Question Internet is bad on my pc but good on other devices, how do I fix it ?

Jul 30, 2022
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I've tried delete and updating the drivers, Pulling the part where the antennas are twisted in, troubleshooting i've tried turning on wireless capability ive tried a lot i was able to make it so i actually had internet it is full bars then it can go to very low. Can anyone tell me how to fix it or should I take it to someone?
 
Jul 30, 2022
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Try a cheap USB to Wi-Fi adapter to see if you get better connection.

It worked for me during the past decade.

The good : it's plug-and-play, windows already has all drivers you need.

The bad : you spend $5 for nothing.
Ill try to get one. I probably can't because I just bought a new psu and my mom doesn't like if I use her amazon account a lot (mine got locked out for some reason) its 3 bars right now! it was full 5 minutes ago!
 
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Be careful those really cheap USB devices are close to worthless. They have tiny antenna and low power transmitters. They are designed for portable devices that do not have wifi (do those still exist?). They favor small size and low battery use over performance. They also being so small almost fit inside the USB slot. There is lots of metal on a desktop case that blocks the signals. You always want to use a USB device on a extension cable to get it away from the machine.

There is not a lot you can change on wifi. Maybe turning your machine a bit might get you different signal levels. wifi is very strange in a house just close or opening a door in another room can change the signal levels. Other than that it is the standard try to use the other radio band 2.4 or 5.
You can look at changing the wifi channels being used on the router. Some pass through walls better in some houses. Some channels have more interference from neighbors.

If you think it is the antenna or the cable to the antenna you can get replacements for those but many times you can get a completely wifi pcie card for about the same price.
 
Jul 30, 2022
13
0
10
Be careful those really cheap USB devices are close to worthless. They have tiny antenna and low power transmitters. They are designed for portable devices that do not have wifi (do those still exist?). They favor small size and low battery use over performance. They also being so small almost fit inside the USB slot. There is lots of metal on a desktop case that blocks the signals. You always want to use a USB device on a extension cable to get it away from the machine.

There is not a lot you can change on wifi. Maybe turning your machine a bit might get you different signal levels. wifi is very strange in a house just close or opening a door in another room can change the signal levels. Other than that it is the standard try to use the other radio band 2.4 or 5.
You can look at changing the wifi channels being used on the router. Some pass through walls better in some houses. Some channels have more interference from neighbors.

If you think it is the antenna or the cable to the antenna you can get replacements for those but many times you can get a completely wifi pcie card for about the same price.
Do you know how to fix a wifi pcie card im pretty sure its the problem the antennas are very loose
 
It depends on the pcie card. There are some that have very fine wires that run between the main board and the antenna on the back. Some of these are using a very small plug/jack rather than being soldered. These can come off if you messed with them. Takes very good eyes to see them and small fingers to get them back in place. You can feel them snap on.

If you mean the external antenna fit loose to screw connections on the back of the card that generally is the antenna that is broken and not the card. You can't really fix the card. If you have any old equipment like a router you can try those all wifi is suppose to use the same antenna connector. Other wise you can buy inexpensive wifi antenna. Bigger ones do not make much difference so don't get fooled into spending more money. Key things would be RP-SMA (which all wifi device use) and about 5db.

If you are looking to replace the card I would look at a card using intel AX210. This is the newest wifi6e devices. They cost about the same as the older cards and allow you to run wifi6e when you get a router that can run it. Normally I don't recommend this so called "future" proofing but there is almost no difference in price between older technology and the newest.
 
Jul 30, 2022
13
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It depends on the pcie card. There are some that have very fine wires that run between the main board and the antenna on the back. Some of these are using a very small plug/jack rather than being soldered. These can come off if you messed with them. Takes very good eyes to see them and small fingers to get them back in place. You can feel them snap on.

If you mean the external antenna fit loose to screw connections on the back of the card that generally is the antenna that is broken and not the card. You can't really fix the card. If you have any old equipment like a router you can try those all wifi is suppose to use the same antenna connector. Other wise you can buy inexpensive wifi antenna. Bigger ones do not make much difference so don't get fooled into spending more money. Key things would be RP-SMA (which all wifi device use) and about 5db.

If you are looking to replace the card I would look at a card using intel AX210. This is the newest wifi6e devices. They cost about the same as the older cards and allow you to run wifi6e when you get a router that can run it. Normally I don't recommend this so called "future" proofing but there is almost no difference in price between older technology and the newest.
How do i check what Pcie i have?
 
After looking back at this thread you might not currently have a pcie card. What motherboard do you have it might have the wifi on the motherboard.
Most wifi built into motherboards has no internal wires just antenna connectors on the back. These are all standard so any antenna fit on them.

Most motherboards have PCIE slots you can insert a replacement card. The only thing that might prevent using a pcie wifi replacement card would be if you have a very small motherboard and the extra pcie slots are blocked by a large video card.
 
Jul 30, 2022
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After looking back at this thread you might not currently have a pcie card. What motherboard do you have it might have the wifi on the motherboard.
Most wifi built into motherboards has no internal wires just antenna connectors on the back. These are all standard so any antenna fit on them.

Most motherboards have PCIE slots you can insert a replacement card. The only thing that might prevent using a pcie wifi replacement card would be if you have a very small motherboard and the extra pcie slots are blocked by a large video card.
my thing that my attennas are connected to have wires and its in like a little slot
 
That could be a PCIE card it depends where the wires go. Although uncommon some motherboards have a chip on the motherboard and use a small mounting bracket to allow you to attach antenna.

If it is a PCIE card it should be fairly easily removed, likely 1 screw. You can sometime tell which card you have in windows settings. You likely can also get a photo of the board with your cell phone which should allow you increase the size of the print on the board.
 
Jul 30, 2022
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That could be a PCIE card it depends where the wires go. Although uncommon some motherboards have a chip on the motherboard and use a small mounting bracket to allow you to attach antenna.

If it is a PCIE card it should be fairly easily removed, likely 1 screw. You can sometime tell which card you have in windows settings. You likely can also get a photo of the board with your cell phone which should allow you increase the size of the print on the board.
Intel(R) dual band wireless-ac 3168
 
From what I can tell but I maybe wrong that device only comes as a M.2 card. This card could either be on your motherboard or be on a PCIE card that uses a adapter to convert the m.2 connector to a normal PCIE connector.

In both cases they use short wires to connect between the card and the antenna on the back.

So I would first look at the small antenna wires that connect to the wifi chip. These are extremely tiny. Mostly you are trying to see if they are loose or got detached. Do not pull on them but you should be able to tell if they are not connected. These connectors snap in place but are extremely tiny so it is hard if you have bigger hands.

I would still try replacing the external antenna first. These should screw on fairly firmly but they are designed to swivel.

So if none of this works you have a different option that getting a new PCIE card. If this wifi chip which uses what is called a M.2 connector is on your motherboard you should be able to remove it and replace it with another wifi card. If it is on a PCIE card rather than your motherboard you can replace just the M.2 but it tends to be simpler and about the same cost to just buy a new PCIE card already setup.

These are 2 examples of what I would replace it with. This is a newest intel chip using ax210 but they cost about the same as older technology.

These are purely example I found to show you want they look like, you need to do your own research as to if these are really a good option.

https://www.amazon.com/AX210NGW-Supports-Tri-Band-Antennas-Low-Profile/dp/B088NHCX46

This is a pcie card and unlike many of these you can actually see the m2 card that is mounted and the antenna connector. Many this is all covered. Again this is just a example for you to see what things look like and compare it to your current

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X462KRK
 
Jul 30, 2022
13
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10
From what I can tell but I maybe wrong that device only comes as a M.2 card. This card could either be on your motherboard or be on a PCIE card that uses a adapter to convert the m.2 connector to a normal PCIE connector.

In both cases they use short wires to connect between the card and the antenna on the back.

So I would first look at the small antenna wires that connect to the wifi chip. These are extremely tiny. Mostly you are trying to see if they are loose or got detached. Do not pull on them but you should be able to tell if they are not connected. These connectors snap in place but are extremely tiny so it is hard if you have bigger hands.

I would still try replacing the external antenna first. These should screw on fairly firmly but they are designed to swivel.

So if none of this works you have a different option that getting a new PCIE card. If this wifi chip which uses what is called a M.2 connector is on your motherboard you should be able to remove it and replace it with another wifi card. If it is on a PCIE card rather than your motherboard you can replace just the M.2 but it tends to be simpler and about the same cost to just buy a new PCIE card already setup.

These are 2 examples of what I would replace it with. This is a newest intel chip using ax210 but they cost about the same as older technology.

These are purely example I found to show you want they look like, you need to do your own research as to if these are really a good option.

https://www.amazon.com/AX210NGW-Supports-Tri-Band-Antennas-Low-Profile/dp/B088NHCX46

This is a pcie card and unlike many of these you can actually see the m2 card that is mounted and the antenna connector. Many this is all covered. Again this is just a example for you to see what things look like and compare it to your current

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X462KRK
Mine looks more like the second one. I tried fixing the pcie by unscrewing it in the back a week and it kinda worked i have 2 bars
 
Like almost any other kinda of electronics nobody really has the tools to replace bad components and that is if you can even figure out what is bad since there is no way to get the engineering information.

You have already done the 1 software things you can and check that you have the proper drivers.

You can check that the antenna are properly installed but after that you are better off just spending the $30 or so for a new card.
 
Jul 30, 2022
13
0
10
Like almost any other kinda of electronics nobody really has the tools to replace bad components and that is if you can even figure out what is bad since there is no way to get the engineering information.

You have already done the 1 software things you can and check that you have the proper drivers.

You can check that the antenna are properly installed but after that you are better off just spending the $30 or so for a new card.
Ill just buy a new one
 
Although I tend to never recommend buying the newest technology unless you can use it today I would still look at cards that use intel x210 (wifi6e). Unless you buy old crappy 802.11n cards you are going to pay about the same for the newest technology as the previous 2 generations. Not sure why that happened. You sometimes can find coupon discounts on amazon, I got a wifi6e card for $15 on one of their lightning sales. Then again its been months and I have not even bothered to take it out of the box since I don't have a wifi6e router and don't really need a wifi card.