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Sporadic Link Speed

idata
Employee
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I have recently purchased the Intel 5100 card, and am having issues with wireless stability, compared to my old 2.4GHz only wifi card which was stable mostly at 300Mbps on the same networks.

I have now swapped this card out with the Intel 5100, and am now getting very unsatisfactory results. My link speed is all over the place on both 2.4GHz and 5Ghz networks.

This has seemed to have caused issues initially connecting to wifi networks like they were being dropped during authentication, after up to 10 tries it works.

I have tested this card on 4 of my other wifi routers at different geographical locations with the same results. Initial connection is at 300Mbps then fluctuates between 2Mbps and 162Mbps, never seems to get above 162Mbps but spends most of its time at 135Mbps. This does not seem to be related to signal strength as this is not fluctuating much almost flat lined when using insider. It is also noticeably affecting connections on the internet to slow when this link speed drops below 5Mbps

I have profile scanned the locations and there is no interfering networks, my wifi routers I tested were running different bands and not all at the same time.

I have installed the latest version of the drivers from the Intel downloads link for the 5100 wifi card, also tried the online driver detection and it told me I was up to date.

Has anyone else had a similar issue, is it likely to be an issue with the wifi card?

Regards,

Dan

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4 Replies
idata
Employee
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Note that the Intel(R) WiFi Link 5100 adapter is meant to be professionally installed by Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) technicians on certified systems only. We do not recommend or support the replacement of wireless network cards, these adapters are not meant to be sold separately, your system must be compliant with the required FCC certifications in compliance with the International Special Committee for Radio Interference standards for radiated and conducted electromagnetic interference.

In this case what we recommend and encourage you to first contact the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to determine if the product is approved for use in your computer.

Installing an aftermarket wireless adapter in your laptop can cause several issues which may affect usage of the wireless adapter or laptop. Some of these issues may include the following:

- The OEM may have installed the wireless adapter with a lock to prevent installation of another adapter.

- Your adapter may not be electrically compatible with your laptop that may cause the adapter and/or your laptop to no longer function.

- Wireless hardware installation and use is subject to regulatory approval, and the adapter purchased may not support your local regulations.

For additional information, refer to:

Intel® WiFi Products - Upgrade or exchange Intel® wireless adapter hardware

http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-006006 http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-006006

Intel® WiFi Products - Why doesn't my laptop recognize my new Intel wireless adapter?

http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-031167.htm http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-031167.htm

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idata
Employee
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Yes this product is approved for this computer model and there are other computers using this card by default, I thought my one was going to come with the 5GHz adaptor.

No there is no lock on the adapter or against the installation of any other adapters, it is installed and working.

The adapter is functioning on my laptop. The electrical compatibility is fine

Yes the hardware is approved regulatory, laptop from USA adaptor purchased in the USA. I did not buy the adaptor in the UK the only country that supports additional bands in the 2.4GHz band.

Your card states that it is FCC compliant.

Your first link provided does not work.

My question is plain and simple, is this normal behavour of this device? Is it part of the power saving functionality implemented with this adapter, or potentially a faulty device?

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vt5
New Contributor I
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Hi Dan, not sure if you've try setting your wireless power setting to maximum performance and check if the same issue occurs

http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-032513.htm Intel� Centrino� Wi-Fi Products — Setting wireless adapter power management

hope this help.

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idata
Employee
440 Views

Hi Sage99,

Thanks for your response, I am not sure if my interpretation of you comment is correct or not.

I had tried to set everything as per the recommendation;

Changed the channel widths to auto from 20MHz Only (Default)

Transmit power was default to Highest

Have tried different settings for the Roaming Aggressiveness, didn't appear to make too much difference.

Are these what you were talking about, or is there another area I have completely missed?

A further update from more testing, the speed actual seems to be pretty stable if I hammer the crap out of the connection, it then sustains mostly 300Mbps on two differemnt routers.

I guess I would be interested to know if this would seem to be a normal behaviour, because I know that Intel released a new power saving feature into this device.

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