Question Wi-Fi internet connection drops when downloading

Jun 24, 2019
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Hi everyone. I'm having a problem with my desktop wi-fi connection. So, whenever I attempt to download anything, after a few seconds or minutes at most, the wi-fi connection on my pc is killed. It says it's still connected but has no internet. Resetting modem or windows troubleshoot does nothing, only way to get my internet back is restart my PC. Soon as I restart, my wifi internet is back. I found that limiting my download speed to like maximum 1MB/s makes my connection last longer but obviously that isn't a very satisfying solution.
One other thing worth noting is that the connection is only killed on my desktop PC. Other devices on wi-fi in my house like phone, xbox etc stay online and can also download anything perfectly fine.

I have tried googling for some solutions and tried some of the ones I found such as:
  • updating my wireless network adapter's firmware
  • updating windows
  • flushing DNS
  • making pc forget wifi access point
  • changed power management so the wireless network adapter doesn't shut down to save power
  • reset the wifi autoconfig service
However, none of those worked.

Here is my system information. Let me know if I missed anything important.
Processor: Intel Core i5-7600K @3.80Ghz, 3792 Mhz 4 Cores
Motherboard: Asus StrixZ270G
Wireless network adapter: Qualcomm Atheros QCA61x4A Wireless Network Adapter
Modem: Askey TCG300
OS: Windows 10 Pro v1809
 
If you search that chipset you will people complaining about driver issues. Microsoft may have pushed a different driver during a update. Qualcomm drivers are a pain to get sometimes. You have to be very careful where you download them from, they used to have a page on their webside but I can not find the official drivers only sites that have copies. Maybe from the actual vendor that makes the card. That is a strange wifi device to have in a desktop it is designed for laptops and supports bluetooth which is uncommon on desktops.

I would try the newest version of the driver and maybe a older one.....there are people saying the drivers are unstable.

If no driver fixes it your problem could be hardware related. I have seen a similar failure in a router wifi chip. It would run fine at low rates but you push it and it would no longer pass data. You could connect but it didn't work. Reboot the router and it worked fine again until you tried to use too much data. Gave up and replaced the router in that case.
 
Jun 24, 2019
2
0
10
If you search that chipset you will people complaining about driver issues. Microsoft may have pushed a different driver during a update. Qualcomm drivers are a pain to get sometimes. You have to be very careful where you download them from, they used to have a page on their webside but I can not find the official drivers only sites that have copies. Maybe from the actual vendor that makes the card. That is a strange wifi device to have in a desktop it is designed for laptops and supports bluetooth which is uncommon on desktops.

I would try the newest version of the driver and maybe a older one.....there are people saying the drivers are unstable.

If no driver fixes it your problem could be hardware related. I have seen a similar failure in a router wifi chip. It would run fine at low rates but you push it and it would no longer pass data. You could connect but it didn't work. Reboot the router and it worked fine again until you tried to use too much data. Gave up and replaced the router in that case.
I've tried the newest driver and a few older ones to no avail. Would it help to buy a usb wi-fi adapter instead of using the onboard adapter? I can't think of anything else.
 
USB should work just as well as a internal card. Avoid those very tiny devices. The best units come with USB extension cords already and have larger antenna. USB generally is designed for portable devices where size and power usage is important. Low power and small antenna will reduce the range of the device. Most routers transmit at maximum legal power USB devices takes a lot of research to be really sure. Again a indication is one that has a USB cable which means it is primarily used for a desktop machine. Although not always true they tend to put out more power.