WiFi issues with Recoil III RTX, Killer AX1650

[Ridnarhtim]

Hi all,

I received my new Recoil III RTX laptop a few days ago, with a Killer AX1650 WiFi module and Win 10 Pro pre-installed. Unfortunately, since I've received it, I've had intermittent WiFi drops. They seem to happen every 1-2 hours on average.

What happens: Wifi suddenly disconnects. The icon changes to the sphere with a grid (

), when I hover over it says "connections are available". I can see the SSID of the network I was previously connected to, but when I try to connect it says it is unable to connect. After about a minute or two, it will successfully connect again (If I do nothing, it will automatically reconnect to the network after the same amount of time).

What I've tried:
-The default windows drivers
-Manually installing the latest Killer drivers
-Installing the full Killer Suite including control center
-Letting Windows find the latest device drivers automatically from device manager
-Uninstalled the device (including device drivers) from device manager

I've also
-Unchecked the "allow the computer to turn off the device to save power" option in the adapter settings
-In Power Options > Wireless Adapter Settings > Power Saving Mode, set both battery and plugged in to "maximum performance"
-Disabled the firewall and uninstalled my antivirus
- Finally, I plugged in a USB wireless adapter I had lying around and used that instead of the Killer module. It had the same issue, so it doesn't seem like the Killer module is causing the issue?

I also turned on Analytic and Debug logs in Event Viewer. I didn't notice anything special about the moment the Wifi disconnected, however every time I tried to connect to the wifi manually and got an "unable to connect error, there was an error marked "connection failed" with "Reason Code: 0x38002", however this has not really helped me so far.

I'm currently wiping the laptop and doing a clean install to see if that helps. I'm also going to try take the laptop to my office tomorrow and see if it does the same on the wifi there, but no other device in my home has these issues (including my partner's Windows 10 laptop).

I've submitted this to tech support already but I figured I would ask here as well. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

 

[SpyderTracks]

firstly, big thumbs up on the troubleshooting you’ve already done.

What version of windows 10 are you on?

Do you use any proxies or vpn on the laptop or router?

My guesses would be:

1: old windows version, windows 10 has been notorious for buggy networking although they do seem to have solved it in v 1903

2: old bios that needs updating on the laptop

3. Dud Wi-Fi card.

 

[Ridnarhtim]

No proxies or VPN on either the laptop or the router.

1) The laptop came with 1806 installed, but I've since updated it to 1903 and the issue happens on both.
2) How would I best go about updating the BIOS? It has "American Megatrends Inc. N.1.55, 26/06/2019" installed, so it seems very recent, but I've never updated the BIOS on a custom build.

 

[SpyderTracks]

No proxies or VPN on either the laptop or the router.

1) The laptop came with 1806 installed, but I've since updated it to 1903 and the issue happens on both.
2) How would I best go about updating the BIOS? It has "American Megatrends Inc. N.1.55, 26/06/2019" installed, so it seems very recent, but I've never updated the BIOS on a custom build.

For the BIOS you’d have to liaise with PCS directly, any BIOS updates have to be done under their governance otherwise it voids warranty.

That’s quite a hefty update in place of the OS and they’re known to cause issues. If it were me, I’d do a fresh install of 1903 from a USB direct from ms.

Download Windows 10 Disc Image (ISO File)

 

[Ridnarhtim]

Okay, I will try doing a clean install straight to 1903.

Further update:
Checking the Wlan Autoconfig Operations Log, I'm seeing a lot of errors like this:

WLAN AutoConfig service failed to connect to a wireless network.

Network Adapter: Killer(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 160MHz Wireless Network Adapter (200NGW)
Interface GUID: XXX
Connection Mode: Automatic connection with a profile
Profile Name: XXX
SSID: XXX
BSS Type: Infrastructure
Failure Reason:The driver disconnected while associating.
RSSI: 255

I've been googling this failure reason for a while but unfortunately without success.

 

[Ridnarhtim]

Alright, well I don't want to jinx it, but I did a clean install from USB as you suggested and, without installing anything or changing any settings, it's been going steady for 3 hours now. I'll see if it holds tomorrow. Thanks for the help.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Alright, well I don't want to jinx it, but I did a clean install from USB as you suggested and, without installing anything or changing any settings, it's been going steady for 3 hours now. I'll see if it holds tomorrow. Thanks for the help.

Fingers crossed, but as you say, best to keep it running for a full day and see how you get on.

PC troubleshooting, you can bet your bottom dollar, when you've made a change, the problem won't present until you've told your boss it's fixed! Damn computers!

Fingers crossed, mate, keep us posted.

 

[ubuysa]

A pat on the back from me too for the logical and thorough troubleshooting you've already done. You've eliminated the driver as the most likely cause and the power save feature too.

I would hold off on a BIOS update until there is absolutely nothing left to try, you really don't want to be doing that unless you have no choice - or unless the notes for the updated BIOS say they fix a WiFi error (which I very much doubt they will).

That your USB adapter has the same issue is a clue I think, it means we can stop looking at the killer card itself. Also, disconnecting between 1 and 2 hours means it's unlikely to be anything on your PC (though that's not impossible).

Does it drop at regular intervals? Have you timed them just to check? If it's the same interval each time it may well be something external to your PC (like a fridge, for example).

I'm assuming that other devices connected to the same router do not disconnect at the same time as your PC? If you've not checked that please do so.

Are you using 2.4GHz or 5GHz channels? Can you try switching the router from one to the other to see whether that helps?

I would also do a site survey, I've always used inSSIDer3 (free to do that, you can still get the free version from https://www.techspot.com/downloads/5936-inssider.html. That will show you what other hotpots are using the same channel as you are. If there are many other hotspots on the same channel try changing your router channel to a channel with the least (or weakest) other hotspots on.

Please don't update the BIOS until you've tried everything else.

 

[Ridnarhtim]

Well, I thought it was fine, but it randomly started again this evening. After seeing your post above, I tried to connect to the 2.4ghz wifi (I have a dualband router and had been on 5ghz since re-installing windows.) It started happening again after about 1.5 hours. I switched back to 5ghz, and now it's happening there too. I'm not sure if switching over could have caused it, but I haven't installed anything over the last few days nor made any changes to settings etc.

The intervals are not regular, there's usually 1 or 1h30 hours between connection drops. I'll keep a closer eye on it to see if it's always happening in half-hour increments.

And no, other devices do not have this problem; we have a few laptops and phones in the flat all connected to the wifi. I tried inssider and none of the channels seem particularly busy.

Unfortunately, it's now Friday, so I won't be able to test it on another network (at the office) until Monday.

 

[ubuysa]

I think at this point it would be worth confirming that it's the WiFi that disconnects and not something else in the PC network stack. Try Ethernet cable connecting to your router for a day or two and see whether the problem still occurs. If it's fine Ethernet attached then it's definitely either the card or the driver. In which case I'd contact PCS, explain the detailed troubleshooting you've done, and ask if they will swap the WiFi card. They did that for me several years back with my Optimus IV.

Of course, if it fails Ethernet attached then we'll need to start looking somewhere else....

 

[Ridnarhtim]

Trying it with ethernet now.

I left it running on wifi overnight, and it seems it disconnected at 23:01, 1:11 and 3:31. Not sure if there's any significance to those numbers all ending in 1 (and always 47-48 seconds). Bizarre.

There were no more connection drops after that until I woke up and turned the screen back on. Then a few minutes later it dropped again ... at 09:51:49 am.

 

[ubuysa]

I wonder whether the timings are related to the testing software's interval rather than your network? It's interesting that there were no failures between 3:55m and 9:51am, I assume the tester was running throughout that interval? It begs the question; what's different between 4am and 10am. It's also interesting that it was fine until you woke the screen - I assume that just the screen blanker?

I think it's important to see how it is on Ethernet so we know we're just dealing with the WiFi card/driver.....

 

[Ridnarhtim]

The software I use (startrinity continuous speed test) tests every second, so I'm not sure how that could be causing it... I used the gaming center's "display off" button to turn off the screen. That was at about 11:30 pm, so it still failed twice more after that.

Ethernet's been solid for 3 hours now. Will just keep it running until at least tonight.

 

[ubuysa]

Ok. Assuming it hasn't failed on Ethernet by tomorrow I think your best option is to contact PCS and ask for a new card (they might want the old one back).

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[Ridnarhtim]

Well, I decided to run my desktop PC on Wifi for the day (it's usually connected via ethernet). It was fine for 6 hours, then dropped the connection at 16:11:40

So now I'm completely lost. I wish I had another router around to try but unfortunately I got rid of my last one.

 

[ubuysa]

At the moment one failure isn't evidence of a router issue, especially compared to the number you had from the laptop. And it's important not to get sidetracked.

One issue at a time. If the laptop works ok on Ethernet I'd still ask PCS for a WiFi card swap.



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[Ridnarhtim]

Upon further testing, I think some of my earlier assumptions were incorrect. The router seems to have an issue where connections briefly drop on all devices, however phones, other laptops and the usb wifi adapter all reconnect within seconds, so much so that it's usually not noticeable beyond maybe a brief slowdown or a single connection error. Importantly, the laptop using the usb wifi adapter also reconnected very quickly after a drop.

The killer module, meanwhile a) drops MUCH more often than other devices, every few hours as compared to other devices once-twice a day and b) takes 1-2 minutes to reconnect each time. So I'm definitely blaming that wifi card.

PC Specialist have offered to send me a replacement, however, since today makes exactly 14 days since I got the laptop, I've decided to send it back for a contract cancellation. Currently debating re-buying the exact same build but with an intel wifi module instead, since it's otherwise a really nice laptop and I now know what to test for right away.

Will update the thread when I decide, but in the meantime thanks for all the help.

 

[ubuysa]

Seems a shame to send back a whole laptop for the sake of a 50 cent wireless card, but it's your call of course.

If your router is from your ISP get them to replace it. Tell them it's far worse than it is.

[emoji3]

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[Ridnarhtim]

I agree it's a bit excessive. But if the new card doesn't work, I'm stuck with the laptop. This way, I get another 14 days to return the new one 😶

I'm moving soon so it's not worth getting a new router.

 

[ubuysa]

I agree it's a bit excessive. But if the new card doesn't work, I'm stuck with the laptop. This way, I get another 14 days to return the new one 😶

I'm moving soon so it's not worth getting a new router.

Ok, fair enough. Let us know how things go with the new one. Though, without wishing to spoil things for you, there have been reports over the last few years of Intel wifi cards having issues.

If this were mine I'd be talking to PCS and see whether they'll allow you to try a replacement card and if that doesn't help then return the laptop for a refund. That would seem like a win-win to me....