Slow WiFi and no 2.4GHz on Gateway laptop after Win10 upgrade

[Nitrousbird]

My mother-in-law's 5-6 year old Gateway laptop was running Win 7, was super slow and needed reinstalled as new. Since I was going to do that, I decided to install a SSD drive and Win 10.

Everything installed easily, no issues at all and seemed to be working fine. After using it, she noticed the internet connection was slow. A test with my Surface (which runs Win 10) and my S7 Edge phone showed I was pulling 140Mbps down/60Mbps up. Her laptop was pulling a whopping 1-3 Mbps down and around 6 Mbps up. Downloads are also very slow, so it is not an issue with the laptop running a speed test.

I also noticed that the 2.4GHz is not showing up on her laptop. It will only connect to the 5GHz network, with link speeds varying from 5.5Mbps to 110Mbps, though the link speed doesn't seem to impact the internet speed.

Broadcom wireless chip. Newest drivers on Gateway's site are for Win7; I tried those and the wireless performance was worse than what Win10 installed.

Any ideas? I'd rather not buy a USB-to-wireless device for it, especially since she never complained of slow internet previously (just the whole setup being slow, random crashes, etc.). I have not messed with the router yet (she switched to Bell FibreOp about 9 months ago, looks like it uses an integrated modem/router). No other devices in the house are having an issue.

 

[neieus]

You mentioned that the laptop is 5-6 years old. It's possible that your upgrade to windows 10 you no longer have the best drivers installed. You could check Gateways site and see if they have a driver update for windows 10 otherwise installing a USB adapter might be your only option.

 

[corroded]

Try the simple first...

{Device Manager - Right click Start, Select Device Manager}

Open the Device Manager / Network Adapters / WiFi device

Right click on it and uninstall, do NOT select delete drivers, restart and let it "find" the adapter and install it.

Now connect and test...? Anything better?

 

[Nitrousbird]

You mentioned that the laptop is 5-6 years old. It's possible that your upgrade to windows 10 you no longer have the best drivers installed. You could check Gateways site and see if they have a driver update for windows 10 otherwise installing a USB adapter might be your only option.

As I stated in my original e-mail, I already checked Gateway's website and their newest drivers are for Windows 7. I tried them and they were worse than the Windows 10 drivers.

Try the simple first...
{Device Manager - Right click Start, Select Device Manager}

Open the Device Manager / Network Adapters / WiFi device

Right click on it and uninstall, do NOT select delete drivers, restart and let it "find" the adapter and install it.

Now connect and test...? Anything better?

I already did that. Both as a delete/reinstall and the method you mentioned. Made no difference.

 

[Nitrousbird]

I also just updated the BIOS (model NV55C). Went from 1.15 to the latest 1.30. BIOS took without issue. Also checked all the BIOS settings but there is almost nothing in there you can tweak.

Oddly, after the firmware update, I was getting 40Mbps up/down and confirmed it with a quick download of a 60Mbps file. Did another reboot and back to slowness. Same 5GHz network it is connecting to. Still can't see the 2.4GHz network.

 

[Corwin65]

Without drivers you'll have to go with the option you didn't want - USB Adapter

 

[neieus]

Without drivers you'll have to go with the option you didn't want - USB Adapter

Yep!

Using a USB adapter isn't that bad or if the laptop has a port you could use a wifi card... do they still even make wifi cards?

 

[Nitrousbird]

FIXED:

Seems this was a network issue. I was under the (incorrect) impression that the settings I had for the previous D-Link router were correctly transferred over to this new router/modem combo. This is NOT the case. It also seems that the reason my mother-in-law was noticing the slow speeds now is because the rest of the laptop isn't slow but she could still see a slow internet connection. Issues I found:
- SSID for 2.4GHz and 5GHz were backwards
- This router only changes the channel for auto on reboot...and it is never rebooted. It was on Channel 1, which was an utter mess. A ton of other routers on that channel, other routers overlapping the channel - a wireless disaster. 5GHz was clean. It seems my Surface & phone were handling this better (better antenna's - both are AC devices) than her laptop
- A few other wireless tweaks needed made as well

As soon as I corrected all of these issues, her laptop is now consistently pulling 60Mbps Up/Down. I guess I shouldn't have assumed this network was correctly setup and verified that first.