Lag/slowness/Pci-e wifi cards

Support Technical Support
1

Cpu-intel core i5-8400 1ga 1151
cooler-cryoig-h7 49.0
motherboard- asrock z2370m pro4 atx a1151
memory-corsair-vengeance lpx 8gb ddr4 2666
storage-Seagate-firecuda 1tb 3.5 7200
videocard-zotac-geforce gtx 1060 6g
power supply- seasonic s1211 520w 80+
windows 10
Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I 42. 2x2 802.11ac dualband wifi card
All parts about 1.5 years old

Disclaimer: Problem started BEFORE 1903 UPDATE

YIkes, where do I begin? Maybe twice a day, I would disconnect from the internet and I’d have to manual reconnect to my network even though the bars/wifi showed full strength. I have a 2.4gz router. I use pci-e cards to connect wirelessly to my router.

So, Someone recommended I update my windows 10 to 1903 for all the updates. That’s when my problems worsened. After downloading 1903, my computer became slower and now WOW is very unplayable because my latency is always yellow/red. I don’t get disconnected as much now, but in my opinion the slowness is worse.

So what happened next you ask? Well in my haste, I used the “Windows 10 recovery” to revert back to the previous major update for windows 10. BUT even then, my computer is still slow and Wow is mostly unplayable.

I went ahead and (used the top recovery option) to un-install windows 10 from scratch. (Not sure if that’s the same as manually uninstalling windows 10) The computer did its thing removing the program and my apps, and then spent the rest of the night re-installing windows. Afterwards, my computer seemed faster at first. But, when I returned to classic WOW, my latency is still bad and everything is slow.

I’m not tech literate, even though I built my own desktop. I’m still trying to figure out if its a router/wifi card issue or there is something wrong with my computer because of windows 10/corrupted file.

What should I do? Should I do a clean reboot? (Not sure I’d look for in there) Did I not un-install windows 10 properly? (I also use Gefore experience for Nvidia) Where do I start? And could it be a mother board issue?

Edit: I know this post is long, but I wanted to add that I don’t think this problem was cause by wow. I noticed that twitch is also a lot slower along with web browsing or downloading softwares.

2

I’d agree - especially since you get full PC disconnects from your internet and lag in other programs. Do you have an ethernet cable to test with? If so, does the problem disappear while on ethernet? If so, you know it’s wifi instability and there’s not a ton you can do about that other than power cycle your router and update your wifi drivers. You can also swap to your 5Ghz band and see if it helps.

If it fails, your router probably isn’t strong enough to get you stable signal. You can try replacing it or getting a repeater for it, but I always recommend using an ethernet cable if you’re doing anything competitive or important while gaming online.

If it persists on Ethernet, you’d want to look at the rest of the connection. You can create a WinMTR test which catches a disconnection. You want to restart the test every 10-15 minutes until you catch one of these problems. Once you’ve caught one red handed, run the test for about 5 more minutes. This will let us look for problems between your house and our servers which may cause this.

If you have problems with posting it due to a link error, go ahead and copy paste this into your next post, and replace “WinMTR goes here” with your test.

~~~~
WinMTR goes here
~~~~
3

The ethernet cable is used to connect my computer to the router right? I won’t be able to do that because of the distance/house structure. It might be a wifi issue, which is why I’m considering a new pci-e card. I can still try the ethernet suggestion, but if it resolves the issue, it would only be allowed to stay temporarily.

I don’t think its a router issue because this problem with the disconnecting only happened a week ago.

Also, I’M NOT DISCONNECTING anymore, but the lag/slowness is very prevalent. Just in case, if windows 10 is behind this, should I try a different approach in resolving windows 10? Like a different way to uninstall or a clean reboot. What would I look for in a clean reboot?

I agree that wow isn’t the culprit and it may be a wifi/router issue, but I gotta make sure my computer doesn’t have a broken part or windows 10 eff me over.

4

Correct, the ethernet cable would be the cable used to connect your PC to your router. Most of the time when someone’s issue is that there is too much distance between your PC/router or the house is configured oddly, it is in fact a wifi stability issue. That said, the ethernet cable can also be a useful diagnostic step for you. If you temporarily move your PC to a place where you can wire in via ethernet, and it fixes the lag, you know the problem. That’ll speed up your troubleshooting significantly.

5

Ok, thank you for helping me so far.
I Would have to get a very LONG cable? Do longer cables reduce performance?
Also, what do you mean by updating the wifi cards?

Bluetooth device (personal area network)
Intel dual band wireless ac-8265
intel ethernet connection 1219-V
WAN miniport X6

One of these? and where do I get the drivers for them? Maybe intel from Intel

6

Go to intels website and have it scan your computer for driver updates for Intel products. Install new drivers. Done.

7

Re: Ethernet cable - just avoid coiling or damaging the cable if you can. Coiling an ethernet cable causes it to become almost like a capacitor, which can mess with the signals you’re sending. Otherwise, the length of cable should be negligible. For perspective, I run about 100’ of ethernet cable upstairs along the ceiling to a router in a house I rent, then another 20-30’ to the furthest room from there, and it doesn’t impact our connection.

8

Update: So something magical happened!

I power cycled my equipment and all of my problems went away! And for a couple of days I had no issue playing wow.

However, today I noticed my latency started to climb back up. it wasn’t as bad as before, but I wanted to take a proactive approach. So I updated my Wifi drivers and power cycled again.

I haven’t tried the ethernet cable idea yet, I’m working on that. But, it seems my Router is the case behind the disconnecting and the slowness. it is fairly old compared to my modem. So i’ll have to replace it soon. (If that’s the culprit)

9

I’d agree this is a reasonable theory for the culprit based on what you’ve said. It shouldn’t have its cache flooded this quickly. If it’s acting up within a few days of a power cycle, I’d either troubleshoot it with whoever makes the device or replace it entirely as you suggested.