Brand new network adapter is slow, disconnects and freezes programs

[Abcdude]

2 weeks ago I built my family a new PC, using a network card I had in my old build. It was a Rosewill RNX-N250PCe, but right off the bat on a fresh install of windows 10, it would slow down, disconnect and even crash programs into a non responsive state when downloading anything.

Alright, I reinstalled the drivers and installed some more current ones, nothing changed. I thought it was just the adapter at this point, tried pulling it out and putting it back in, nothing changed.

So I just figured i'd buy a new one since it was old anyway. Got a TP Link TL-WN881ND. After the stress of losing that one in the mail and getting a replacement, I fully uninstall the last adapter driver, pop it in and bam.

Nothing.

Still crashing in chrome, disconnecting when more than two programs are going online. I just took the time to reset Windows 10 and yeah, nothing changed.

I'm so fed up with it and I don't know what to do. Should I just clean install Windows 10 if there's a deep driver screwing me over? It's using an OEM key as activation, which is what's keeping me from doing that. Would clean installing make the key invalid? Looking for anything to help at this point.

 

[Abcdude]

http://www.tp-link.com/us/win10compatibility.html This list seems to suggest otherwise, but I don't know.

 

[Abcdude]

From the box it says that it is V1. My concern is that whatever could be left over from the last adapter might be messing up this one. Is there anything other than the main network adapter that should be uninstalled, which I did before taking that out and replacing it with this?

I may just try plopping it into the second PCIe slot just to see if that changes anything.

 

[Abcdude]

Switched the card to a different PCIe slot and great, now its even worse. It simply gets barely half a bar of signal and wont even connect. To make things weirder, going to network adapters in device manager shows double a number 2 on both the ethernet and the wifi driver now.

I've never been more perplexed with hardware like this, is there a way I can fully remove all drivers installed on the system and reinstall windows?

I'll give wired a shot, my issue with that is our router and modem are placed on the other end of our home, i'll give it a shot anyway.