wireless WiFi Connection Drops After Launching Any Game, Comes Back After Game Is Closed

[cududont]

I've been experiencing an odd problem after installing my new GPU (RX 570). Whenever I launch a game my WiFi connection goes from "Connected, Secured" to "Connected, No Internet" or loses the connection completely. Before I had my GPU and was using the iGPU, the same thing would occur if I plugged in a USB Device (Thumbdrive, etc), although games worked fine back then (at a much lower fps obviously). If I run the Windows Network Troubleshooter while a game is running in the background it fails to resolve the problem and says "Windows was unable to automatically detect this network's proxy settings".  I've also found that the same thing happens when running a GPU benchmark, for example Unigine Heaven

 

Another thing I find odd is that if I connect to my mobile hotspot, all of the problems disappear and everything works perfectly. This would lead me to believe it is a problem with my router-modem combo, however it works perfectly fine with every other device in the house.

 

Relevant Info:

•  My USB WiFi adapter is the DWA-171
•  Motherboard: Gigabyte B450M S2H (in case it matters) 
•  The network that I am connected to is 5GHz 
•  Due to circumstances, Ethernet is not an option 
•  I don't think it is a range/signal quality problem since it worked before I had my GPU.

 

What I've Tried:

•  Restart modem-router combo, both through the web interface and by unplugging it.
•  Re-install USB WiFi adapter drivers and my motherboards LAN drivers.
•  Uninstalling the USB WiFi adapter from Device Manager and re-installing it.
•  Doing a full network reset through the settings app.
•  ipconfig /release, ipconfig /renew
•  netsh winsock reset
•  netsh int ip reset
•  Different USB ports (USB 2 and 3)
•  Setting the WiFI Adapter to Max Performance in power options
•  Not allowing windows to turn off the WiFI adapter in power options
•  Using the whole D-link suite and connection manager.
•  Updating motherboard BIOS to the newest version (F50)
•  Re-installing Windows 10

 

I've pretty much narrowed it down to if my GPU is under load, my WiFi will drop out. 

 

[nick name]

Hello and welcome.   

 

Have you reviewed IRQ conflicts?

[nick name]

To check you go into Device Manager > The Device In Question > Resources Tab

[Falcon1986]

5 minutes ago, cududont said:

I've pretty much narrowed it down to if my GPU is under load, my WiFi will drop out. 

Sounds like your USB interface might become under-powered when your GPU starts drawing more power from the PCIe slot/PSU.

 

How many other USB devices do you have plugged in? Are any being used to power devices other than just for data transfers?

 

Have you tried reinstalling the motherboard’s chipset drivers?

[cududont]

53 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

Sounds like your USB interface might become under-powered when your GPU starts drawing more power from the PCIe slot/PSU.

 

How many other USB devices do you have plugged in? Are any being used to power devices other than just for data transfers?

 

Have you tried reinstalling the motherboard’s chipset drivers?

The only other USB devices I have plugged in are my mouse and keyboard. I have tried reinstalling MOBO Chipset drivers, still no luck. I was thinking about the under powered PSU thing too, however I have a 450W which is the recommended minimum for my GPU. This also wouldn't explain why it works perfectly when using a mobile hotspot.

[cududont]

50 minutes ago, nick name said:

To check you go into Device Manager > The Device In Question > Resources Tab

I'm sorry, where do I see the resources tab? It's not there when right clicking my network adapter or in it's properties menu.

[Quackwich]

1 minute ago, cududont said:

I'm sorry, where do I see the resources tab? It's not there when right clicking my network adapter or in it's properties menu.

Device Manager > Device > Right-click > Properties > Resources

[cududont]

1 minute ago, Quackwich said:

Device Manager > Device > Right-click > Properties > Resources

[Quackwich]

Just now, cududont said:

Hm, that's odd. Could you check the Realtek Gaming GbE Family Controller?

 

It sounds like the ports on your motherboard might be interfering with your network adapter, which is odd. What PSU do you have? It might not be sufficient for your GPU.

[nick name]

So it's a USB adapter?  Have you tried a different USB port?  

 

And you can check your GPU in Device Manager to see if it reports any conflicts.  Unless you want to hunt down whichever USB controller your WiFi adapter is plugged into.  

[cududont]

1 minute ago, Quackwich said:

Hm, that's odd. Could you check the Realtek Gaming GbE Family Controller?

 

It sounds like the ports on your motherboard might be interfering with your network adapter, which is odd. What PSU do you have? It might not be sufficient for your GPU.

 Aha, the Realtek Gaming GbE Family Controller has the resources tab:

I was starting to think that it's a PSU problem too, but once again, it works perfectly when I'm hot spotting 4G from my phone. 

[cududont]

1 minute ago, nick name said:

So it's a USB adapter?  Have you tried a different USB port?  

 

And you can check your GPU in Device Manager to see if it reports any conflicts.  Unless you want to hunt down whichever USB controller your WiFi adapter is plugged into.  

Yep it's a USB adapter, and yeah I've tried all the ports. My GPU reports no conflicts, and I looked through all the USB controllers, no conflicts there either.

[Quackwich]

1 minute ago, cududont said:

Yep it's a USB adapter, and yeah I've tried all the ports. My GPU reports no conflicts, and I looked through all the USB controllers, no conflicts there either.

Do you have another PC you can test that USB adapter on? It might be bad.

[nick name]

Hmmmm.  This probably won't help then, but you can go under View in Device Manager and select Resources By Type and then expand Interrupt Request and see if any flags show there.  You'll have to scroll down the list and look.   

[cududont]

12 minutes ago, nick name said:

Hmmmm.  This probably won't help then, but you can go under View in Device Manager and select Resources By Type and then expand Interrupt Request and see if any flags show there.  You'll have to scroll down the list and look.   

Doesn't look like there are any flags there:

[cududont]

14 minutes ago, Quackwich said:

Do you have another PC you can test that USB adapter on? It might be bad.

Seems to work perfectly fine on my laptop, even getting slightly faster speeds than on my desktop. 

[cududont]

Also, since it might be related, here's my USB settings. 

[cududont]

I found the problem, turns out the EMFs generated by my GPU when it is under load were enough to interfere with 5GHz WiFi signal coming from my router. I simply got a USB cable extension and placed the USB WiFi adapter around 2m away from my PC, everything works perfectly now.