[SOLVED] 5ghz Network wont show up on a TP Link 1200 Archer T4E wifi card

[Skitting]

I tried deinstalling and reinstalling the drivers (didnt work), i tried setting the Wireless Mode to 802.11ac/802.11n (didnt work). This wifi card supports up to 802.11ac
I also ran the command "netsh WLAN show drivers", these are the supported radiotypes

802.11n 802.11g 802.11b 802.11ac 802.11n 802.11a

Starting to lose hope, so if someone could help me it would be greatly appreciated

 

[bill001g]

I assume it shows up on other devices.

Can you see any 5g networks, like your neighbors but just not yours. If it does not see any you start to suspect a defective card. If it just does not see yours maybe change the channel on your router. It depends what country you live in, the laws on what channels you can use vary somewhat.
You can sometime get a mix of equipment for different countries. This is fairly uncommon in the EU or the USA it happens more in other smaller countries.

 

[Skitting]

I assume it shows up on other devices.

Can you see any 5g networks, like your neighbors but just not yours. If it does not see any you start to suspect a defective card. If it just does not see yours maybe change the channel on your router. It depends what country you live in, the laws on what channels you can use vary somewhat.
You can sometime get a mix of equipment for different countries. This is fairly uncommon in the EU or the USA it happens more in other smaller countries.

Yes, it shows up and im connected to it on my phone, on my laptop i can also connect to it just fine, just not on my PC. Checked the router website and flicked through every setting, its enabled and everything is working as it should be, we are on a 1/gbps Fibre plan, so high quality internet. I am resorting to a Ethernet cable right now but i would really really like this fixed

 

[bill001g]

More the question is can you see ANY 5g networks. Nowdays it would be rare to not see many neighbors wifi 5g networks. If you do not I would suspect the card is defective.

 

[Skitting]

More the question is can you see ANY 5g networks. Nowdays it would be rare to not see many neighbors wifi 5g networks. If you do not I would suspect the card is defective.

Our house is far away from the neighbours, so we dont even see any of their networks, just our ones

 

[bill001g]

Maybe set one of your cellphones to run as a hotspot.

If it sees other networks then you might have some really strange issue with windows somehow blocking it. It could also be that the card you have does not support the radio channels being used. Change the channel on your router to use one around 40

If it does not see any networks then it is more likely a hardware issue. There is almost nothing you can set in wifi. Many times you can not even force it to use 2.4 or 5g it all depends on what features the drivers have.

I would use try to use all default settings for the driver those tends to the most tolerant.

 

[Skitting]

Maybe set one of your cellphones to run as a hotspot.

If it sees other networks then you might have some really strange issue with windows somehow blocking it. It could also be that the card you have does not support the radio channels being used. Change the channel on your router to use one around 40

If it does not see any networks then it is more likely a hardware issue. There is almost nothing you can set in wifi. Many times you can not even force it to use 2.4 or 5g it all depends on what features the drivers have.

I would use try to use all default settings for the driver those tends to the most tolerant.

When i hotspot my 5ghz network to my PC, my pc says its connected to 2.4ghz network. My wifi card does support the radio signal from the 5ghz network and the drivers are all updated

 

[bill001g]

My guess is the card is somehow defective. On a router the 2.4 and 5g radios are separate chips so one can fail and the other work. On a end device there is only 1 chip and it switches radio bands. I do not know the details of how this works and if there are any parts that are only used for 5g that might have failed.

This is why you really want to try to get a different wifi signal that is on 5g to see if the card even sees it. For most people it is trivial since they likely have 10 neighbors routers they can see.

When you hotspot your phone be sure it has a very unique name for the 5g so you can tell the difference from the 2.4g.

The main goal here is to be really sure the card is defective before you spend money. I guess you could try a USB linux boot image that runs completely from the USB stick. If the linux works then it is some setting buried inside of windows causing it.

 

[Skitting]

My guess is the card is somehow defective. On a router the 2.4 and 5g radios are separate chips so one can fail and the other work. On a end device there is only 1 chip and it switches radio bands. I do not know the details of how this works and if there are any parts that are only used for 5g that might have failed.

This is why you really want to try to get a different wifi signal that is on 5g to see if the card even sees it. For most people it is trivial since they likely have 10 neighbors routers they can see.

When you hotspot your phone be sure it has a very unique name for the 5g so you can tell the difference from the 2.4g.

The main goal here is to be really sure the card is defective before you spend money. I guess you could try a USB linux boot image that runs completely from the USB stick. If the linux works then it is some setting buried inside of windows causing it.

Alright, thank you for the info. I will probably buy a new one, as its defect because it keeps disconnecting and reconnecting to wifi networks, and sometimes it doesnt even let me connect or says it has no internet when it does.

 

[bill001g]

I guess the good part is the cards are not real expensive and are fairly easy to swap compared to say a laptop. TPlink make pretty solid stuff so you do not see many failures.

 

[Skitting]

I guess the good part is the cards are not real expensive and are fairly easy to swap compared to say a laptop. TPlink make pretty solid stuff so you do not see many failures.

Update, good news (kind of since the card is already a little bit defect), the card is now randomly showing the 5ghz network! No clue why, as i havent done anything since the last time we talked. Really weird!

 

[Skitting]

I guess the good part is the cards are not real expensive and are fairly easy to swap compared to say a laptop. TPlink make pretty solid stuff so you do not see many failures.

Last question, would you happen to know any good and reliable wifi card? Budget is 50 USD

 

[bill001g]

You just got unlucky with that particular card. That brand/model is a very popular one. Something similar from other vendors will likely be about the same. The older technology is pretty stable.
The ones that have external antenna connected via short cables can be a little better because they move the antenna away from the case but it depends how much is being blocked on your current card.

If you want something newer you want to buy wifi6e and not wifi6. Wifi6 seems to have very little advantage in real world installs. Wifi6e solves the major issue with wifi6 of not enough bandwidth on the 5g radio and weather radar issues with the 6g radio band.
Unfortunately wifi6e is still kinda expensive, you would have to replace your router to have wifi6e also.

So your best option likely would be to buy a card similar to what you have now.