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Dell XPS 13 9350 AWFUL WiFi connection. Broadcom 1820A Adapter
Hello, I am posting because I require assistance with a recent purchase of mine. Yesterday my Dell XPS 9350 arrived. I paid a significant amount of money for the system and as a result I am extremely unsatisfied with its performance. To put it simply, the wifi range on this thing ***. I get standard connection when within 10 meters of my router, but any further and the download speed crashes dramatically. In my room I can get virtually no connection and even my 5 year old Toshiba connects more reliably than my XPS.
I'm not really sure what the problem is. I've updated drivers, rolled them back, updated rolled them back etc. I will say that I had a very temporary fix for about 20 minutes. During this time I had rolled back to the old drivers for the very first time and my internet speed suddenly started matching that of my Toshiba. However I then closed my laptop for 10 minutes and when I opened it up again the problem was present once again - and this time fiddling with the drivers did nothing. I've tried restarts as well. One thing I will not be happy doing is opening up my laptop to check the wireless card etc. I'm not very technology literate and as a result I will not be doing anything that risks voiding my warranty. I doubt it's the antenna or any cables anyway as because I previously mentioned I did have ok connection for a very short amount of time.
At my router I'm receiving speeds of around 6.00 Mbps. This is the same on the Toshiba and XPS. When I take my laptop to any further than 10 meters, the XPS falls to 0-2 Mbps (yes that's right, sometimes 0.2, 0.3, 0.5 etc. Mbps), my Toshiba stays at about 5-6Mbps.
It's sad because I am happy with everything else on the laptop. However this one problem is a huge one and as a result will probably be a dealbreaker if not fixed, and I will have to return the laptop. I have seen quite a few other threads describing the same problem, however I am yet to find any of them resolved.
I hope you can help and I do not have to end up returning the system. Ironically, this was a scratch and dent refurb model, with the tiniest nick on the bottom shell (I was wondering why anyone would return it for such a small problem), maybe this was the real issue.
Thanks
andycas
16 Posts
0
March 24th, 2016 15:00
Just adding a +1 to this my machine is a month old Dell XPS 9350 i7, 16/512GB, BIOS is latest version 1.2.3. Network Driver latest version 1.555.0.0. (All other drivers fully up to date, so is Win10Pro)
I have tried on the following routers:
That's 5 different routers in 2 different countries and the result is the same every time. I am having trouble downloading surfing and watching videos online and everyone around me has no issues whatsoever! Pages will work fine than start to fail to load, videos will buffer and take ages to play and I am left rebooting or turning off/on the wireless to try and get a few minutes of use.
I am fed up of asking if others are having a problem with the wireless.
I went through some troubleshooting with a Dell tech who went through and confirmed all the drivers were indeed up to date, we ran the extended diagnostics for an hour and nothing was reported as wrong, but after the diag it was working so we agreed it might be fixed... it wasn't.
This needs to be sorted or it's going back next week.
Mr.McGibblets
4 Posts
1
March 27th, 2016 23:00
Found this thread when I noticed that "Dell Wireless 1820A 802.11ac" Wi-Fi card (driver version 1.2XX) on my new XPS 13 (9350, from the Dell Outlet) was having sluggish Wi-Fi performance even though my Asus AC-RT68U router (Firmware 3.0.0.4.378_8258) is in the very next room.
I ran Speedtest.net and was getting roughly 6Mbps down and 1.7 Mbps up (my service is 25/25Mbps), I also noticed that the connection to my router was a paltry 144Mbps (Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center > click Connections).
So I downloaded all the drivers and firmware available for everything (11 total), as well as the latest 1.2.3 BIOS which is slightly newer than the 1.2.3 BIOS I already had.
I rebooted Windows 10 after I installed each driver, including driver version 1.555 for the 1820A Wi-Fi card.
Now, everything seems to be running much more smoothly Wi-Fi wise.
Was getting 144Mbps connection to my router before, now getting 866.5Mbps.
Was getting on Speedtest.net 6Mbps down / 1.7 Mbps up, now getting 25.2Mbps down and 27.2 Mbps up,
Huge improvement so far. Hope this helps someone!
andycas
16 Posts
0
March 28th, 2016 14:00
Mr.McGibblets
4 Posts
0
March 28th, 2016 15:00
Well, when I went to "re-install" the 1.2.3 BIOS? It showed a list of currently installed features as well as a list of replacement features and the latter listed two more things.
I installed all of those drivers last night (I've had the XPS 13 for just 3 weeks). I'll keep an eye on it and see if the poor Wi-Fi returns. Will post my updates here.
jimti
1 Message
0
May 1st, 2016 04:00
My new XPS 13 9350 had similar wireless problems, with the Bluetooth connection to my wireless mouse so poor that it was unusable.. I was able to find an Intel AC-7265 wireless card on Amazon, and after swapping it for the stock Broadcom card I can now use my mouse on the desktop. The WiFi connection is still poor, but usable. I have to conclude that the antennas on this laptop are severely compromised.
danbier
1 Message
0
August 24th, 2016 07:00
I've been having trouble with my wifi too. I think it might have to do with your wifi energy saving policies. Try going into advanced power settings, and then make sure your wifi is set to "maximum performance."
On my computer, when on medium performance, my median ping to my router was ~2ms, but I'd have a ping of around 2000-3000 ms every so often, leading to a mean ping of ~500ms, or terrible. I think it's the performance setting, and will check again. Give it a shot. In contrast, my iphone has around 2ms mean ping.