AX200/201 speeds crippled after Windows 23H2 update

[dainbrump]

I have updated to Windows 11 23H2 and Official Intel 22.250.1 for the wifi drivers. I am stuck at slightly better than ISDN speeds (~180kbps) on a 2.5gbps fiber connection. All other devices (Android and Linux mixed) report between 200 and 600mpbs. I have 2 Windows 11 machines with the latest windows updates and the latest Intel wifi drivers. One has an AX201 adapter and the other has an AX200 adapter. They are both struggling from the crippled wifi speeds. As a test, I booted up one of the Windows machines to a USB live image of Manjaro Linux and tested the wifi speed to make sure it wasn't a hardware issue. When I tested the speed, it was reported as 612mbps. So I know for a fact that it isn't some hardware gone haywire.

What I have tried:

• Uninstalling the drivers and reinstalling with 22.250.1. No change.
• Uninstalling the drivers and trying a "rollback" to 22.240.1. Won't install because the 22.250.1 driver is apparently still floating around somewhere and I can't get rid of it no matter how many times I try your "clean install" process.
• Flushing DNS cache and resetting winsock. No change.
• Windows Network Reset utility. No change.
• Windows SFC scan and reboot. No change.
• Safe Mode boot with Networking. No change.
• Tried forcing Preference to 5ghz. No change.
• Changed 802.11a/b/g mode to 5ghz and 2.4ghz. No change for either mode.

Something between 22H2/23H2 and the Intel 22.250.1 drivers pooched something up in a big way. My machine is unusable for most purposes. Thankfully, my primary work machine is on Linux and hasn't had these issues. But I'd be willing to bet there are plenty of other people out there not in my position and struggling with this exact issue.

I've run the support utility and attached the output.

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello dainbrump, 

Thanks for the confirmation and the additional information provided. I will continue with the investigation and as soon as I have any findings I will let you know.

Best regards, 

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[NickSwindon]

I am having this rather maddening issue as well. It is most definately down the intel wifi drivers.

A new install of windows 11 (performed 2 days ago), uses intel wifi drivers version 22.0.1.5. This allows connection (with internet!) to a 5ghz wifi network.

According to speed test, this downloads at around 90 to 165mbps and upload of around 65mbps.

This morning, with 22.0.1.5 drivers, it was this:

165.6 Mbps download

68.1 Mbps upload

This is on a 575mbps connection, with other devices getting between 400 and 550mbps.

After windows 11 updated to 23H2, intel wifi drivers updated to 22.190.x

After this connection to 5ghz network too a long time, then there was very often no internet connection, and when it did have internet, download speed was 500kbps to 2mbps, with upload stil being 65mbps.

Updating to the very latest intel wifi drivers (22.250.x) connecting to 5ghz has never successfully gained an internet connection. Also i cannot connect to the router on 192.168.x address.

Rolling back the driver to 22.0.1.5 fixes internet connection on 5ghz network.

Note that with any of the drivers mentioned, connecting to a 2.4ghz network always worked, with internet connection, although download speed was around 30mbps, which negates the 575mbps connection supplied by the ISP.

Also note, I don't have a split SSID of 5ghz and 2.4ghz, I have 2 different SSIDs, one with 5ghz and one with 2.4ghz.

The hardware is:

Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E 160MHz built into MSI MPG Z590 Gaming Edge WiFi motherboard

I am in the process of installing an Ubuntu dual boot, so I can verify that it is not a hardware / location problem.

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello dainbrump, 

Thanks for your time. In this case, since the Bluetooth is working fine and the Wi-Fi is the only thing that is not working properly, this could mean that there is an issue with the connectors or antenna. 

I recommend you get in contact with Sager so they can run the pertinent tests on their system to confirm the source of the issue.

Please keep in mind that this thread will no longer be monitored by Intel.  

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[dainbrump]

I'd be tempted to accept the lose antenna wire as the culprit if it wasn't for a few things.

1. This is happening on two completely different laptops that have not been physically altered, cracked open or other wise had any hardware manipulations prior to the issue showing up.
2. Both machines are using Windows 23H2 and Intel AX family wifi adapters with the latest drivers, as recommended by both MS and Intel.
3. The issue does NOT occur when these laptops are booted up to Linux. If it was a lose antenna wire, this issue would happen regardless of the OS in use. This fact / test alone blows that theory out of the water in one shot.

So overall I'd grade the technical support here a C... Good response times and questions asked, but a pathetic application of troubleshooting 101 practices.

Bullet point #3 is the clincher that this is very specifically an issue between Windows and the Intel driver. To say that I am disappointed with this hand-wave of a dismissal of the obvious facts is an understatement. I have demonstrated very clearly over the past posts that the issue is very clearly between the OS and driver and in fact not hardware related, since I also swapped in a completely different wifi adapter of the same Intel AX family and ran into the exact same set of issues on windows and zero issues in Linux.

So please, escalate this issue to someone who will not simply dismiss all the evidence presented as a "lose wire" and therefore "someone else's problem."

[NickSwindon]

I have fiddled with the antenna and now achieve 350mbps download, with 22.0.1.5 drivers on 5ghz wifi.

There is quite clearly something wrong with the 22.250.x drivers if it breaks 5ghz wifi connections. Even with the 22.190.x drivers delivered by Windows 11 23H2, its quite obviously broken.

Don't kick this can down the road, it needs to be escalated beyond support, and back to the developers. I'm sure there's willing beta testers here (myself included) if there needs to be a real world test with a setup which has these symptoms.

[MoeA]

Curious to know what WiFi infrastructure you have.

had the same eact problem, where on Windows it sucked compared to no issues on linux (same device)

i found that disabling SMPS actually fixes the problem.

give it a try:

ncpa.cpl > Intel Wifi NIC > right click, properties > configure > MIMO Power Save Mode > set to "No SMPS"

[dainbrump]

Fiber ISP to ASUS AI Mesh in dual-band smart mode with separate 6 network. Fairly default config aside from passwords, etc.

I tried turning off the SMPS. No change. Wifi downloads only on Windows are still utter crap. Uploads fly like crazy.

[MoeA]

Yeah unfortunately, but just as a note, the sequence to shut SMPS that had it fixed is as below:
1. Turn SMPS off
2. Turned on airplane mode (to stop all transmissions)
3. Clear client session
In wireless infra (to force client sending a new association req with SMPS off)
4. Reboot laptop
5. Test now

If its true, yet not fixed. Then yours definitely something new 🤷🏻‍

[dainbrump]

Yeah. Saw something related to this recently. Tried a few different variations on turning off SMPS. None of them worked. I am really at a complete loss here. Windows / Intel drivers just simply refuse to download without dropping packets and suffering ridiculous download speeds but Linux on the exact same machine works fine. But somehow the answer is a hardware issue. This is the worst tech support I've ever received from the likes of Intel. The one Mac I have connects just fine, no dropped packets, great speeds up and down. All of my Android devices connect fine, no dropped packets, great speeds up and down. All of my Linux machines connect fine, no dropped packets, great speeds up and down. The two machines I have running Windows using Intel AX adapters connect but drop packets (only on downloads) and have great upload speeds but abysmal download speeds. I don't know how much clearer this can be. The issue can only be something specific to Windows and the Intel drivers. But they don't seem to care to admit that this is even a possibility.

[eblake]

We are experiencing this also. Three new Lenovo E16s, all with the same configuration. The laptops ran fine for about a month on our Wi-Fi. Then two of them became so slow that our dental employees complained they could no longer work with our local dental server. The third laptop started acting up in about 3 days, same problem. All three laptops will regain their network speed if plugged into Ethernet or if we use a USB Wi-Fi dongle.

What I've tried:

Lenovo Premier Support: Update through Lenovo, Lenovo Wi-Fi 6 ax 201 driver, Lenovo image for devices - the image worked until the machines updated from 22H2 to 23H2, then they regained the problem.

Intel: Older and newest driver

Downloaded latest Windows 11 Pro ISO from our Office 365 volume licensing. Performed a fresh install, more than once, and the problem was still there. The ISO I downloaded was 23H2.

Rolled back the three updates that Windows 11 Pro would let me, one of them being the 23H2 update, which made no difference the Wi-Fi was still toast.

Giving in, going to use 3 USB Wi-Fi dongles for now, so the dental staff can use the laptops. I'll just have to wait for a fix from MS when they realize there is a problem.

[3Fees]

Have you run a 3rd party utility to optimize your  wifi connection ? TCP Optimizer seems very popular, could be some of your registry entries have been minimized. Try TCP Optimizer, settings are available on the web for gaming etc its free !

Cheers

3Fees