Question Dell XPS 15 - 9575 Laptop with Killer WiFi 1435: WiFi speeds are half what they should be ?

[sean.thankscr]

So I've had this laptop for a few years now, I don't see a need for me to upgrade/buy a new laptop as it still does what I need it to.
The problem is that from time to time the Killer Wifi 1435 wifi chip would halve my internet speeds.
It's been constantly halving the wifi speed for about a month now.

My home internet on any of my other devices, Smarthphones (iPhone 8, LG V60, Xperia 1) and my other laptops (VAIO svf15N1A1J, ACER alpha swift 12) all had a download speed of 45mb/s (around 350mbps) but only on this laptop with the killer wifi chip I only get about halve of that. I have tried updating the Drivers, the killer software, the bios the windows updates, even upgrading to windows 11 to no avail.

After I change any wifi setting say the MTU or the driver things whe I first download I can get 45mb/s for about 2 seconds before it throttles down to 18-31mb/s (not really stable goes up and down).

How is my 13 year old VAIO doing better than this, is it perhaps the killer wifi chip?? Is it a Windows 10 2004 issue? I recall not having this issue on the 1906 windows 10 build I used to run on this laptop....

Right now I have disabled all the Killer wifi drivers and software from services and startup, but there might be hard coded "optimizing" setting that I don't know how to remove....

Oh and in speed test the upload is getting the full speed
Download Mbps
272.58
Upload Mbps
353.67

 

[Lutfij]

the bioe the windos updates, even upgrading to windows 11 to no avail.
Did you get to Windows 11 using the internal upgrade process? If you did you should reinstall the OS. Atheros/Qualcomm/Killer's WiFi and NIC adapters were all affected when Windows 10 rolled up. The issue was resolved by updating the BIOS and manually installing either the latest drivers for the networking adapter or installing the driver(meant for an older OS) in compatibility mode;
i.e, Right click installer>Properties>Compatibility mode>Windows 7/8(from the drop down menu).

Is it a Windows 10 2004 issue?
Windows 10 is now on 22H2, if you're on 1906, the OS needs updating and then installing the driver in compatibility mode, if there are no drivers after Windows 10's release date.

 

[sean.thankscr]

the bioe the windos updates, even upgrading to windows 11 to no avail.
Did you get to Windows 11 using the internal upgrade process? If you did you should reinstall the OS. Atheros/Qualcomm/Killer's WiFi and NIC adapters were all affected when Windows 10 rolled up. The issue was resolved by updating the BIOS and manually installing either the latest drivers for the networking adapter or installing the driver(meant for an older OS) in compatibility mode;
i.e, Right click installer>Properties>Compatibility mode>Windows 7/8(from the drop down menu).

Is it a Windows 10 2004 issue?
Windows 10 is now on 22H2, if you're on 1906, the OS needs updating and then installing the driver in compatibility mode, if there are no drivers after Windows 10's release date.

I tried with internal upgrade process and with clean os reinstall (Both Windows 10 and 11). I have downgraded the Bios back to factory to enable undervolting.

 

[bill001g]

Whenever I used to see "killer" network stuff that product used to automatically go into my do not buy list. They had a long history of issue with ethernet drivers. They put stupid "gamer" qos stuff in the actual drivers and you had to load special drivers to totally get rid of it. This so called gamer software causes all kinds of strange problem....even the newer tpe that asus includes with its video cards and motherboards.

I suspect I was not the only one with them on a do not buy list. They were doing poorly and intel purchased them.

Not sure what intel does with them now or what it means when you see killer. I don't think intel sells the crap that the old killer company used to.

My guess would be the card for whatever reason is thinking it is getting too many errors and dropping to a slower wifi speed. Can be as simple as the antenna are being slightly blocked and a different location will work better. It also could be the card is defective in some way and heat is causing a issue.

You might consider a new wifi nic. You can get a intel based ax210 for under $30 that can run wifi6e. All depends on how hard it is to disassemble the laptop. Some it is simple others are quite a project.

 

[sean.thankscr]

Whenever I used to see "killer" network stuff that product used to automatically go into my do not buy list. They had a long history of issue with ethernet drivers. They put stupid "gamer" qos stuff in the actual drivers and you had to load special drivers to totally get rid of it. This so called gamer software causes all kinds of strange problem....even the newer tpe that asus includes with its video cards and motherboards.

I suspect I was not the only one with them on a do not buy list. They were doing poorly and intel purchased them.

Not sure what intel does with them now or what it means when you see killer. I don't think intel sells the crap that the old killer company used to.

My guess would be the card for whatever reason is thinking it is getting too many errors and dropping to a slower wifi speed. Can be as simple as the antenna are being slightly blocked and a different location will work better. It also could be the card is defective in some way and heat is causing a issue.

You might consider a new wifi nic. You can get a intel based ax210 for under $30 that can run wifi6e. All depends on how hard it is to disassemble the laptop. Some it is simple others are quite a project.

Disassembling the laptop's easy, the wifi chip is soldered on to a daughter board tho

 

[sean.thankscr]

the bioe the windos updates, even upgrading to windows 11 to no avail.
Did you get to Windows 11 using the internal upgrade process? If you did you should reinstall the OS. Atheros/Qualcomm/Killer's WiFi and NIC adapters were all affected when Windows 10 rolled up. The issue was resolved by updating the BIOS and manually installing either the latest drivers for the networking adapter or installing the driver(meant for an older OS) in compatibility mode;
i.e, Right click installer>Properties>Compatibility mode>Windows 7/8(from the drop down menu).

Is it a Windows 10 2004 issue?
Windows 10 is now on 22H2, if you're on 1906, the OS needs updating and then installing the driver in compatibility mode, if there are no drivers after Windows 10's release date.

No, back when I was on 1906 everything was good, now that I'm on the latest 20h2 and it's prompting me to update to Windows 11 (Blocking it through Group Policy Editor).

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

The problem is

Hey there,

The problem is likely caused by the dated OS. Running the OS from over 4 years ago, alongside new drivers, is a recipe for stuff to go wrong.

Without actually updating the OS to it's most up to date form, for us, it's like finding a needle in a haystack to diagnose what the true issue may be.

Same for bios.

Getting a fresh OS, up to date, along with all updated drivers (specially chipset) will give you at least a baseline to work from. Installing/Uninstalling/Rolling back and forth is not a good way to diagnose.

20h2

This is not the latest.

Also, when the laptop is connected by ethernet, are the results the same? If when connected by ethernet, the speeds are as expected, then it's possible it's to do with the layout of your house, or the number of devices connected on either 2.4g or 5g connections. 5g are obviously faster (but with smaller coverage), and 2.4g are slower with better coverage.

 

[sean.thankscr]

Hey there,

The problem is likely caused by the dated OS. Running the OS from over 4 years ago, alongside new drivers, is a recipe for stuff to go wrong.

Without actually updating the OS to it's most up to date form, for us, it's like finding a needle in a haystack to diagnose what the true issue may be.

Same for bios.

Getting a fresh OS, up to date, along with all updated drivers (specially chipset) will give you at least a baseline to work from. Installing/Uninstalling/Rolling back and forth is not a good way to diagnose.


This is not the latest.

Also, when the laptop is connected by ethernet, are the results the same? If when connected by ethernet, the speeds are as expected, then it's possible it's to do with the layout of your house, or the number of devices connected on either 2.4g or 5g connections. 5g are obviously faster (but with smaller coverage), and 2.4g are slower with better coverage.

I'm sorry I meant 22h2, um yes on ethernet it's full speed, but on my other laptops I don't have this issue

 

[bill001g]

Maybe try a usb wifi card they are not real expensive.... don't buy those really tiny ones.

If this works it is likely you wifi card is defective.

 

[sean.thankscr]

So I just tried changing my SSD to a backup close to vanilla Oem that I had, when I boot it up it was working flawlessly, 45mb/s download speeds for about an hour, then windows update ran in the bg, and now it's back to the 20-31mb/s speed...

With a different ssd I'm going to try downgrading back to 1909 to see if that'll fix it for me, prolly tomorrow evening after work hours..

 

[bill001g]

There is a option buried somewhere deep in windows to tell it not update drivers. That does not mean some change to windows might still affect it.

 

[lantis3]

How to Disable Automatic Driver Updates Windows 10 (3 Ways)

https://www.minitool.com/news/disable-automatic-driver-updates-win-10-009.html