Gigabyte Wifi card dropping connection?

Installed a Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I Wifi and Bluetooth PCI Card in my desktop a little while ago. It mostly works perfectly but drops connection seemingly randomly. I had assumed it was because the PC was in the attic and the router was downstairs but moved PC much closer and the problem persists

Any suggestions as to where to start - I have given up with Gigabyte support as you have to tell them the product to create a ticket and the product doesn't seem to exist in their system . . .

fwiw the route is a standard Plusnet one and works fine with laptops and tablets everywhere

Which connection is dropping? The Ethernet connection or your internet connection? (and if it is your Ethernet connection, are you sure the router isn't rebooting when it drops?).

Which connection is dropping?

not sure I understand the question - the connection is between the router and the Wifi card in the machine. I believe this because the internet breaks on the PC and the little bar graph on TaskBar greys out, Any other tablet/laptop continues to work fine, no other device in the house has connection issues

fwiw the router is a TG582N manually set to channel 1 but I think it is the Gigabyte that is the problem. Chrome connectivity diagnostics reports no problems

not sure I understand the question - the connection is between the router and the Wifi card in the machine. I believe this because the internet breaks on the PC and the little bar graph on TaskBar greys out, Any other tablet/laptop continues to work fine, no other device in the house has connection issues

 

fwiw the router is a TG582N manually set to channel 1 but I think it is the Gigabyte that is the problem

What Lastnet was asking is:

- is it your wifi that drops or the entire internet?

You've answered that with your follow up saying that the other devices in house continue to work.

It *might* be an issue with the 5GHz band as this can cause all sorts of problems in some devices. This page should show you how to disable the 5GHz band if you have one. https://www.plus.net/help/broadband/router-user-guides/

thanks for that - from what I can see the 582n is 2.4GHz only and in the router device set up screen I dont see any options for 5GHz

This particular Gigabyte device does seem to cause some folks issues on Win 7 - this machine is running Win7 Pro

thanks for that - from what I can see the 582n is 2.4GHz only and in the router device set up screen I dont see any options for 5GHz

 

This particular Gigabyte device does seem to cause some folks issues on Win 7 - this machine is running Win7 Pro

Any firmware updates available for it?

I'll handover to Lastnet IT below who clearly know more than I do about resolving this. Hope you get it fixed.

Sorry, I misread your original post. You said "Gigabyte" and I read it as "gigabit". I see you said WiFi card now (ignore my previous reply).

Have you got any other devices that use radio close to you or the router? Baby monitors, TV senders, etc? They can cause interference (as can many electrical items). You mentioned you set it to channel 1, have you tried any other channels? (1,6 and 11 being the ones you can use).

Can you tell me which driver you have? Right click My Computer/This PC, properties, Device Manager, Network Adapters, and you should see your Gigabyte card in there. Right click, Properties and finally click the "Driver" tab. It could be useful if you can post the Driver Provider, Driver Date and Driver Version information here?

Also, while you're there, click the "Power Management" tab and untick "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power".

From memory the router was set to channel 1 when I first had issues, I chose that as my Android Wifi analyser showed lots of other signals on 6 and 11

Just been and unticked power management - seems a curious setting but I gather then components of this card are actually laptop parts on a PCI board

Drivers are reported as up to date by Device Manager, though I am confused that GigaByte and Intel apparently offer drivers for this device

Provider: Intel

Date: 22/06/2015

Version: 18.11.0.8

Interference? We do have DECT phones but mostly a low tech household and nothing is within a metre or two of the PC. PC is as least 7m from any neighbours also

From memory the router was set to channel 1 when I first had issues, I chose that as my Android Wifi analyser showed lots of other signals on 6 and 11

 

Just been and unticked power management - seems a curious setting but I gather then components of this card are actually laptop parts on a PCI board

 

Drivers are reported as up to date by Device Manager, though I am confused that GigaByte and Intel apparently offer drivers for this device

Provider: Intel

Date: 22/06/2015

Version: 18.11.0.8

 

Interference? We do have DECT phones but mostly a low tech household and nothing is within a metre or two of the PC. PC is as least 7m from any neighbours also

Pretty sure most DECT phones also operate on 2.4ghz. Have you noticed any correlation between using them and WiFi dropping? Might be worth trying to use them and run the WiFi analyser again?

The driver you're using looks like the latest on the Gigabyte site, but a post elsewhere suggests you can use these Intel drivers (do so at your own risk!).

Nice one! thanks for the Intel link - decided to run their driver update utility and it reports 2 issues and offered 2 new drivers. Will install and see what happens, I can always roll back . . .

Was trying to download them when connection died (back now obviously) and no idea what might have triggered it. My other option is to ask Plusnet for a new hub/router, the newer ones might be a bit better/faster - one thing that is now true (like many folks I guess) is we have more devices (tablets etc) in the house jumping on the wifi

DECT uses 1.9Ghz so no, it shouldn't cause WiFi problems.

had a chat with Plusnet and apparently there is a firmware upgrade for our router but they have asked me to try other wifi channels first. From 1 6 and 11 it is clear 1 is best (and is set having no improvement on 6 or 11) but they have suggested using wierd channel numbers like 4

any thoughts on that, I see a couple of neighbours on TalkTalk are using 9 and 7