PCIe WiFi cards experience reduced performance until the device is turned off and then restarted in Device Manager.
PCIe WiFi cards experience reduced performance until the device is turned off and then restarted in Device Manager.
Hi, I see you're experiencing some unusual behavior with your new budget PC setup. Let me try to help you understand what might be going on. It sounds like you switched from a USB WiFi dongle to a PCIe WiFi card, which you found more affordable. You ran a speed test right after installation and saw better results than expected, but then the speeds dropped significantly when you disabled and re-enabled the wireless card in Device Manager.
It’s possible that the connection stability depends on how the system is configured or if there are interference issues. Since the speeds fluctered so much, it might be worth checking the physical placement of the card, ensuring it’s not near other electronic devices, and verifying that the cable is secure. Also, try connecting via Ethernet instead of Wi-Fi to see if that stabilizes the connection. If you’re still unsure, let me know more details about your setup and I can suggest further troubleshooting steps.
Drivers on a low-cost WiFi chip? It seems you don’t need top-tier speed. You can safely ignore it if you’re okay with slower performance. Identifying the chip could help you install the latest drivers from the manufacturer, which might improve things. Placing antennas inside a metal enclosure is likely to cause inconsistent results unless your router is positioned in a different room.
Thank you for your feedback. I noticed the tests reference an Intel 7265, so I fetched the drivers from Intel's site. Unfortunately, the screenshots from the speed tests came later after that. I understand it’s not ideal to have to wait, especially since the device restarts quickly in Device Manager. I can skip it if needed—it’s just bothersome when it seems to jump over 100 up and down. I’m okay with getting something close to the 100 I see on my phone from the same spot. Anything better than the USB dongle would be great, as it’s not a big deal. It’s frustrating seeing what this machine can actually do.
If antenna positioning matters, rotating the PC to test its impact isn’t practical. Your phone isn’t obstructing the signal directly in front of it. Most of my connected devices have antennas positioned above the PC to prevent this problem. You can usually find them inexpensively on eBay from sellers who installed them with their motherboards but didn’t use WiFi. These components are crucial for Bluetooth connectivity, which has a limited range. I’ve swapped all my WiFi adapters for Intel AX200 units; if I needed higher performance, I’d choose the AX210 since it works better even on WiFi 5. Since everything is hardwired for me, I seldom rely on WiFi for fixed devices and prefer Bluetooth instead.
This seems to be a situation where connectivity options have changed. We previously had Ethernet connections, but now we're using fiber and have switched ISPs. The router and related equipment are in a new location, making Ethernet unavailable because we can't run cables through walls. We also tried powerline adapters, which didn't work well—only the higher speed ones helped, but even then it was affected by being on an extension cord rather than the actual device.
It seems you might have accidentally changed your device settings between the 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands during testing. That could explain the sudden high speeds.