UNSOLVED
15 R3, 5GHz wireless issue
I've had my Alienware 15R3 for about a week - everythings been working fine and then last night the laptop suddenyl refused to connect to my 5ghz wirless network even though nothing had changed. 2ghz worked fine, I tested with other laptops and phones on the 5ghz in the house and they connected fine. When trying to connect and enter the password it either said the password was incorrect (which I know it wasn't) or it just closed the wireless window as if crashing and then reopened it again seconds later.
After googling this issue I removed the Killer drivers and software and reinstalled with the latest from the Killer website. This didn't work at first but then after a couple more reboots the 5ghz started working again.
Annoyingly tonight the issue is back.. I know theres nothing wrong with my router or the password as all other devices are working fine. My router is an Asus RT-N66U with the latest firmware and I've tried changing channels etc.
I actually work in IT Support and I'm a bit stumped, my guess is the wireless card is faulty or the drivers are faulty. Any ideas anyone? Or has anyone had this and managed to fix it? It's really frustrating to have an issue like this so soon after buying a brand new laptop.
Thanks
Tim
P.S I can't login to the support section of the Dell website just keeps coming up with an error so asking here instead in the hope someone can help.
Have you went inside the device manager and then to the WiFi card and then clicked properties?
there should be a setting which allows frequency changes.
https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-manually-switch-to-5GHz-WiFi-on-Windows-10?share=1
*NOTE: I am NOT a Dell employee, But I am a Community Rockstar*Quick Tip: If your laptop has voltage / charging issues, try shutting it down, unplugging power from laptop, hold power button down for 30 seconds to do a full reset!
Well it’s just a program issue then because all a WiFi card does is provide WiFi.
The signals would automatically change when the signal gets too far away to 2.4Ghz but when it gets closer it becomes 5Ghz.
*NOTE: I am NOT a Dell employee, But I am a Community Rockstar*Quick Tip: If your laptop has voltage / charging issues, try shutting it down, unplugging power from laptop, hold power button down for 30 seconds to do a full reset!
It's extreeeeemely unlikely this is the router causing issues. Wifi communications are created to standard no matter what the type. IEEE 802.11. So no matter who provided your router they all fit in with the same standard. For reference mine was a BT Home Hub (5 I think).
A good test for anyone with the issue to rule this out in one hit would be go to a friends house and try there if they use a different router. But as I said I highly doubt this would be the cause, but stranger things have happened with IT!
So you didn’t use the device manager to manually disable 2.4Ghz and use the 5Ghz only?
*NOTE: I am NOT a Dell employee, But I am a Community Rockstar*Quick Tip: If your laptop has voltage / charging issues, try shutting it down, unplugging power from laptop, hold power button down for 30 seconds to do a full reset!
Thanks.
*NOTE: I am NOT a Dell employee, But I am a Community Rockstar*Quick Tip: If your laptop has voltage / charging issues, try shutting it down, unplugging power from laptop, hold power button down for 30 seconds to do a full reset!
But....
All a WiFi router does is provide WiFi to your house or building.The actual ISP provided the Internet to the WiFi router to provide internet to you.
Just like my poor grandma who thought that buying a WiFi router means you get WiFi as soon as you turn it on.
*NOTE: I am NOT a Dell employee, But I am a Community Rockstar*Quick Tip: If your laptop has voltage / charging issues, try shutting it down, unplugging power from laptop, hold power button down for 30 seconds to do a full reset!
5ghz has much more bandwidth available and is obviously preferred (unless distance is an issue for some in which case 2ghz might even be preferred).
A good laptop will switch between both frequencies based on connection quality. To ask customers to disable 5ghz entirely on a high end laptop rather than address the actual issue would be an extremely poor direction.
If the issues still exists for any customers then I think Dell need to get re-involved. Perhaps Dell should look at providing an alternative Wifi card if the issue can't be fixed.
Galootuk
9 Posts
2261
0
Posted March 27th, 2018 14:00
Quick update - tried with no security at all on the 5ghz network to rule out password issues and the laptop still refused to connect.
Then about an hour after having the issue it realllly oddly has now picked up the network with the same SSID but added the number 2 on the end of it and connected with the same password it was refusing to use previously.The number 2 on the SSID is only showing on the system tray wireless SSD, in the properties of the wireless network it has the correct name without the 2.
All the other devices in the houses are connected with the correct SSID without the extra 2 at the end.
Something is really wrong with this Killer driver I think.