xps 15 killer wireless slow!!

I had a similar problem on my XPS13. Killer control center (switched this off so long I don't remember the exact name anymore:-) had enabled a smart function to manage bandwidth for different applications (goal is to optimise games). Once I switched that off everything worked normal.

Hello,

We would like to look into the wireless issue and the system crashes that are happening.

Do let us know if the what version of the BIOS is the computer currently on?

Has the computer been updated with the latest firmware and drivers?

I had this problem on an XPS 13 9300.  Finally figured out that the issue is due to the wireless card going into some sort of low power state when on battery.  Problem is, Microsoft has chosen to hide the wireless card power settings in the power plan.  I did a post two days ago (user - XPS9300VA) about how to fix this in the registry.  Once I fixed the power plan setting, the Killer WiFi has worked like a champ!

having same problem.  went through all the recommendations from killer web site   updated to latest bios, chipset  uninstalled (clean) and reinstalled drivers  removed killer control center  reinstalled dell's oem drivers  power reset modem and router  router dell sonicwall TZ 215  after all that initially got decent speed increases via N protocol but after short time it downgraded to g protocol which is slower  not losing connection just slow through wifi  ethernet seems to works fine through dongle.  I'm thinking a wifi 6 adapter may not play nice with older non wifi 6 routers.  any thoughts and help much appreciated!  oh and computer always plugged in so power safe issues, I think, should not be contributing to this  

Your a star XPS9300VA!!

I was ripping my hair out. Your tip works.

My Dell XPS 9500 was literally getting 1.5Mps on battery power in SpeedTest, plugged in the power and whoosh. . . 71Mps download!!. Its crazy!!

I just have to do your Registry hack next.

Another update. Sorry it was a false fix. Sorry, but its Rant Time! I have now literally spent the last 5 days trying to fix this issue! Spent 2hrs with Dell Technical Support who remote accessed my laptop trying to fix it. All efforts have failed. So save yourself the trouble. The issue is very simple. The Killer Networking AX1650s card or it’s drivers are simply and not fit for purpose! I have been all over every technical site including Killer Networking. I have used their uninstaller. I have installed and uninstalled every single Killer. Microsoft and Intel driver. It makes no difference. I’ve had an engineer out, to check the wifi antennae. No difference. Download speed can be anywhere from 1mbp!! (normal) to 120mbps (odd occasion)! Why did Dell build such a great laptop, then HARD MOUNT (i.e. solder) the card to the Motherboard so you can't replace it? Just Google ‘Dell XPS Killer Wifi card issues’ and your heart will drop. I had not option but to return the laptop for refund and I have to buy another make. I loved the laptop, but the unusable wifi was a deal breaker.

I got my new XPS 15 9500 on Wednesday and I've been fighting this issue ever since. Call me stupid, since my on my old XPS I actually disabled the Killer card and used an ugly USB WiFi dongle instead... And still I bought another XPS. 

Most of the time I'm seeing 2Mbit/s downlink and about 25 Mbit/s up. Compared to the HP Elitebook next to it with 150/150. My smartphone goes even higher than the HP... 

Somehow I actually thought that two years later any XPS issues would have been solved... 

My next step is probably contacting Dell and having them come here and pick up their useless €3.000 computer and give me a refund.

WARNING --  Changing the registry can break your machine if done wrong!!!  Do so at your own risk!

I had (sounds like) the same WiFi issues you are having.  I was able to "fix" it with a registry hack.  Go to this key Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\19cbb8fa-5279-450e-9fac-8a3d5fedd0c1 and create a value (if not there) Attributes with a DWORD value of 2.

Go a little further down, under the above key  to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\19cbb8fa-5279-450e-9fac-8a3d5fedd0c1\12bbebe6-58d6-4636-95bb-3217ef867c1a\DefaultPowerSchemeValues\381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e and add the same Attributes value here or set it to 2 if it's already there.  Under this key, change the DCSettingIndex to 0 (zero) to match the ACSettingIndex.

This makes the WiFi card use full power on battery under the Balanced Power Plan which is the default plan.

Also mentioned in my previous posts was to remove all the Killer software and use the Intel drivers instead.  The current version works fine.  Of course download the Intel drivers before removing the Killer stuff.     This did not fix the issue by itself but trust the Intel drivers more.

This Microsoft link talks about the issue.  I tried their "powercfg" settings command but could not get that to work but the article talks about the same registry keys,etc.  You may experience connectivity issues or performance issues when you connect a mobile PC that is running Windows to a wireless access point (microsoft.com)

This actually worked, thank you!

I have an old Latitude 7275 2-in-1 that I switched the original Intel card for Broadcom based Dell Wireless 1830 card, as experimenting with macOS. It's been working fine for over a year, but had to reinstall WIndows this weekend to clean things up and when restarted, Wifi was diabolical, incredibly slow and regular spikes and drops in Task Manager - Wifi pane.

I tried replacing drivers from Dell's website and a generic Broadcom driver, none of which made any difference.

I saw lots of reference to power management options, but these were unavailable in Device Manager, as Microsoft had disabled them (something to do with the Intel CPU chipset).

So finally came across this post, with actual steps on how to properly address the power management issues, and it works!

Why the **** can't Dell implement this fix in their software updates? It's a known bug it seems, just really difficult to find a decent solution without knowing the specifics of the problem.

Anyway thank you, you've stopped me wanting to punch a hole in the wall (literally).

Another update. Call me crazy, but I actually was offered a great deal on a Dell XPS 17. But after my experience with the Dell XPS 15 I was unsure if I should but it, Why? Because I came with the same Wifi card soldered on as the XPS 15!

Anyway, I took the plunge determined to test it like crazy over the first week, then send it back if it was rubbish like the XPS 15.

Well, right out of the box my new XPS 17 was truly rapid!! I’m mean 220MBits/sec rapid!! The slowest test I speed was 195MBits/sec on battery only. Also, I recently bought my wife an XPS 13 with the same Killer Wifi card and guess what, its also rapid. A stable 190Mbits/sec – 210Mbits/sec. (Note: both machines were running the latest Killer drivers.)

So what’s my conclusion? I can only conclude that the AX1650s card are actually good cards. My Dell XPS 17 after 2 months is still rock solid.

So if you’re still having poor Wifi performance and you have the latest drivers, you must have a hardware issue, because it doesn’t appear to be a software driver issue anymore.

So either :
(1) your wifi antennae is faulty, like mine on the original XPS 15 as the pin clips were bent as they are so tiny, they’re easily damaged if not put on perfectly first time (i.e. in the factory)
(2) You have a faulty wifi card.

Either way it will need an engineer. On my XPS 15 my motherboard was replaced, but not the antennae, so insist on getting BOTH changed and speed test speed before the engineer leaves. Good luck.

I have an DELL XPS 9500 and had the same issue. 

Below did NOT fix my issue..

1. registry hack (mentioned in this forum)

2. Turning off Killer settings

3. Updating Killer driver 

What really fixed was changing the 2GB wifi connection to use 5GB connection. 

Thank you.

Hello, how did you change the 2gb wifi connection to use 5gb connection? My wifi is so slow (currently 0.3mbs) I can hardly read is forum. But sometimes it is absolutely fine and runs @ 35mbs. Must be a software issue otherwise it would never work.

I assume you mean changing the router settings to only give a 5ghz signal rather than 2.4 and 5. I have done this and it seems to solve the issue.

My solution to the horrible killer network cards (for literally killing my laptop's network speeds) was to buy an Intel WiFi card (got the AX210 for about 18 euro from AliExpress). No issues and regular driver updates from Intel.

hi, have you solved this problem?