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XPS 15 9500, Killer WiFi weak
I have the XPS 15 9550 and it's been an excellent laptop in all facets other than one, the Killer WiFi. The WiFi was truly awful, the reception was so weak it made the laptop unusable. I had to use my work laptop if I was wasn't in the same room as my router. I ended up replacing it with an Intel card and it's improved my connectivity significantly. I can use my laptop in any room and receive a great signal
I was wondering why Dell decided to solder on the Killer card in the latest model?
Is it possible to request that they don't solder the card on so we can upgrade it ourselves?
Before I heard this, the decision on what my next laptop will be was already decided. Unfortunately I must now consider other options as the user experience is significantly impacted by the poor performing Killer card.
describee
117 Posts
0
June 6th, 2020 07:00
The Killer WiFi on the Dell XPS 9500 is based on the Intel WIFI AX201 chipset and as such should perform similarly. You can easily download the Killer uninstaller from their website and instead install the driver only package which will essentially be the same as an Intel AX201. And on a side note, Killer was acquired by Intel last week or so, so I guess moving forward there shouldn’t be any major difference between a Killer card and an Intel.
puredwige
2 Posts
0
June 15th, 2020 06:00
I can confirm that the Wifi performance is aweful on my brand new XPS 15 9500.
I was able to find the killer uninstaller at this address, https://support.killernetworking.com/download/killer-uninstaller/
However, I do not know where to find "the driver only package", and how to install it. Could someone point me in the correct direction?
Uninstalling the wifi card driver makes me a bit nervous, since I am afraid that this will render it unusable and cut me from the internet (given that there is no ethernet port on the computer)
dinosaur
9 Posts
0
November 30th, 2020 18:00
I think you had wrong information. Here it says that XPS 15 9500 can have only either Killer AX1650s or Killer AX500s DBS wireless module:
https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/xps-15-9500-laptop/xps-15-9500-setup-and-specifications/wireless-module?guid=guid-3d5c36ae-2dfa-4792-b7f0-70049f8b05e9&lang=en-us
mccainmw
67 Posts
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December 30th, 2020 15:00
I assume the hardware IDs between a 1650 and AX201 are still different enough where an Intel driver wouldn't work, correct?
fenrirjk
1 Message
0
July 20th, 2021 03:00
Also the wireless chipset is not yet fully supported on Linux.
I bought this wonderful machine because DELL XPS used to be well supported by Linux and nearly everything used to be replaceable (even wireless cards).
If this chip could be replaced, I could at least choose one which would work on Linux.
But right now I can't find a proper way to have a fully functional machine under Linux.
I am a bit disappointed and I am wondering if I shouldn't have bought a used DELL XPS or a ThinkPad instead ...
grinnan
3 Posts
0
May 3rd, 2023 03:00
Same here. I bought a Thinkpad X1 Carbonrecently and "oh man" was it nice to have a laptop that just works out of the box with linux