Wifi keeps dropping periodically

[Leta-_-]

Copied this from my Reddit post to get more suggestions.

 

First, I would like to say sorry if I don't use correct terminology or miss something obvious; I'm pretty new to the PC space so I don't quite understand a few things.

I bought this MSI laptop around three months ago, and since week one, I've noticed some issues with wifi. Anytime I try to run a somewhat graphic intensive online game, my wifi will cut for 30 seconds, and will keep doing this in 15-30 minute intervals. It could be affecting other devices, but I have no solid evidence for this since the wifi comes back too quickly to test it. Naturally, I looked up how to fix this and talked with MSI support, and so far I have:

• unchecked the option for the wifi adapter to cut power to save battery life

• updated my drivers

• uninstalled and reinstall drivers

• Reset my BIOS to factory settings

• Reset the EC

Sadly, none of these option provided a solution, so I started to look on forums and found people with similar issues. A lot of people said they've been experiencing a Code 10 issue with their Intel AC 9560 (which is why I reset my BIOS), but I've never received that error. After looking a bit more, I found that it could be because of the Killer card? I don't really understand how it works, but people just say the killer cards cause a lot of issues.

I'm getting really annoyed since I paid $1,199, and I think it's reasonable to expect the product to actually function for that price.

My laptop is a ge63 raider rgb 8re:

• Intel 8th gen i7-8750H

• 16 GB of DDR4 memory

• GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5

• intel AC 9560 wifi card

• Killer E2500 Gigabit Ethernet Controller

I'm thinking of just switching out the Intel AC 9560 with this, since I saw this video and this video with similar issues. I wanted some opinions/suggests on what I should do, or how to fix this, thanks.

[.Apex.]

23 minutes ago, Leta-_- said:

I found that it could be because of the Killer card?

From watching the videos I believe they're talking about the Killer WiFi card, not the Killer Ethernet Controller that you have, but replacing the AC9560 card might be worth your while, I have no clue, don't have any experience with it

the AC8265 will work but I don't know if this is an issue with the laptop itself rather than the card

[.Apex.]

2 minutes ago, _Syn_ said:

the AC8265 will work

wait no, actually i'm not sure anymore

[xxWheixx]

Have you tried flushing your dns

[Leta-_-]

2 minutes ago, xxWheixx said:

Have you tried flushing your dns

Yeah I have and the problem is still there.

[Suppersupport]

have you updated your wifi cards drivers?

[tenfootgiant]

What's interesting is the situation in which it's happening.  Sounds possible that somehow it's getting a lot of heat to it and the chip is shutting down.

 

Couple quick questions:

Are the networks disappearing from the WiFi list?

Is your WiFi adapter changing to the Ethernet adapter icon?

Are you staying connected but losing internet?

In what way are you able to tell that you're getting disconnected? 

 

 

Depending on specifically how it's losing access / connection could help dictate what's wrong with it.   To test with other devices, if you have another computer you can pull open a Command Prompt and run:

ping google.com -t

This will give you a constant ping and when it drops you can check to see if it had packet loss during that time.  You can use ping apps on phones and tablets too.

[SPARTAN VI]

I'm expecting something interference related. In addition to the above questions.

1. What Wi-Fi band are you connected to? 2.4GHz or 5GHz? 
2. Do you have the same problem with both Wi-Fi bands?
3. Do you have the same problem with a hard-wired Ethernet connection?
4. What access point are you connecting to? E.g. What make/model router, or repeater, etc.
5. How far are you from your access point (e.g. router or repeater)? Does your experience change if you're nearer or farther from the access point?
6. Do you have line of sight on your router/repeater from wherever your laptop is?
7. Do you have any other wireless devices near your wireless acces point or your laptop? E.g. Appliances such as microwaves, cordless phones, wireless cameras.
8. Are you in a crowded commerical or residential neighborhood? If so, you may need to optimise your band and channel settings to mitigate interference from neighbors broadcasting their own Wi-Fi signals. We can do a deeper dive on this later.
9. Can you run a jitter test and post your results: http://www.dslreports.com/tools/pingtest

[Leta-_-]

On 7/1/2019 at 8:03 AM, tenfootgiant said:

What's interesting is the situation in which it's happening.  Sounds possible that somehow it's getting a lot of heat to it and the chip is shutting down.

 

Couple quick questions:

Are the networks disappearing from the WiFi list?

Is your WiFi adapter changing to the Ethernet adapter icon?

Are you staying connected but losing internet?

In what way are you able to tell that you're getting disconnected? 

 

 

Depending on specifically how it's losing access / connection could help dictate what's wrong with it.   To test with other devices, if you have another computer you can pull open a Command Prompt and run:

ping google.com -t

This will give you a constant ping and when it drops you can check to see if it had packet loss during that time.  You can use ping apps on phones and tablets too.

Sorry for the late reply;

 

None of my networks are disappearing from the WiFi list

My WiFi adapter is not changing to a Ethernet adapter icon

Yes, I am staying connected but losing internet

I'm able to tell I'm disconnect since it usually happens when playing games and I disconnect from a match, and when I try to open any website immediately after I disconnect, I receive a no internet connection error. All other application using internet such as Discord, also disconnect at the same time.

 

I did the google ping test another device, and when I disconnected on my laptop, no data packets were lost on the other device.

[Leta-_-]

On 7/1/2019 at 9:29 AM, SPARTAN VI said:

I'm expecting something interference related. In addition to the above questions.

1. What Wi-Fi band are you connected to? 2.4GHz or 5GHz? 
2. Do you have the same problem with both Wi-Fi bands?
3. Do you have the same problem with a hard-wired Ethernet connection?
4. What access point are you connecting to? E.g. What make/model router, or repeater, etc.
5. How far are you from your access point (e.g. router or repeater)? Does your experience change if you're nearer or farther from the access point?
6. Do you have line of sight on your router/repeater from wherever your laptop is?
7. Do you have any other wireless devices near your wireless acces point or your laptop? E.g. Appliances such as microwaves, cordless phones, wireless cameras.
8. Are you in a crowded commerical or residential neighborhood? If so, you may need to optimise your band and channel settings to mitigate interference from neighbors broadcasting their own Wi-Fi signals. We can do a deeper dive on this later.
9. Can you run a jitter test and post your results: http://www.dslreports.com/tools/pingtest

1. 5 GHz
2. Haven't tested it yet.
3. No, hard-wired Ethernet connection has no problems.
4. xFi Wireless Gateway (XB3)
5. I'm in the room directly above the access point, and experience doesn't seem to change depending on distance.
6. No, I don't have a line of sight to my router.
7. No other device besides my Bluetooth mouse and cell phone are near my laptop
8. Checked what WiFi band neighbors are using and they're all using 2.4GHz. Only one other neighbor and I are on 5GHz
9. jitter test results:

[Leta-_-]

On 6/30/2019 at 8:53 PM, _Syn_ said:

From watching the videos I believe they're talking about the Killer WiFi card, not the Killer Ethernet Controller that you have, but replacing the AC9560 card might be worth your while, I have no clue, don't have any experience with it

the AC8265 will work but I don't know if this is an issue with the laptop itself rather than the card

I'm pretty sure my system has the Killer doubleshot pro, so it's both Ethernet and WiFi. Idk if that changes anything.

[SPARTAN VI]

The jitter results look good, and the fact that you're not able to replicate the issue over a wired connection is helpful . I don't like the fact that you're using 5GHz through the floor as this band is ideal for short range and line-of-sight scenarios. I also don't expect your router/modem combo to have beamforming. However, since you're not reporting packet loss either, I can't really dwell on these environmental factors.

 

What I would suggest is to access your router/modem's settings and setup a static IP for your laptop. I'm unfamiliar with your hardware and firmware and I couldn't find instructions for your hardware to do this if it's even possible.

[.Apex.]

15 hours ago, Leta-_- said:

I'm pretty sure my system has the Killer doubleshot pro, so it's both Ethernet and WiFi. Idk if that changes anything.

That's only a driver feature, which seems to combine Killer Ethernet and Killer WiFi together, but since you don't have Killer WiFi, maybe that program is messing up your WiFi connection since it was intended originally for Killer WiFi, It's just a suggestion but I have no clue what's going on here, it's very difficult to pinpoint these kinds of problems since you don't have other hardware to switch around and test

I did find other things while searching on the web for AC9560 problems, and some people are having issues getting a stable connection on 5Ghz WiFi
Example:
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/9jeyer/intel_wirelessac_9560_cant_connect_to_80211n/

Found multiple posts like that, so another suggestion would be to try to connect to a 2.4Ghz connection instead? and a screenshot of your WiFi settings in your router would be helpful, but censor any IP addresses just to be safe, really not sure what people can do with them

most of the time you can get into your router settings by typing 192.168.1.1 into the URL, and the default login is "username: admin password: admin"

 

[tenfootgiant]

On 7/2/2019 at 6:19 PM, Leta-_- said:

Sorry for the late reply;

 

None of my networks are disappearing from the WiFi list

My WiFi adapter is not changing to a Ethernet adapter icon

Yes, I am staying connected but losing internet

I'm able to tell I'm disconnect since it usually happens when playing games and I disconnect from a match, and when I try to open any website immediately after I disconnect, I receive a no internet connection error. All other application using internet such as Discord, also disconnect at the same time.

 

I did the google ping test another device, and when I disconnected on my laptop, no data packets were lost on the other device.

Reading your other replies as well, if there's an issue on your Gateway, I could only assume if it's if it's happening to one band vs the other but this does seem to be related to the adapter, driver, or something within the device.

 

I actually work on those XB3s everyday, I do tech support for them for the last 3 years.  Ignore when they say 5ghz being line of site, I'm running off of 5ghz through a wall and a kitchen to a router in my living room. Sure interference exists, but unless you have a wireless subwoofer or something that actually pushes a lot of 5ghz signal near the gateway then you're fine. 5ghz isn't as good at 2.4ghz in range but so long as your RSSI readout isn't really beyond -75 dBm then you're likely just fine.  I've used 5ghz for years and when things are running correctly, line of site is not necessary.  I've not been able to hardwire in the last few places I've lived and 5ghz has done a really good job. 

 

I would suggest, if you have a decent phone that can setup tethering, do a 5ghz tether with a smartphone.  Try that for a day or two and if the issue is resolved, then look into a new WiFi adapter if it resolves. You could first attempt going to your device manager, going to network adapters then right clicking your wifi adapter, uninstall, go to action, scan for hardware changes, then reset your computer.  That'll do a reinstallation of the currently installed drivers.  Also, make sure you're not running any anti-viruses or software that's deeply tied into the computer in such a way because I've seen those cause intermittent issues with internet being disconnected.  If you want to rule out the gateway completely, they're pretty easy to setup.  Just know that factory resetting an XB3 or XB6 results in a captive portal setup requiring you to update the ssid/password before it will let you back online, wired or hardwired.  Last thing you could possibly try is pick up a cheap USB adapter, disable the internal and connect the new one.
 

As for using your IP to access the equipment per _Syn_ says, the default for an XB3 will be 10.0.0.1

Default login is admin

Default password is password

[Blackskies]

On 7/1/2019 at 8:33 PM, tenfootgiant said:

What's interesting is the situation in which it's happening.  Sounds possible that somehow it's getting a lot of heat to it and the chip is shutting down.

 

Couple quick questions:

Are the networks disappearing from the WiFi list?

Is your WiFi adapter changing to the Ethernet adapter icon?

Are you staying connected but losing internet?

In what way are you able to tell that you're getting disconnected? 

 

 

Depending on specifically how it's losing access / connection could help dictate what's wrong with it.   To test with other devices, if you have another computer you can pull open a Command Prompt and run:

ping google.com -t

This will give you a constant ping and when it drops you can check to see if it had packet loss during that time.  You can use ping apps on phones and tablets too.

I guess this what happened with my laptop (ROG Strix G531GT with Intel AC9560 Wireless card). while I am gaming when the laptop heats up (i never recorded my CPU temps though) this issue occurred multiple times (this is happening recently IDK why but guess because of an update). When my laptop is cool enough it is stable until the laptop heats up again