Brand New Lenovo Y50 with Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160 low internet speeds.

[RNitl]

I bought a brand new Lenovo Y50 yesterday with the network card Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160. The moment I tried connecting to the internet from my room I noticed something was wrong. At first I wasn't even able to locate any networks from where I was sitting, after a few minutes of shuffling the computer around my desk, I found my network at 3 bars, along with my neighbours network at 2 bars. I tried to connect, and 4/5 times it failed to connect. On the fifth try it connected, and when I checked the speed it was 10% of what I got on my 8 year old Sony Vaio (1down/0.1 up from 10down/1up). I then went downstairs and sat down right beside my router, and from there I achieved the full capabilities of my internet. I have my drivers up to date (17.16.0.4) for Windows 8.1 64bit, and the driver on my router is updated as well.

I googled some things and found out that so far we know that the card is in someway deffective, and there is no clear cut fix even after half a year of troubleshooting and complaining by the community. I came here to ask if we've made any progress and found a way to fix my connection problems?

[ASouz7]

Hello MrNitler,

Please know that any driver update to OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) adapters must be done through the OEM's support page, in this case Dell, as the adapters in this category, even though they are Intel(R) products they suffer customizations and adaptations in order to fit the system. Our drivers in our support page are generic and they may not fit the requirements of your system. On our best effort to assist you, here are our recommendations that might help you resolve this issue.

http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-031509.htm Intel® Wi-Fi Products — Possible Interference by Other Wireless Devices May Impact 802.11n Performance

http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-034658.htm Intel® Wi-Fi Products - Quick Checks That Might Improve or Fix Connection Issues

http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-025332.htm Intel® Wi-Fi Products — Resolving Wi-Fi Network Connection Issues

http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-025393.htm Intel® Wi-Fi Products — What Are the Advanced Wi-Fi Adapter Settings?

1 - Disable the Power Saving Functions:

• Go to Control Panel >>> Hardware and Sound >>> Power Options >>> Set the High Performance and apply to the default settings.
• Check the Change Plan Settings >>> Change Advanced Power Settings >>> Wireless Adapter Settings >>> Power Saving Mode and make sure both On Battery and Plugged in are set to maximum performance.

2 - Set the advanced settings of the Adapter:

• Got to Device Manager >>> Network Adapters >>> Intel® Dual Band Wireless AC 3160 right click and select Properties.

• Select Advanced tab to set the value u-APSD support to Disabled.

On a side note. Finding the optimized wireless connection settings between the wireless adapter and the router also helps for a steady connection.Choosing and setting the band and the channel for the wireless connection for your router and adapter is also of great help. If you are in a place that has lots of physical barriers such as walls and the like, we recommend that you use 2.4GHz for better penetration capabilities which improves the connection signal if there are other solid objects in the way between where you want to have the computer and the router.3 - You can also change the the wireless adapter advanced settings in order to match the settings of your router.

• Set the wireless mode to 802.11 a/b/g/n. (choose the wireless mode according to the support mode of your router as in the example below.

• Set the Preferred Band to Prefer 2.4GHz band.

• Set the HT Mode to HT Mode for 802.11n compatibility. VHT Mode is for 802.11ac compatibility.

• Set the 802.11n Channel Width for 2.4GHz to limit 20MHz. Please note that 20MHz has smaller bandwidth than 40MHz but it has better penetration capabilities which improves the connection signal.

We do hope this piece of information helped you to resolve this issue.