1 Rookie
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8726
May 14th, 2021 13:00
Very poor Wifi connection
Latitude E6420 Windows 7.
Today I found my laptop was getting very slow internet. I checked and rebooted the ONT, router and laptop with no improvement. All my other computers and devices and those of other household members had not lost speed, just my laptop.
Typically at 5 GHz Wifi the Laptop in my room gets
Ping 2 ms
Download 113.1 Mbps
Upload 19.3 Mbps
I now get
Ping 140 ms
Download 1.4 Mbps
Upload 15.6 Mbps
This leads me to believe the Wifi antenna in the laptop isn't working properly.
How can I diagnose this and fix it?
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TheOldyellr
1 Rookie
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35 Posts
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May 20th, 2021 06:00
The mystery is solved. My default browser is Firefox. I found that I got normal speed test results using Chrome. I have a lot of extensions and add-ons in Firefox and temporarily disabling them using Troubleshooting mode gave me normal speed tests.
JOcean
11 Legend
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12.6K Posts
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69.5K Points
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May 14th, 2021 13:00
Possibly an antenna connection as the Ping is very high. Have you moved the laptop farther away from the router? And have you installed any updates lately in which case Smartbyte may be installed on your laptop? Also run diagnostics (F12 immediately at bootup) to check the system for problems. Open up the system and have a look at the WiFi card to make sure it is secure and the antenna leads are secure. Information on accessing that here.
TheOldyellr
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May 14th, 2021 14:00
Thank you. I have the manual and will check that out. I'll also do a full virus scan before I shut down for the day.
AdrianG001
6 Operator
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4K Posts
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May 15th, 2021 03:00
Try...
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Power Options\Create a Power Plan
Select High performance.
Start, control panel, device manager. Click on Network and then right click on your wireless adapter, left click properties, power management. Uncheck the box, allow computer to turn off this device to save power.
While in the device manager, click on advanced. Look and see if this adapter has antenna diversity. If it does, try changing it from Auto to Aux. Make sure on Maximum power and can you tell me what other setting are listed under advanced.
TheOldyellr
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May 15th, 2021 07:00
I can't quite follow the above instructions, Windows 7.
However, I may try a USB antenna. What do you think?
ieee488
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May 15th, 2021 15:00
To rule out malware, I would connect with Ethernet cable and see whether the performance degrades or not.
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TheOldyellr
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35 Posts
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May 16th, 2021 07:00
I have ordered a USB Wifi antenna. Do I have to disable the network adapter in Control Panel before or after installing it, or does it matter?
ieee488
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May 16th, 2021 14:00
Disable the wifi adapter if you wish.
TheOldyellr
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35 Posts
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May 16th, 2021 15:00
I presume adding the new USB adapter with its own antenna will add an new network connection, so it doesn't matter if I disable the internal one or not? What about the Internet switch on the side of my laptop? will that still work?