I may dual boot the Asus laptop, adding Win11 and then see what happens with this driver issue. Be an interesting diagnostic.

I've attached results from Intel System Support Utility for those interested.

[Angst]

2nd Update:

Now WiFi 6G networks appear as they should running driver ver. 22.180.0.4 on Win11 Pro. Looks like this is a Win10 issue, at least on my Asus TUF A17.

Update to my previous post:

First, I don't see a link to edit my post for updating...am i missing something?

I've created a dual boot for Win11 and the latest Intel driver has the same issue as on Win10 for this machine; namely, no 6G networks appear. I'm guessing that, though haven't yet tried, rolling back to v. 2.45.1.1 of the AX210 Intel driver will all me to connect to my 6G band.

So, there's clearly something amiss with this laptop and Intel drivers. One would hope that updated drivers fix rather than create issues (but yeah, we all know that's not reality).

[dkirwan83]

Just confirmed on Win10 22H2 that this 100% works. I had to also detach the Ethernet cable so it wouldn't just try to grab latest again on its own!

[Alberto_R_Intel]

btegu, Thank you very much for letting us know those updates.

"I contacted Microsoft and Asus prior to Intel and they have yet to respond. Thank you for your prompt responses. I was hoping maybe you already just knew if it works on Windows 10.", it is better to check directly with them since there are regulations and customizations done to the computer and only they will be able to confirm about the availability of 6GHz networks.

"is there a download available for that older Win10 driver?:" "On the Intel support page for ax210 the driver drop down only goes back to 22.70.0" It is not recommended to install 3rd party drivers since it might risk the proper functionality of the system. All the drivers that we have available for the Intel® AX210 card are showing, as you mentioned, on our official website being version 22.70.0 the oldest one.

"Can you provide a direct link for 22.45.1.1 I could test?", I will check if the option to download that driver version is still available, as soon as I get any updates on this, I will post all the details on this thread.

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Alberto_R_Intel]

Hello btegu, I just received an update on this matter.

After reviewing the case, it is important to mention that the support of the band 6GHz relies on Operating System support, and was expected to have the support in Windows* 11. The previous version of the article was based on the information provided by Microsoft and other sources of information. The only drivers available are the ones listed in our Download Center and the latest ones are compatible with Windows* 11 and 10, we do not have Microsoft drivers for insider previews.

The driver 22.45.1.1 is not provided by Intel and is not listed on our website or our previous driver's versions. In this case, we recommend to verify if the OEM may provide the driver to make it work.

The steps provided in the link provided previously are the ones currently available and the workaround there are the steps we can provide at the moment. Please get in contact with Microsoft support for further assistance on this matter:

https://support.microsoft.com/

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[btegu]

OK thanks.

I obtained a copy of 22.45.1.1 and can confirm 6Ghz works just fine with it.  I see it is also signed by Microsoft.  It would seem MS is holding back 6Ghz on Win10 to promote Win11.   Not that it's unsupported, it's not allowed by the OS...

[Alberto_R_Intel]

btegu, You are very welcome, thank you very much for your response.

"I obtained a copy of 22.45.1.1 and can confirm 6Ghz works just fine with it. I see it is also signed by Microsoft. ", perfect, excellent, it is great to hear that you were able to get a copy of 22.45.1.1 and confirm 6Ghz works with no problem with it. 

"It would seem MS is holding back 6Ghz on Win10 to promote Win11", yes, that seems to be the case since the functionality of 6Ghz relies on the OS completely.

Any other inquiries, do not hesitate to contact us again.

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[n_scott_pearson]

If you are logged into the Communities site, there should be an Edit Reply button in the vertical ... on the right-hand side of the entry (mouse over for it to appear).

...S

[Angst]

Thanks for the response, n_scott_pearson

It's odd, but on my first post, dated 11-21-2022 12:21 PM, no Edit option appears, but on my second post, dated 11-24-2022 12:09 PM, it does. Sorry, should have stated that in the first place...

[AidanB]

I'd like to point out that the theory of Microsoft purposefully holding back 6 GHz support on Windows 10 in order to promote Windows 11 doesn't make any sense, given that it doesn't work on Windows 11 either.

How is it that 2 years after the launch of these Wi-Fi cards their flagship feature is still defunct? Being tied to an old driver version is a workaround not a solution, and even with 22.45.1.1 on Windows 11 it still usually refuses to connect via 6 GHz regardless of preferred band setting, even with a direct line of sight to a 6 GHz access point a few meters away.

[btegu]

I have no issues with 6GHz on Win11 or Linux, just Win10.  That old driver  published by Microsoft makes it work in Win10.  Intel is either unable or not allowed to include what ever that is in their driver I suspect.  So Microsoft can make 6Ghz work on Win10 as demonstrated by their driver but choose not too.

[AidanB]

It has never worked any better on Windows 11 for me than it does on Windows 10, regardless of driver version. No 6 GHz connectivity.