Lenovo Y50 incredibly slow WiFi

Since about two months ago, my Lenovo Y50 laptop has been having issue with WiFi. It often cuts out and takes ages to connect, if it connects at all. It is also very slow when connected. Where I used to get speeds of around 65 mbps I now only get 10 (actually it fluctuates between 10 and 0)

Other than the slow speeds, I also get terrible latency issues. Pinging servers that I know are up (8.8.8.8 for example) yields a ping of over 400ms every time, if it doesn't time out.

I've tried the following:

Reinstall Windows
Update drivers
Try another network
Reset driver
Disable 802.11d

I've been breaking my head over this issue for over a month now and finally gave up. I replaced the hard drive in the laptop with an SSD when I bought it and lost the original drive, so I can't go back to the store and ask them to fix it.

Windows Event Viewer continuously shows errors about some WLAN service restarting (I'm not typing this from my laptop, I'll update the question with the actual message soon)

Wired internet works fine.

I have had the following OS's on the laptop on which I tried it, all had the issues:

Windows 10 Pro
Windows 10 Pro with anniversary update
Linux Mint 18 (cinnamon?)

I think the main issue is that the latency is very slow, so requests for downloads take a long time? (I don't know how downloading big files works, ignore me if that made no sense).

Thanks!

cascer1

Posted 2016-08-24T19:08:49.713

Reputation: 1 762

Do you use any other Wireless devices with your laptop? Wireless keyboard/mice etc. – Mark Riddell – 2016-08-24T19:15:26.703

I do. Disconnecting them doesn't fix it :( – cascer1 – 2016-08-24T19:16:32.427

which wifi chip do you use? – magicandre1981 – 2016-08-25T04:31:30.943

@magicandre1981 I use the Realtek RTL8723BE wireless card. Driver version 2023.34.430.8016 – cascer1 – 2016-08-25T16:49:59.757

try driver 2023.38.0701.2016: http://www.station-drivers.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=352&func=fileinfo&id=2390&lang=en

– magicandre1981 – 2016-08-27T08:11:09.830

I'm not sure about downloading drivers from a site with an invalid SSL certificate. I'll look on another site :) – cascer1 – 2016-08-27T16:27:46.880

@magicandre1981 That driver did definitely resolve the latency issue. Speed does seem to have improved but I'm not sure what the speed of the network I'm on now should be. I'll test it when I get home and post an update! – cascer1 – 2016-08-27T16:42:01.057

@magicandre1981 The driver update did definitely improve the speed a lot. It even worked on the Linux install (I don't know how drivers work really, perhaps this is normal?). Go ahead and post it as an answer for that sweet sweet rep :) – cascer1 – 2016-08-27T17:37:56.403

ok, I posted it as answer – magicandre1981 – 2016-08-27T18:21:15.737

Answers

You should install a newer driver, your driver version 2023.34.430.8016 is a bit old. Because I can't see find the chip on the realtek site, I found working drivers on http://www.station-drivers.com/. Get the latest driver 2023.38.0701.2016 WHQL and look if it improves performance.

magicandre1981

Posted 2016-08-24T19:08:49.713

Reputation: 86 560

Do you know of a way to make it so that windows doesn't keep updating the driver? I'm getting kind of tired of having to re-install it after every other reboot. – cascer1 – 2016-10-03T12:17:16.910

@cascer1 try this: http://superuser.com/a/1068961/174557

– magicandre1981 – 2016-10-03T12:22:38.167

Thanks, I've actually called Lenovo about this. They agreed to have a look at my laptop (since It's still covered by warranty) because they think it might be a hardware issue. I'm impressed they'll take it in because I replaced the hard drive with my own SSD. – cascer1 – 2016-10-07T07:35:28.443

After contacting Lenovo about the issue, they agreed to an RMA.

The motherboard was replaced by Lenovo, after which the issue persisted. They then replaced the hard drive (failing to install Windows and putting FreeDOS on it instead) but the issue still persists. I'm sending it back another time before I start employing my secret weapon (EU consumer protection laws)

magicandre1981's answer about installing an alternative driver did drastically improve WiFi performance with the faulty hardware, so I'll leave that as accepted answer.

cascer1

Posted 2016-08-24T19:08:49.713

Reputation: 1 762

Here is the fix:

Update your drivers
Go to Control Panel then device manager, go to your Network Card e.g Realtek
Right Click, Properties Go to Advanced then in wireless mode
Select EEEE 802.11 B/G before it is in AUTO
Go to Power Management and uncheck Allow computer to turn off this device.

Hope This Helps ;)

TriEdge

Posted 2016-08-24T19:08:49.713

Reputation: 1

I'm afraid I already tried the solution you suggest, it didn't work. I got a refund for my laptop and bought a new HP instead. – cascer1 – 2017-03-04T17:52:02.070