Question Phone vs Laptop and PC WiFi Speeds Intel Card

[Bobby_44]

I have a Inspiron 3521 Laptop running Windows 10 V1809 that came with a 2.4 G wifi card. I upgraded the card to an Intel N7260 5G dual band with bluetooth.

Upon installing the card and using the Intel driver, I went fro 30 Mbps on 2.4G card to 60 Mbps on the N7260 5G. Great everything worked.

I checked the speed test off and on for almost a year and all was good.

A few nights ago I checked the speed again and I barely get 10 Mbps. I downloaded the latest drivers from Intel, no change. I talked to an Intel tech on their forum and he directed me to get the OEM driver from Dell.

When I check the speed on my phones and tablets I get 111 Mbps even checking at the same spots that the computers are located, the other computers on my network only get 60 Mbps on WiFi.

I have looked and there does not seem to be a driver for my 3521 laptop with a N7260 wifi card.

I am somewhat knowledgeable in computers, so I am not just stumbling around if trying to "do something".

I have been methodical in trying to figure out if it is a driver issue or if the card has failed.

Can someone recommend a Dell driver that will work on my 3521 laptop so that I can finish diagnosing my problem or make a recommendation that I haven't tried?

I have uninstalled drivers,deleted drivers and tried a couple Intel drivers for this card. The only other thing that I have not done is uninstall the drivers and delete them and remove the card and start from scratch. I have no clue what the original driver version that worked was

So I have 2 issues, 1) is the Intel card speed on my laptop and 2) the other computers on WiFi only get 60 Mbps compared to phones getting over 100Mbps at the same location.

Any help would be appreciated on these two issues.

 

[jsmithepa]

So almost from the get-go, your laptop is only getting ~60% of the speed compared to other devices, this is not good. Did you run a speed test on the original factory WIFI? always good to know your baseline before any upgrade.

So assuming you are using a Dell driver specifically labeled as for W10... am going to wild guess when u upgraded, the antenna leads where not properly and solidly re-plugged. Some have 1 antenna, others have 2.

 

[Bobby_44]

Both antennae are connected and the 5G card was getting around 50 Mbps upon install and was good for about a year. This was the same speed that I got on my other PC's on the network.

The original 2G card was getting about 25-30 on a 60Mbps service. My other 2G laptop was also getting 25-30 on the 60 Mbps service.

My laptop that now has the 5G card, is always in the same location. I never move it.

Upon installation of the Intel 5G card, I downloaded the driver from Intel using their detect and update which worked fine. I do not recall what that original version was since it was so long ago.

I decide to check the speed again a few days ago after Spectrum upgraded customers to 100-200 Mbps, depending on the customer. I am assuming we got the 100 since my phones are getting 100-112 Mbps using the Spectrum Speed Test.

That is when I found that I had an issue and again used the Intel detect and update.
I cannot find a Dell Driver for the combination of my Inspiron 3521 and the N7260 card. I see the driver for other Dell computers but not mine. I have not tried any of those drivers. Maybe I should.