Wifi Antenna not working right.

[Leroy579]

My PC has a place to screw in an antenna but my wifi adapter is acting like its not screwed in. It used to work just fine and get 5 bar strength. Now it gets 3-4 and the download speed is waaaay down to 6mbps (use to be 40mbps). In online games like cs:go I get a ping upwards of 800 at times. This is getting really fustrating and I don't know how to solve this problem.

EDIT: My PC is under a big oak desk. Would it block the wifi signals?

 

[bill001g]

Its pretty easy to test. Put the PC on the desk and have it face the router. You could also take the antenna off completely and see if there is any difference. It is pretty hard to damage a antenna, you I suppose could look for a broken pin. If it is a PCI card there is not much else. If it uses a internal small card like a laptop uses the wires may have come disconnected.

In any case you really don't want your PC under a desk against a wall with a nice metal computer case blocking the signals in the other direction. Although the antenna on a pci card are better USB gives you more option for placement.

 

[Leroy579]

I moved my computer up on top of my desk. I unscrewed the antenna in the back and the signal did not change......this is getting really fustrating. Is there something I can do to modify the antenna or my wifi card?

 

[bill001g]

If the signal levels did not change when you disconnected the antenna there is either a issue with the card or the antenna is defective. Antenna are pretty standard so if could borrow one you could test to see if the antenna is bad. Otherwise you are going to have to replace the card.

 

[Leroy579]

I ended up replacing the antenna. The new antenna from TP-Link was working just fine for a few months. It has a rather long and sturdy build and I have had no problems with it. Until now. Now my computer is doing the exact same thing as what it did with the old antenna. Is this a re-occurring problem with most PC's? Am I just going to have to keep ordering antennas?

 

[abhilas5]

I ended up replacing the antenna. The new antenna from TP-Link was working just fine for a few months. It has a rather long and sturdy build and I have had no problems with it. Until now. Now my computer is doing the exact same thing as what it did with the old antenna. Is this a re-occurring problem with most PC's? Am I just going to have to keep ordering antennas?

Sorry to necro this thread, but the exact same thing is happening to me. Did you find a solution?