Question Asus VivoBook wifi troubles

[TheAnimal220]

Hello everyone. First time posting about a problem that I'm having.

So my sister bought a new laptop (Asus VivoBook Flip TP510UA-E) a few months ago, and she's been complaining about her wifi dropping constantly when browsing. I've been searching and trying to fix it, but nothing I've done (or am able to do, my google-fu is decent but I'm definitely not an IT guy) has resolved the issue.

The wifi appears to have a connection at all times. No error notifications are ever shown and the network is always listed as connected and functioning properly. When browsing, however, often times pages will fail to load and report one of several errors (connection timed out, or cannot find server and maybe one or two others).

The weird thing is that she apparently did not have this problem when connected to a wifi network at her boyfriend's house, which makes matters much more confusing. At our own home network, her device is the only one having this problem out of several smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops. Her laptop is the only one that's having latency problems with pings around 15-20ms but constantly timing out... When I connect it to a hotspot on my mobile, the pings are 2-300ms on average but the connection itself never actually drops which confuses me even more. This thing does not have an ethernet port, which doesn't help either...

After doing a bunch of googling, it appears that many people with laptops of different brands that contain the same wifi network adapter as my sisters' (RealTek 8822be Wireless LAN 802.11ac PCI-E NIC) are complaining of a similar issue.

So far I've tried

-resetting router
-running the Wifi adapter troubleshooter, sometimes mentions Default Gateway Unavailable, and fixes it. Minutes later, the problem is back again and the troubleshooter shows the same error.
-updating and rolling back the wifi adapter drivers to several different versions, to no avail. (seems that individual reports mention that they found a fix with different drivers, I've tried 6 drivers and nothing works).
-turning off the power management feature that allows windows to disable/turn off the wifi adapter
-tried to get the windows and McAfee firewalls to not interfere with the browsers or internet connection --- probably going to go ahead and remove any McAfee stuff.

Seeing as it's a pretty new laptop, I'm not entirely comfortable with BIOS updates and the likes as I'm not sure if any of this would void warranty.

At this point I'd just say pack it and send it back, but I'm pretty sure they'll just do a windows re-install, install drivers and if the wifi works for a few minutes, ship it back to us. Plus the laptop will be gone for weeks and she does need it. I'm very tempted to just buy an Intel wifi card and cram it in (seems to be a permanent fix for all those who had the same problem and tried it), although that will probably screw the warranty...

I'm probably missing a bunch of potential problems, but I would appreciate any help.

Thank you.

EDIT: I can find a few more drivers on the Lenovo websites, but I are those compatible with Asus (or any other brand) laptops?

 

[backdoorluts9]

I would do hard reset and see what that does. Then if that doesn't work I mean you might as well go back and return it if you can. Where did you purchase this laptop ?

 

[TheAnimal220]

I just did a hard reset, did not solve the problem. Before I did that, I have also disabled the network adapter, used a USB wifi dongle thingy and it worked perfectly with zero problems all day. No loading or connectivity issues. I'm going to send it back to Asus.

The laptop was bought at MediaMarkt (netherlands). I'd rather send it directly to the manufacturer.

 

[backdoorluts9]

Yeah if you can still RMA it, then thats best. They should hook you up. be aware of the customer service though. It wont be spectacular... also it will take a long time.

 

[JoonieS]

I have the same NIC ("RealTek 8822be Wireless LAN 802.11ac PCI-E NIC") and have been having the same problems. My laptop is a Lenovo Legion Y530. As OP said this seems to be the network card's issue as before a recent Windows update (Driver Update by Windows 10 from Realtek on the 9th of June 2019), I've observed some WiFi instability (disconnect then reconnect) and more recently, outright unable to be detected. Nothing wrong with my networks either as other devices are connecting fine. Tried the same troubleshooting as OP did to identify the problem and so far 2 temporary solutions has worked for me:

1. Hard rebooting the laptop; by holding down the Power Button of my laptop for about 10 seconds then boot it up.
2. Reconnecting the pins on my NIC; involves opening up the laptop (which is fine on my device as it is built to be self customisable, not so for business/thin and light devices).

While it is working fine and all, this is not an ideal solution as it is too unreliable. Currently I've resorted to manually downloading and installing the latest drivers (not by Updating Drivers from Device Manager as the version updated is not the latest version).

Link to the thread discussing the NIC issue on Lenovo Y530 where I got the solution: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Gaming-Laptops/Legion-Y530-WiFi-Problems/m-p/4379817#M25529 .
Link to the driver: https://support.lenovo.com/my/en/downloads/ds503798

Disclaimer: This is not a verified solution as I am testing it out at the moment. I am just sharing what I've experienced and if this helps other users (of different laptop brands and models) then all the better as this issue is stressing me out on a device I just bought so I figured this would be the same for others.