Set up a 4090 and it’s having issues with the onboard WiFi.
Set up a 4090 and it’s having issues with the onboard WiFi.
The most unusual occurrence is unfolding right now. I recently purchased a 4090 (Gainward Phantom) and installed it without any problems. Even with a high-quality Corsair 12VHPWR cable, I never faced issues. The 12700k works well and the 850W Corsair PSU is reliable. I can now enjoy 4K at 120fps! However, the MSI MAG Z690 TOMAHAWK WIFI DDR4 seems to cause problems, or at least the built-in Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz adapter does. Without making any changes—whether updating Windows (checked update history, nothing changed), installing additional drivers or software, or updating GPU drivers—I didn’t encounter any issues. The WiFi adapter now fails during gaming, especially when a download is running in the background. Here are the Eventlog entries during those problems: These errors never happened before according to the system log, at least as long as it caches events. But they began on the day the new GPU was installed. It’s clear. Now there are two situations that cause this error: “Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz: Has encountered an internal error and has failed.” 1. When launching or playing a game, I let a ping to 8.8.8.8—run in cmd to monitor my pings and overall connectivity. Everything works smoothly with normal pings. Then I start Cyberpunk 2077; even after loading a save file, the pings spike to thousands of ms, then drop, and after a short pause, errors appear in the log. This happens even when the GPU is throttled to around 170 watts. Once the error occurs, it doesn’t happen again during gameplay for a while. Exception: 2. Downloading. The same errors keep happening, blocking normal network connectivity if a download starts at the same time. Downloading alone without games running also causes issues, though less severe. It almost looks like a power problem, but coming from a 3080, I can lower the 4090’s power draw below that of the 3080 and still see errors. It seems the presence of the 4090 is the root cause. Could it be some kind of electrical interference? Honestly, I’m not a big fan of WiFi, but it worked perfectly for years without these problems. I found a post on the ACER forums (https://community.acer.com/en/discussion...f-the-time), but their solution didn’t help either. Updating Windows, installing or updating Wi-Fi drivers, deleting and re-adding them, updating my BIOS—nothing worked. The only real fix is to open Device Manager, select the Wi-Fi adapter, and narrow the 5GHz channel width to 20MHz. That’s just a temporary patch, as it significantly restricts my overall bandwidth. Not to mention, I didn’t have to do this before the 4090 was installed. I tried almost everything I could think of. Even unplugging all USB devices to see if they caused power issues (I use many USB devices) didn’t help. No display drops, no keyboard issues, and nothing else seems to cause problems while gaming. It’s clearly just the WiFi adapter being used, which has been in place since I bought this motherboard about a year ago. Memory is fine; I ran a memtest to confirm. CPU isn’t overclocked, and no other modifications are in place. With these Intel adapters, they usually come with Bluetooth, which is fine. No connection drops on the controller or keyboard. On the weekend, I’ll try putting the 3080 back in just to see if the issue persists (maybe the WiFi adapter or motherboard got affected). But this still doesn’t make much sense to me. Does anyone else think something’s wrong here?
Attempting this with the 3080 seems pointless. Altering the GPU won't help much. Those Wi-Fi cards are solid, not fragile. You'll need to force it really hard to break them or the connection. I’d consider swapping it quickly to check if it fixes things. If it works, who knows what other problems the 4090 might cause later.
It doesn't make sense. You might want to remove the 4090 and test with integrated graphics to check if the issue resolves.
It could stem from the recent Windows update. YEAH Microsoft! https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind...3cf0bc7331 From Microsoft - Avoid letting the title mislead Netwtw10. sys relates to the Intel Wi-Fi driver. 1. Apply the newest Windows patches. 2. Use the Windows troubleshooter. Navigate to Settings >> Update & Security > Troubleshoot >> Network Adapter >> Run the troubleshooter. 3. Upgrade or revert the Wi-Fi driver in Device Manager. Open Device Manager >> Select Network Adapters >> Right-click your Wi-Fi adapter >> Choose Update Driver. If the system confirms you have the latest driver, attempt to revert it. Right-click the adapter, go to Properties, click Driver tab, then select Roll back driver. 4. Disable the currently installed Wi-Fi driver and install a fresh one from the manufacturer's site.