XPS 13 9370 Killer WiFi issues

I put one of the Killer 1535 cards in my Inspiron 15 7567 for testing and decided to keep it.  There had been reports of problems which seemed to lead back to an original Dell install.  Since my system did not have the Dell install, it operated fine.

Lately, I have seen the system dropping a network connection when trying to access some sites, even when changing from one Dell page to another.  But I am thinking it might be related to either a Dell driver or Win 10, or a combination of the two. 

There is a brand new driver for the Killer card which I have not yet installed.  But one thing I was wondering about, the Dell driver states it is for a Qualcomm QCA61x4A.  My original driver only showed a QCA61x4, so I will be checking to see if there is a difference between the Dell drivers and one directly from Killer.

When I install my new driver, I will download the new driver, then go offline and uninstall the Wifi device and all drivers.  If a Qualcomm driver is reinstalled, you still have a driver available, so I will uninstall again. 

I will post back in about an hour and describe how the process worked.

I finally got the new driver installed.  What a pain because of the way these drivers are being set up which makes them hard to uninstall. 

I can only suggest right now to start the install of the latest driver and let it uninstall first.  Then continue with the new install.  When you are finished, make sure and check the version number of the drive and confirm it is the one you installed.

I also went ahead and installed the Killer Suite which should not be required.  I have not had time to check the connectivity but if I continue to see problems, I will post back.

As far as I'm aware, the driver installed is the latest - 12.0.0.468 and I installed the latest Killer suite too.

I'll see if the replacement unit when it arrives is any better otherwise I'll ask for a refund.

I just don't get why Dell keep using Killer cards - a quick Google shows just how many people have problems with their cards and not just with Dell machines. Killer's website seems keen to blame manufacturers and/or Windows but it's odd that it's only their cards that seem to be problematic & that many users problems disappear when they replace it with an Intel card!

A new Intel device only costs around $29....  I originally got an Intel 3165 in this gaming system, but replaced it with first an 8265 then this Killer card.

My 9365 came with the Intel 8265 and it does seem to work fine.  But I have never really had the problems folks report.  Perhaps my not getting my 1535 from Dell had anything to do with that..

My wireless router has been getting numerous firmware upgrades over the last year.  Have you checked your router for such things...?

I suppose a couple of more observations.  I just finished a Netflix TV show and no network interruptions during the hour.

My Link Speed is showing 866/866 Mbps with the 1535.

If you install a new card, since it will be a completely new install, hardware and drivers, you would expect an improvement.  That improvement may not be just because of the different cards..

While you are waiting, you might go to Device Manger and check the properties for the card.  There is an Events tab which shows activity with drivers.  If you scroll down, you may see some driver or device constantly being removed and replaced or not able to install....  That info could give us an idea as to why the card was losing the connection.

Hi all.

So I have been receiving the same issue with my 9370. I spoke to Dell and they suggested I try the usual rubbish which didn't work. They agreed to send out an engineer to swap my wireless card from Killer to Intel wireless as "they are more reliable" according to the Dell Pro support agent. When the engineer arrived, he told me that the Killer wireless cards are actually build into the new motherboards now... which is absolutely ridiculous. So if you're out of warranty and the card goes, you've got an expensive bill because they replace the ram, cpu, all of it! 

The replacement motherboard didn't resolve my issue. The only 'fix' I have without restarting my computer, is enabling/disabling in Device Manager, however this again isn't ideal, nor probably quicker than restarting. 

Are these XPS systems coming with SmartByte installed?  I've seen that installed on some Inspiron systems and there are several threads here indicating that it was responsible for poor WiFi performance that was resolved as soon as the application and drivers were uninstalled.  If SmartByte isn't on that system, I agree that just buying a reliable Intel card like the 8265 is an option worth considering.  They're inexpensive, easy to install, and they just seem to work a lot better than Killer.  I much prefer Intel and Broadcom chips over Qualcomm/Atheros.  I realize it's not the most satisfying answer to be told you have to spend more money to replace hardware you already paid to buy, and I was disappointed when Dell switched the XPS line from Intel to Killer, but at the end of the day, comparing the cost of $30 on a WiFi card plus a few minutes of install time against the constant frustration of poor performance and dropouts, $30 plus a few minutes is probably less painful overall.

Meanwhile, Dell please consider switching back to Intel WiFi cards, or at least offering them as an option on XPS systems.

For my part, I would really like some info from your system regarding the card. What is its status, do IP addresses look normal for Wi-Fi with no 269 numbers.

Have you completely removed and reinstalled drivers? Any messages in the Device Manager, device properties, Events tab?

I suppose you saw this?

https://www.killernetworking.com/driver-downloads/kb/cat/3-wi-fi-bluetooth-troubleshooting#faq_59

Sorry, to make things clearer.

I have issues with the Killer Wireless 1435 adaptor. Dell Pro Support were going to upgrade it to a Intel Wireless card (as they have so many issues with Killer Wireless ones) however he didn't realise that they were built into the motherboards, and not a separate card. So my Killer 1435 got replaced by another Killer 1435 and still gets the same issue.

I was half expecting it to be just a dodgy adaptor, but apparently not!

An update on my situation .... firstly still waiting for my replacement XPS13 as the 1st replacement was 'lost' by the courier. 2nd replacement due on Tuesday although I don't hold out much hope it will be any different.

So, I'd been trying to resolve the wifi issues with my original unit. Nothing Dell suggested i try had any effect. I've been in correspondence with Killer who first asked me to remove the Killer control centre & drivers then to reinstall so that I had the latest driver. I've updated to latest BIOS too.

Killer also suggested setting wireless mode to 12 (Dell had reccomended 8) and also to rename the 2.4 & 5 Ghz channels seperately on my router (a BT Homehub 5). The theory was that as most of my other devices connect to 2.4, making the XPS connect to 5GHz (which is faster??) would prevent interference. All of this made no difference either.

However, I've since set the XPS to connect to 2.4 GHz only and so far this has improved performance to quite impressive levels. I've also noted the current channel is 6 - I think it was 11 before.

How long this improvement will continue, who knows but I'm convinced the Killer card is at fault. as stated by barks92, the XPS has the 1435 card which Dell also told me is soldered on to the board.

I notice that the Dell drivers and downloads page has an Intel driver too which suggests that some XPS13's do have an Intel card but I suspect this may be only in some regions ie not the UK. Looking at the drivers page I see there is a new killer 1435/1535 driver marked as urgent, dated 27 March. It shows as Version 1.5.1844 which I presume refers to the Killer Control Centre which on my XPS shows as 1.5.1847 ie newer.

All very confusing ...

I understand there are or will be 9370 versions with Intel wifi, for sale in the "For work" section of the Dell website. 

Regarding Killers, some 9560 users reported success after removing the driver thoroughly and replacing it with the "driver only" (no suite) version from the Killer site. The QCA radio inside is supposedly good. 

This is what is listed on the new driver for the Killer device..

Fixes & Enhancements