[SOLVED] PCIe wireless card keeps requiring reset in random intervals

[oddboxer]

First and foremost, I've got a custom-built PC with a Gigabyte B360M DS3H motherboard, running Windows 10 64-bit, and the PCIe card that I am using is the TP-Link TL-WN781ND v3. I bought it around 1 week ago. Our router is a TL-WR841N. The problem I am having happens randomly, sometimes every 3 minutes, sometimes every few hours, sometimes it doesn't even happen. The signal strength either goes from full bars to only one bar or I am just unable to access the internet. Whenever this happens, most of the other detected networks just disappear and a DNS client event with the ID 1014 appears in event viewer. I've done literally everything ranging from doing a network reset, removing IHVExtensions in the registry, changing wireless modes, setting DHCP to manual, resetting winsock among other things. When I try to reconnect to the network, a network diagnostics event appears in event viewer and the adapter gets automatically reset, and the internet works again. I would appreciate any help.

 

[oddboxer]

Bump, I'm constantly having this issue and it's really affecting my normal work schedule.

 

[bill001g]

These are hard ones because it is likely a driver issue or a hardware problem. There is not much you can configure on a wifi connection so there are few options to even try.

That event id could be simply that dns doesn't work because the connection is down. Kinda silly since everything else doesn't work either but it picks a DNS error. Sometimes though that is caused by IPv6 issues so I would diable IPv6 in your pc unless you have a very good reason to use it.

Since the nic card is new I would verify you have the newest driver from tplink or from the chipset vendor. It uses a atheros chipset but there are multiple hardware revisions of that card. Be careful windows 10 patches can replace drivers with crap ones from microsoft.

After that it sounds like a hardware issue. Almost sounds like the radio chip is failing since the signal level "bar" function is a pretty simple measure of signal strength.

 

[oddboxer]

I've disabled IPv6 but that hasn't resolved the issue. The driver is up to date, though the most recent one is from 2018. Also tried installing the drivers from Atheros but none of them work, only the one from TP-Link. The hardware version is V3, so I'm not really sure what chipset this card uses.

 

[bill001g]

https://www.ath-drivers.eu/atheros-wireless-drivers.html

I think you want ar9002 it is confusing on these chipset. It is strange a vendor sold you a version 3 card the current one is version 5 or 6. They moved to reltek chipsets almost 8 years ago.

If no other device in your house has this issue it almost has to be a defective nic card. Your only real options are drivers and if you have tried all you can get you may want to see if tplink will honor a warranty....assuming the card was sold as new since that is a old card.

 

[oddboxer]

AR9002 doesn't work either. Just getting the device cannot start error. (code 10)

 

[bill001g]

Not sure then the drivers from tplink likely are fine. Tplink is pretty good company when it comes to customer service.
This is why it is nice to have that as a option compared to buying some unknown brand nic directly from china and having drivers from the chipset manufacture not load.

 

[oddboxer]

I've just noticed something weird. The card specifications say that it supports b/g/n, however in device manager I can only see b/g when going into advanced settings.

 

[bill001g]

It even supports 2x2 mimo on 802.11n so that is very strange. Your router also supports that so you should see a 802.11n signal.

 

[oddboxer]

Okay, the n option has suddenly appeared in Device Manager along with a new wireless mode selection section. Here's a screenshot of the current advanced settings window

 

[oddboxer]

Bump number 2, this issue keeps happening.

 

[bill001g]

You may have a hardware failure and the only option is to buy a new card. This is much more likely if no other devices are having issues since that generally means your router and internet are not the cause.

I guess if you are desperate try to boot a USB linux image. It can run 100% from the USB and other than being a bit slow it should be fine. If it has issues on a different OS then it almost has to be a hardware issue. Maybe a pain to do this if the problem does not happen a lot.