Wifi card issues, again

[Badgeronpc]

Hello again folks. I posted a thread about 2 months ago with a weird Wi-Fi card issue, and in the end came to the conclusion it was dead and had to return it, well i am now experiencing the exact same issues, card dies whenever a game is opened, but otherwise works flawlessly. I have sent a message to PCS, but submitting an RMA to receive the same product that has now failed twice doesn't fill me with joy. Especially considering this will be the third hardware failure on my PC within 2 years.

Do i have any options other than just purchasing a new card on my own back, and if it does come to that, is there a product you would recommend, the card i have right now is an Intel Wifi6 AX200.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hello again folks. I posted a thread about 2 months ago with a weird Wi-Fi card issue, and in the end came to the conclusion it was dead and had to return it, well i am now experiencing the exact same issues, card dies whenever a game is opened, but otherwise works flawlessly. I have sent a message to PCS, but submitting an RMA to receive the same product that has now failed twice doesn't fill me with joy. Especially considering this will be the third hardware failure on my PC within 2 years.

Do i have any options other than just purchasing a new card on my own back, and if it does come to that, is there a product you would recommend, the card i have right now is an Intel Wifi6 AX200.

I wonder if there's some kind of power issue going on with the motherboard.

As I understand it, the PCIe slot can provide up to 75W of power which is ample just for the wifi component of the card, then the Bluetooth has it's own USB header for the bluetooth power and communications.

I wonder if for whatever reason, the PCIe lane for that particular slot is getting affected, either by problems from the CPU, or possibly power related.

These cards are pretty resilient, and the fact the first replacement has fixed it until now is odd.

There is also the other factor that the 13700k you have is one of the affected models in the Intel controversy

Intel 13th and 14th Gen confirmed defective

The inevitable continues This is nothing short of a nail for Intel, this is what they’ve been trying to escape. It will be a domino effect here on in https://wccftech.com/unreal-engine-discloses-50-percent-failure-rate-intel-core-i9-14900k-13900k-cpus/ From early reports 15th gen are about 4%...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

I know it's a pain, I don't think it's the card, I really don't, I think there's something else going on related to the PCIe lanes, but I would first try a clean install of windows just so we're sure that it's as clean as possible

 

[Badgeronpc]

I wonder if there's some kind of power issue going on with the motherboard.

As I understand it, the PCIe slot can provide up to 75W of power which is ample just for the wifi component of the card, then the Bluetooth has it's own USB header for the bluetooth power and communications.

I wonder if for whatever reason, the PCIe lane for that particular slot is getting affected, either by problems from the CPU, or possibly power related.

These cards are pretty resilient, and the fact the first replacement has fixed it until now is odd.

There is also the other factor that the 13700k you have is one of the affected models in the Intel controversy

Intel 13th and 14th Gen confirmed defective

The inevitable continues This is nothing short of a nail for Intel, this is what they’ve been trying to escape. It will be a domino effect here on in https://wccftech.com/unreal-engine-discloses-50-percent-failure-rate-intel-core-i9-14900k-13900k-cpus/ From early reports 15th gen are about 4%...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

I know it's a pain, I don't think it's the card, I really don't, I think there's something else going on related to the PCIe lanes, but I would first try a clean install of windows just so we're sure that it's as clean as possible

As much as it frustrates me, there could be some weight behind either of those explanations.

When i fitted the replacement i slotted into the easiest pcie to get it to, which was full length, out of frustration and curiosity i opened it up today and took out my gpu so i could get my fat fingers to the slot just below it, which is a shorter one, I'm guessing specifically for the wifi card cause it fits perfectly, i really don't know much about this stuff.

Anyways, it seemed to abate the issue slightly, instead of critical errors and a shutdown, my speeds just utterly tanked until the game was closed.

I'm going to see what PCS says, because i really am not sure what I'm doing, and they may well ask for the whole system back to test it, which while expensive. Is a lot easier for me, and will provide some peace of mind.

Currently i am still using the system just fine, got my Tab S9U as a pseudo router with usb tethering, ironically getting better speeds too that way as well.

 

[SpyderTracks]

It would need to be installed to the PCIe x 4 slot (the small one)

I take it you've got the antenna installed?

 

[Badgeronpc]

It would need to be installed to the PCIe x 4 slot (the small one)

I take it you've got the antenna installed?

Yeah i do

 

[SpyderTracks]

Yeah i do

Yeah, RMA may be the best course, this is a weird one, and I reckon it's power related which makes it 10 times harder to diagnose, you really need monitoring nodes to plug into each section of the board to monitor voltages and amperage during use, and that kit is expensive. I fully expect PCS will have that sort of thing, apparently they've started a new service this year where they can actually do some minor PCB soldering on laptops, so they definitely have low level skilled people on site.

You could spend hours on this and still get nowhere, I'd send it in.

 

[Badgeronpc]

Yeah, RMA may be the best course, this is a weird one, and I reckon it's power related which makes it 10 times harder to diagnose, you really need monitoring nodes to plug into each section of the board to monitor voltages and amperage during use, and that kit is expensive. I fully expect PCS will have that sort of thing, apparently they've started a new service this year where they can actually do some minor PCB soldering on laptops, so they definitely have low level skilled people on site.

You could spend hours on this and still get nowhere, I'd send it in.

Thanks for your opinion, it feels stupid, and is incredibly annoying having to send the whole thing back, again... but oh well. I really hoped the new wifi card would be enough but oh well.