# 5100 AGN - Very slow connection max 1/5th of what it's supposed to be?



## Black Panther (Oct 9, 2013)

So a friend of mine gave me his laptop for 'general software maintenance' though the main problem was that his wifi was extremely slow, he said pictures don't even load and connections get timed out. Youtube is out if the question.

The laptop's an MSI GT640 running Win 7 x86.

Testing speedtest at his home using his own router and ISP barely gave me 2Mbps (he's paying for 15Mbps) though other pc's using same ISP and same router don't have this problem and reach 15Mbps easily.

Took laptop home...

Ran routine Malwarebytes, ccleaner and all the works.... lots of stuff removed... (7 trojans and 70+ other infections, 7 or more GB of useless/duplicate stuff removed from HDD etc.. etc.. )

But the slow connection persisted.

Connected to my own router and ISP, speed varies erratically between 1Mbps and 5Mbps keeping more on the lower side of that.
If I connected it directly not with wifi, I get the same good speed I get at home. Also if I use a USB wifi I get a fast speed (the one I'm paying for).

I've tried various things... removing the NIC from device manager and reinstalling it, updating the driver, meddling with various advanced settings one at a time... the last one I googled was a person who said that with the 5100 AGN installing Vista (x86) drivers solved this same problem... but I also tried that and am still stuck with 3Mbps 

I wish to return this machine with the problem solved.... Any ideas?


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## zsolt_93 (Oct 9, 2013)

I had problems with an 5100AGN also, having speed issues and dropping the connection, it was all about it only supporting draft N at 150Mbps and the router being a full 300Mbps device. I worked flawlessly with a 150Mbps router, but the final thing I did was to change the mode of the 5100AGN to g only this way it works at somewhat reduced speed but at least its fully stable now.


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## Black Panther (Oct 9, 2013)

zsolt_93 said:


> but the final thing I did was to change the mode of the 5100AGN to g only this way it works at somewhat reduced speed but at least its fully stable now.



I just changed it to only G, but got 2.7Mbps so the problem's still there since I get that similar speed on all the other configurations


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## Aquinus (Oct 9, 2013)

Is it still slow if you plug it in with an ethernet cable?


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## Beertintedgoggles (Oct 9, 2013)

How close have you tried moving the laptop to your router?  It could be one of the internal antenna have wiggled lose from the wireless card inside (assuming it's like most laptops now with snap fit coax cables connected to the wireless card and routed up and around the bezel of the screen).  If it picks up speed or signal strength it could be a sign that's the culprit.


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## remixedcat (Oct 9, 2013)

Some say to try to turn the 802.11n mode off...


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## Black Panther (Oct 9, 2013)

Aquinus said:


> Is it still slow if you plug it in with an ethernet cable?



Nope. 

And it's fast also if I switch off the NIC and use a USB wifi adaptor (so I concluded it's not a router/ISP problem especially since it's exactly the same when I tested ethernet and USB wifi adaptor at my friend's home using his router and ISP)



Beertintedgoggles said:


> How close have you tried moving the laptop to your router?  It could be one of the internal antenna have wiggled lose from the wireless card inside (assuming it's like most laptops now with snap fit coax cables connected to the wireless card and routed up and around the bezel of the screen).  If it picks up speed or signal strength it could be a sign that's the culprit.



That doesn't fix it. Anyway, I'm getting a full wifi signal right where I am, both with the desktop pc I'm currently writing this from and from that laptop. But my desktop registers 15Mbps and the laptop only 2Mbps on Speedtest. They're practically on the same desk, connected by wifi to the same modem & same ISP...



remixedcat said:


> Some say to try to turn the 802.11n mode off...



Thanks just the same but I tried that and it didn't make any difference..


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## Aquinus (Oct 9, 2013)

What does Windows report for a signal strength and link speed?


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## Black Panther (Oct 9, 2013)

Aquinus said:


> What does Windows report for a signal strength and link speed?



Windows signal strength is full bars (it says 'excellent', same as the pc I'm typing from). 

Not sure where I check the link speed.. ? I remember on older pc's it used to say 100Mbps but those were not Win 7


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## Black.Raven (Oct 9, 2013)

You could try the first driver, and try to find the driver from the card itself, not from the support page from msi (if you havent already)


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## newtekie1 (Oct 10, 2013)

Check the link speed in task manager under the networking tab.

Though my guess is the wireless card is toast, it happens.


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## remixedcat (Oct 10, 2013)

Check the link speed from the router's control panel. (Hint: Should be in "connected clients" "active clients" or the like) 

Also you can download LAN speed test and test as well. \

Also you want want to download InSSIDer and check your signal integrity


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## Black Panther (Oct 10, 2013)

After I installed the Vista driver for the NIC instead of the Windows 7 one there were some updates, then it worked fine!

I don't know what solved it though since I had restarted the pc several times before. Anyway, I'm glad it's ok now.


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## remixedcat (Oct 10, 2013)

I guess the atheros fix I deleted works for the Intel as well. He he.


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