AMD WiFi6E RZ616 on my B650 AORUS ELITE AX (PCB Rev 1.0) not showing/detected on my PC

[ImWilly]

Greetings, community member of LMG.gg

 

I have build my PC last year on AM5 system, and I use B650 AORUS ELITE AX v1.0 and onboard Wi-Fi (AMD RZ616)

At first, it all works fine with no issue, but after some time, the Wi-Fi is not detected on my rig

I have searched online to solve it, and it turns out by doing "Power Flush" (remove all USB plug, turn off the PSU switch, press and hold the power button for +- 20 sec)

 

Although it "fix" the problem, it occurs after few days or a week

I do power flush to fix it when the Wi-Fi is not detected and I mainly use Ethernet as main internet source.

But after a year, I started to feel it's too much trouble and is there anyway to fix on the long term without replacing the Wi-Fi module?

Can someone share experience on using AMD RZ616 Wi-Fi on their rig?

 

P.S.

- I also notice that on the GIGABYTE AORUS website, their latest PCB version is using Intel AX210, so maybe not everyone that use the same board as mine will have the same problem

- I have updated my Motherboard's BIOS to the latest regularly since it's a rather new platform (AM5)

[Falcon1986]

On 2/29/2024 at 5:13 AM, ImWilly said:

At first, it all works fine with no issue, but after some time, the Wi-Fi is not detected on my rig

I have searched online to solve it, and it turns out by doing "Power Flush" (remove all USB plug, turn off the PSU switch, press and hold the power button for +- 20 sec)

That's a lot of work to get WiFi working again.

 

Does it not detect your WiFi network or does it not detect any network at all?

 

Does it "disappear" from Device Manager when WiFi disappears?

 

Do you have many peripherals plugged in? Is your PSU adequate for the hardware you have?

 

Can you boot into a Linux distro to see if it works fine there?

 

On 2/29/2024 at 5:13 AM, ImWilly said:

- I also notice that on the GIGABYTE AORUS website, their latest PCB version is using Intel AX210, so maybe not everyone that use the same board as mine will have the same problem

Probably for good reason. Googling the RZ616 shows that it's really a MediaTek wireless chip which, depending on where you look, has given problems.

[ImWilly]

On 3/10/2024 at 7:11 AM, Falcon1986 said:

That's a lot of work to get WiFi working again.

Yeah, it shouldn't really bother me since I rarely use it, but somehow I'm still bothered just because of motherboard have problematic Wi-Fi

 

On 3/10/2024 at 7:11 AM, Falcon1986 said:

Does it not detect your WiFi network or does it not detect any network at all?

Worse, it disappear from the "Quick setting" menu (bottom right desktop), and even though I have checked on the Network & Internet setting, the Wi-Fi option isn't clickable (or disappear, I forgot). If this happens again (most likely), I will send the screenshot

 

On 3/10/2024 at 7:11 AM, Falcon1986 said:

Does it "disappear" from Device Manager when WiFi disappears?

It's a bit hazy, but if my memory serves me right, it still shows in device manager, but with yellow warning, and no matter how I tried to update or disable/enable it, it doesn't fix it

 

On 3/10/2024 at 7:11 AM, Falcon1986 said:

Do you have many peripherals plugged in? Is your PSU adequate for the hardware you have?

Admittedly . . . yes (but not excessive)

I have standard mouse and keyboard, dongle for wireless numpad keyboard, audio interface for my microphone, and DAC & ampli combo for my headphone

My PSU is Seasonic GX-850 to power GPU RX 7900 XT, so it should be more than enough to power my entire rig

On 3/10/2024 at 7:11 AM, Falcon1986 said:

Can you boot into a Linux distro to see if it works fine there?

Sadly, I don't have Linux installed on my rig. But does it has advantage on troubleshooting compared to Windows?

I'm not used to Linux, so I'm still quite a newbie on Linux ecosystem

 

On 3/10/2024 at 7:11 AM, Falcon1986 said:

Probably for good reason. Googling the RZ616 shows that it's really a MediaTek wireless chip which, depending on where you look, has given problems.

Make sense. The worst of all, most mid to high end gaming motherboard (like the B650 Aorus Elite AX that I use) has unremovable Wi-Fi module, because it's located under heatsink (top left) that is also unremovable. Which means I'm stuck to the onboard Wi-Fi module, my other options is either buy Wi-Fi PCIe module or some cheap USB dongle.

[Falcon1986]

1 hour ago, ImWilly said:

It's a bit hazy, but if my memory serves me right, it still shows in device manager, but with yellow warning, and no matter how I tried to update or disable/enable it, it doesn't fix it

When this happens, look at the hardware properties to see what error message it generates. There's always a message if you're seeing a yellow [!].

 

2 hours ago, ImWilly said:

Sadly, I don't have Linux installed on my rig. But does it has advantage on troubleshooting compared to Windows?

I'm not used to Linux, so I'm still quite a newbie on Linux ecosystem

No need to install. Run live from USB. Ubuntu is popular.

 

If WiFi works (hopefully, there are supported drivers in the Linux kernel), then that might point to a Windows driver issue.

 

2 hours ago, ImWilly said:

The worst of all, most mid to high end gaming motherboard (like the B650 Aorus Elite AX that I use) has unremovable Wi-Fi module, because it's located under heatsink (top left) that is also unremovable. Which means I'm stuck to the onboard Wi-Fi module, my other options is either buy Wi-Fi PCIe module or some cheap USB dongle.

Wouldn't say it's unremovable. Probably more risk of damage if you tried. I've successfully removed the shroud on my MSI WiFi motherboard before to replace the M.2 WiFi adapter. Needed care, but I would understand your reluctance with an expensive board.

 

Honestly, you can go on to investigate this problem as much as possible. Time taken to get a conclusion might be more than just getting a PCIe replacement one time if it's annoying you that much. I'd avoid USB if there's a compatible slot available.

[ImWilly]

40 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

When this happens, look at the hardware properties to see what error message it generates. There's always a message if you're seeing a yellow [!].

Noted on that, will lookout on that when the problem occurs

 

41 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

No need to install. Run live from USB. Ubuntu is popular.

 

If WiFi works (hopefully, there are supported drivers in the Linux kernel), then that might point to a Windows driver issue.

That is super convenient. I do have some USB sticks around, so I will try it out

41 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

Wouldn't say it's unremovable. Probably more risk of damage if you tried. I've successfully removed the shroud on my MSI WiFi motherboard before to replace the M.2 WiFi adapter. Needed care, but I would understand your reluctance with an expensive board.

I tried to look at the manual from the official website and YouTube, it doesn't shows anything about removing the heatsink shroud, so I assume it's unremovable

Yeah, cause removing motherboard from the case is almost equivalent of dismantling entire rig 

But I will look for the guide on the MSI motherboard, maybe I will learn a thing or two from that

46 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

Time taken to get a conclusion might be more than just getting a PCIe replacement one time if it's annoying you that much. I'd avoid USB if there's a compatible slot available.

Yeah, at least I have good excuse to fill more or all PCIe slots now (if you know what I mean)