Wifi issue - newish PC slow, all other devices normal

Using Speedtest by ookla I see our PC is getting ~ 14 - 35 Mbps on our wifi network, while any other device ei mobile, tablet, iptv box in the same spot is getting ~73 Mbps on our plan that should allow us 75 Mbps.

I'm not the smartest when it comes to this stuff so with out getting too far into the weeds, is there anything I can be checking on the PC to troubleshoot this?

(this PC has been plagued by USB related issues, mainly USB not recognizing what's plugged into it. Doubt this is be related, but full disclosure)

My first guess is try updating the driver for your wifi controller.

Just updated drivers. No improvement. Something wild is going on, PC just got tested at 0.82 Mbps. Streaming HD video on the same network two feet away with no buffering issues.. Would a modern modem (Smart RG808 AC) automatically assign bandwidth priority for streaming video as a default?

You’ve got a fuck load of shit running in the background. Go in and stop or delete unnecessary programs and that will fix it. See it all the time, I’m a broadband technician. Customers always complaining of slow speed, 8/10 times it’s their pc running at ton of bandwidth eating program’s in the background.

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Originally Posted by 2FUNKY

You’ve got a fuck load of shit running in the background. Go in and stop or delete unnecessary programs and that will fix it. See it all the time, I’m a broadband technician. Customers always complaining of slow speed, 8/10 times it’s their pc running at ton of bandwidth eating program’s in the background.

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This, especially if it's an underpowered Windows PC. We have one and it sucks. In our case it's CPU bound. The Chromebooks we have are all much faster.

And log off any other users. Strictly one user logged in at a time.

Task Manager is showing Chrome is using ~ %50 of both CPU and Memory. If I close all instances of Chrome the CPU and Memory usage drops, not surprisingly.

Thought ok , maybe time to try a different browser. This PC came with Edge so with Chrome completely closed I did another speedtest on Edge, still getting 1 or 2 Mbps.

My Start Up programs seem pretty lean, only things enabled are Realtek HD Audio Manager, Delayed launcher (Intel) and Windows Security Notification icon. Should I disable any of these?

Have also done a Malware scan (nothing found), and used their AdwCleaner as well (found 4 items, but didn't affect internet speed)

For the rest of the background 'noise', there's tons of processes showing up in Task Manager, but I have no clue what the majority of them are - is the a program or tool that can help monitor these processes and advise if any can be disabled or managed differently?

Also would adding more RAM make much of a difference if the PC is borderline unusable when the CPU and Memory are at ~50%? And I guess hardwiring the network connection is going to make any difference in this case?

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Originally Posted by Thaleia

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Also would adding more RAM make much of a difference if the PC is borderline unusable when the CPU and Memory are at ~50%? And I guess hardwiring the network connection is going to make any difference in this case?

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Definitely test hardwired to your router - if you *still* see le shit throughput, it's not your wireless adpater.

Which is what I suspect at this point (your wireless adpater)...

You sure Win10 isn’t doing one of its stealth updates behind the scene?

^^ Huh just checked, nope. And riser3 we just have one log in on this pc, we're not nearly sophisticated enough to have separate ones. Will hardwire this thing over the weekend and report back.

Thanks all, this is greatly appreciated.

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Originally Posted by Thaleia

^^ Huh just checked, nope. And riser3 we just have one log in on this pc, we're not nearly sophisticated enough to have separate ones. Will hardwire this thing over the weekend and report back.

Thanks all, this is greatly appreciated.

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Hardwire that bitch and see what's what.

Aight.

Pretty sure I purged most of the 'box of audio/video/various usb type/adapter/transformer/ethernet cables so large it lived in the garage' last summer since "gee whiz, just upgraded the network and the pc is lightning fast, won't need these anytime soon... lol .. so I'll buy one tomorrow.

Try forcing your connection to use a different channel.

I tried that in my ecstasy days but never really liked it.

Maybe you shouldn't have let your wifi touch the new computer.

Shit, it actually belongs to her.

riser3 yeah good call though, I'l try that.

I'd first check to see if you are connecting to the exact same network if you have what is common now a dual band router or wifi (both 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz)- ie on the phones and tablets you could very well be using the faster 5 Ghz network (channel number will be over 100) and the PC you are connecting to the slower 2.4 Ghz (channels are limited to 1-11 in USA) which is slower and does many times slow down with more than 1 device connected at the same time.

Home spectrum connection wifi5g on my celly $69.99
Attachment 313366

Sent from my Pixel 2 using TGR Forums mobile app

RShea that's a good point, but in this area the PC and compared devices are on the 2.4G network. Our router supports 5G as well, but it doesn't reach this area.

Skidog that's ridiculous.

OK, hooked up with the ethernet cable and the difference is night and day. Tested at 40Mbps, wifi was 1.5Mbos just prior. Still not a great speed but certainly good enough for the use this PC sees.

So - does that absolutely prove it is the wireless adapter? Is that something a computer jong can swap out them selves?

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Originally Posted by Thaleia

Shit, it actually belongs to her.

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This is why we can't have nice things.

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Originally Posted by Thaleia

RShea that's a good point, but in this area the PC and compared devices are on the 2.4G network. Our router supports 5G as well, but it doesn't reach this area.

Skidog that's ridiculous.

OK, hooked up with the ethernet cable and the difference is night and day. Tested at 40Mbps, wifi was 1.5Mbos just prior. Still not a great speed but certainly good enough for the use this PC sees.

So - does that absolutely prove it is the wireless adapter? Is that something a computer jong can swap out them selves?

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It means the issue is related to the wifi. However, is it the physical adapter, or a driver, or a setting, or the system board? IDK.

Well with the wifi card being only 20 CAD I've got one en route today to play with, also maxxing out the ram for fun. We'll see how it goes.

TBH I'm kinda thinking it's software related though - I've noticed a couple times that the wifi speed is up ~40Mbps after disconnecting the ethernet, then after a few minutes goes back down to ~1Mbps. Really not sure how to interpret that.

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Originally Posted by Thaleia

Well with the wifi card being only 20 CAD I've got one en route today to play with, also maxxing out the ram for fun. We'll see how it goes.

TBH I'm kinda thinking it's software related though - I've noticed a couple times that the wifi speed is up ~40Mbps after disconnecting the ethernet, then after a few minutes goes back down to ~1Mbps. Really not sure how to interpret that.

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run a malware scan if not already done. Sure sounds like something is eating bandwidth. Can you test wifi from a phone connected to the network? Would love to see those results. I wonder if you got a big that mines shitcoins....when that machine is on the network are any others slowed down at all?

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Originally Posted by Thaleia

Using Speedtest by ookla I see our PC is getting ~ 14 - 35 Mbps on our wifi network, while any other device ei mobile, tablet, iptv box in the same spot is getting ~73 Mbps on our plan that should allow us 75 Mbps.

I'm not the smartest when it comes to this stuff so with out getting too far into the weeds, is there anything I can be checking on the PC to troubleshoot this?

(this PC has been plagued by USB related issues, mainly USB not recognizing what's plugged into it. Doubt this is be related, but full disclosure)

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Is it an MSI motherboard with WiFi built into the board? I had those symptoms off and on till the MSI finally went tits up. Piece of shit. Driver updates helped with the USB stuff until it didn't. Threw the MSI in the recycle shit pile and bought an Asus Republic of Gamers motherboard and all of my troubles went away.

I think you are on track with the cheap Wifi adapter but the USB problems and Wifi issues could definitely be the motherboard.

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Originally Posted by Skidog

run a malware scan if not already done. Sure sounds like something is eating bandwidth. Can you test wifi from a phone connected to the network? Would love to see those results. I wonder if you got a big that mines shitcoins....when that machine is on the network are any others slowed down at all?

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Yeah I've done mulitple malware and virus scans. Everything else on the same network test fine, it is just this pc. While this pc was crawling at 1Mbps, everything else was fast.

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Originally Posted by uglymoney

Is it an MSI motherboard with WiFi built into the board? I had those symptoms off and on till the MSI finally went tits up. Piece of shit. Driver updates helped with the USB stuff until it didn't. Threw the MSI in the recycle shit pile and bought an Asus Republic of Gamers motherboard and all of my troubles went away.

I think you are on track with the cheap Wifi adapter but the USB problems and Wifi issues could definitely be the motherboard.

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No mb is Acer. Ok, will keep that in mind.. If I am successful with fixing the wifi I'll look into the USB's again.

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Originally Posted by Thaleia

RShea that's a good point, but in this area the PC and compared devices are on the 2.4G network. Our router supports 5G as well, but it doesn't reach this area.

Skidog that's ridiculous.

OK, hooked up with the ethernet cable and the difference is night and day. Tested at 40Mbps, wifi was 1.5Mbos just prior. Still not a great speed but certainly good enough for the use this PC sees.

So - does that absolutely prove it is the wireless adapter? Is that something a computer jong can swap out them selves?

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Have you also tried some other speed test packages or web sites? I find Speed Test dot net the worst as they pick server based on ping time response and not even the bandwidth and pipe the server has.

Try fast dot com, Google Fiber (I use it in the USA not sure about Canada), and a few others like megapath, to see what they report next to speed test.

If you get better speeds with the new card, then you should be good to go. Antenna, location of the device (signal strength and other things can all affect the 2.4 Ghz )

Ok installed the wifi new card (same model as what came with PC) and it didn't make any change to the speed. The added ram is nice though.

RShea I hadn't used fast.com before, playing with it now and it's showing speeds a bit lower than what I was getting on speedtest by ookla, but still shows the PC well below other devices.

In terms of location of the PC - when I'm testing the PC speed and comparing to eg the speed on my cell (which are on the same network), I'm physically putting the cell right beside the PC. It's not like I'm testing one here and the other in a separate room.

Apologies - I know this is getting a bit tedious..

So with this PC's location, it couldn't get the 5g signal so I used the 2.4g. I see I am now able to get 5g (just one 'bar'), but the speed is now 74Mbps. (our web plan is 75Mbps)

Maybe this was a success after all.

Move your router and or PC. Or leave it wired.

You didn't accidentally install McAfee when updating Adobe product, did you? Even if you uninstall that shit in control panel, it leaves a shitton of background crap running. It requires a program called McAfee Product Removal Tool to get that shit out.

Good point; Norton does the same shit.

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Originally Posted by riser3

Move your router and or PC. Or leave it wired.

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Naw man it's good, getting near max wifi speed now that I can get onto the 5 g network (post #29). So far so good.

splat and Flyoverland Captive - I don't *think* I have either, speeds are good now, though. I do remember this pc came preloaded with McAfee. Looking at the removal tool right now. I'll probably not bother for now, it's kinda fucked you gotta download and install more shit from McAfee no less..

2.4 Ghz is slower, and does not share as well because it usually is set up for full backward compatibility with the older standards. It is usually capped at 300 Mbps or 450 Mbps with a higher end router, but that is across all the various devices using it. The 5 Ghz newer AC standard is MU MiMo (multiple in and multiple out using multiple transmission and receiving antennas at the same time instead of a single one the older 2.4 Ghz uses) and speed depending on your router usually starts at 750 Mbps and go up to 2000 or higher Mbps for high end gaming- AC 2300 and up streaming routers with a bunch of antennas.

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Originally Posted by Thaleia

Naw man it's good, getting near max wifi speed now that I can get onto the 5 g network (post #29). So far so good.

splat and Flyoverland Captive - I don't *think* I have either, speeds are good now, though. I do remember this pc came preloaded with McAfee. Looking at the removal tool right now. I'll probably not bother for now, it's kinda fucked you gotta download and install more shit from McAfee no less..

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Some of that needs an encryption key to kill because you don't want just any malicious software to be able to remove your anti malicious software software.

Rick Dalton: "Oh, sh*t. Alright, that’s too hot. Anything we could do about that heat?"
Flamethrower Trainer: "Rick, it’s a flamethrower."

I think at this point it's clear that your PC has coronavirus from all the Chinese midget porn you've been watching.

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Originally Posted by RShea

2.4 Ghz is slower, and does not share as well because it usually is set up for full backward compatibility with the older standards. It is usually capped at 300 Mbps or 450 Mbps with a higher end router, but that is across all the various devices using it. The 5 Ghz newer AC standard is MU MiMo (multiple in and multiple out using multiple transmission and receiving antennas at the same time instead of a single one the older 2.4 Ghz uses) and speed depending on your router usually starts at 750 Mbps and go up to 2000 or higher Mbps for high end gaming- AC 2300 and up streaming routers with a bunch of antennas.

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Cool. I knew 2.4 Ghz was a compromise but never expected it would have an actual 'shared cap' across other devices, not to mention overall speeds. Everything is stable so far on 5 Ghz.

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Originally Posted by highangle

Some of that needs an encryption key to kill because you don't want just any malicious software to be able to remove your anti malicious software software.

Rick Dalton: "Oh, sh*t. Alright, that’s too hot. Anything we could do about that heat?"
Flamethrower Trainer: "Rick, it’s a flamethrower."

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I get it, just the irony there. I would almost trust a shady sponsored google search result download for a removal tool over more shit from McAfee. Ok it's too hot, fuck. How will I remove this tool?! lol

Are you sure you are on the same wifi? We just bought a few new HP laptop computers at work. The specs and prices looked great. When they arrived, I noticed the same slow performance. When actually looking that the specs of the delivered HP machines, we noticed that they hold a super old wifi card that did not support 5 ghz and they would only see and run on the 2.4 network. Our IT guys could not believe that new nice machines ordered from Amazon but from HP directly (although I guess handled by 3rd party) would come with such an old part.

Oops... I now see the other posters pointing the same thing out. Our machines were listed as having an ac wifi card, but they did not. We had to return them. Ended up with Lenovo Thinkpads which we are happy with.