PC Wi-Fi Issues

[ChrisLoudon]

Hi guys,

 

I have an old AsRock H97 board which for whatever reason won't hold onto a Wifi connection for longer than a few minutes.

 

It will connect and work for a minute or 2, drop then reconnect and do this perpetually.

 

See Windows event viewer log that looks like is pointing to a possible problem.

 

 

Strange thing is, its definitely the only PC on my network with the same name and I don't have anything running with static IPs so everything is DHCP.

 

Wired connection works perfectly on the same PC.

 

Fresh install of Win 10 / 11 doesn't help.

 

Might boot Ubuntu to see if that works but any ideas in the meantime?

 

Cheers

 

C

 

 

 

[emosun]

Use a different wifi adapter vs the stock one built into the board

[Falcon1986]

2 hours ago, ChrisLoudon said:

I have an old AsRock H97 board which for whatever reason won't hold onto a Wifi connection for longer than a few minutes.

Make and model of wireless adapter?

 

2 hours ago, ChrisLoudon said:

It will connect and work for a minute or 2, drop then reconnect and do this perpetually.

2 hours ago, ChrisLoudon said:

Wired connection works perfectly on the same PC.

Are you trying to use WiFi while connected to ethernet? What if you physically disconnect the ethernet cable and try connecting via WiFi?

[ChrisLoudon]

2 hours ago, Falcon1986 said:

Make and model of wireless adapter?

Its a Realtek 8821AE Wireless LAN 802.11ac PCI-E NIC

 

2 hours ago, Falcon1986 said:

Are you trying to use WiFi while connected to ethernet? What if you physically disconnect the ethernet cable and try connecting via WiFi?

Nope. I don't have it connected with CAT6 but do have a cable and switch nearby to test it with.

 

Booted the offending system a couple of mins ago to get the wifi nic model without a cable and was connected when logging into Windows but by the time I had opened device manager, it had dropped connection.

 

3 hours ago, emosun said:

Use a different wifi adapter vs the stock one built into the board

If its at fault then I'll need to get a USB one as the board is ITX and the PCIe slot is occupied with my GPU.

 

Just strange the the event log is reporting another PC on the network with the same name but there isn't.

 

Got quite a few PCs at home but all with different names and not all on at the same time.

[emosun]

16 minutes ago, ChrisLoudon said:

If its at fault then I'll need to get a USB one as the board is ITX and the PCIe slot is occupied with my GPU.

im using one right now , works fine. i'd advise getting a decent quality one as the super cheap ones might as well be broken from the factory

[Alex Atkin UK]

5 hours ago, ChrisLoudon said:

Its a Realtek 8821AE Wireless LAN 802.11ac PCI-E NIC

 

Nope. I don't have it connected with CAT6 but do have a cable and switch nearby to test it with.

 

Booted the offending system a couple of mins ago to get the wifi nic model without a cable and was connected when logging into Windows but by the time I had opened device manager, it had dropped connection.

 

If its at fault then I'll need to get a USB one as the board is ITX and the PCIe slot is occupied with my GPU.

 

Just strange the the event log is reporting another PC on the network with the same name but there isn't.

 

Got quite a few PCs at home but all with different names and not all on at the same time.

Not necessarily, you may be able to replace the Realtek with an Intel AX210 if its in an M.2 slot.  Unfortunately this is often hidden behind the IO shield so a little tricky to get at.

 

But if you have a cable and switch nearby, can you not just use that permanently?  Wired is always more reliable.

[Falcon1986]

6 hours ago, ChrisLoudon said:

Nope. I don't have it connected with CAT6 but do have a cable and switch nearby to test it with.

Then why not use ethernet?

[ChrisLoudon]

8 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

But if you have a cable and switch nearby, can you not just use that permanently?  Wired is always more reliable.

Yeh, could do. Its really just a troubleshooting thing. Got no idea why the event viewer is reporting another system on the network as having the same name.

 

8 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Not necessarily, you may be able to replace the Realtek with an Intel AX210 if its in an M.2 slot.  Unfortunately this is often hidden behind the IO shield so a little tricky to get at.

Actually, easier than that. The M.2 slot is smack bang in the middle of the board so very easy to get to.

 

 

I'm sure I've got a spare usb wifi adapter kicking around my box of goodies somewhere so will give that a bash first.

[Falcon1986]

4 hours ago, ChrisLoudon said:

Got no idea why the event viewer is reporting another system on the network as having the same name.

The fact that an ethernet connection doesn't give any problems suggests to me that your router shouldn't be ignored. Have you tried rebooting the router/AP to see if the problem fixes itself?

 

4 hours ago, ChrisLoudon said:

Actually, easier than that. The M.2 slot is smack bang in the middle of the board so very easy to get to.

 

 

I'm sure I've got a spare usb wifi adapter kicking around my box of goodies somewhere so will give that a bash first.

The connectors/contacts have to match. Also ensure the antenna cables are attached properly at both ends.

 

 

[ChrisLoudon]

1 hour ago, Falcon1986 said:

The fact that an ethernet connection doesn't give any problems suggests to me that your router shouldn't be ignored. Have you tried rebooting the router/AP to see if the problem fixes itself?

Yeh, that was the first thing I did.

 

Is it called an Arp Table? Kinda thought something had got stuck in something like that and causing a conflict.

 

1 hour ago, Falcon1986 said:

The connectors/contacts have to match. Also ensure the antenna cables are attached properly at both ends.

 

I think I'm gonna test it with a crappy old USB one that I'm sure I've got kicking around somewhere and assuming it fixes the problem, I'll buy something faster. If the problem persists then its square one but no great loss as the PC is rarely used and is next to a CAT6 cable anyway.

[Alex Atkin UK]

12 hours ago, ChrisLoudon said:

Yeh, could do. Its really just a troubleshooting thing. Got no idea why the event viewer is reporting another system on the network as having the same name.

 

Actually, easier than that. The M.2 slot is smack bang in the middle of the board so very easy to get to.

 

 

I'm sure I've got a spare usb wifi adapter kicking around my box of goodies somewhere so will give that a bash first.

Oh yeah I actually HAVE that board.  Drawback is its miniPCIe not M.2.

 

So you'd need a miniPCIe to M.2 adapter and new antennas to connect a newer card.  The mounting bracket probably wont fit then either, but honestly I ran mine for years as a NAS without it with a SATA card in that slot.

[Falcon1986]

6 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

So you'd need a miniPCIe to M.2 adapter and new antennas to connect a newer card.

Doesn't the Intel AX210 come in a half-mini PCIe form factor?

[Alex Atkin UK]

2 hours ago, Falcon1986 said:

Doesn't the Intel AX210 come in a half-mini PCIe form factor?

M.2 2230, M.2 1216, unless some Chinese company made an unofficial version.  I've never seen anything past WiFi 5 in miniPCIe.