Realtek RTL8822BE wifi issue - very weird software problem

[RasJeremy]

Hi

Basic info

Network connection into house - guaranteed 200/200 fiber

NetGear Orbi RBK50 router with 2 matching tri-band mesh satellites

My HPdesktop is running Realtek RTL8822BE

Normal and working well

Since I got the computer in January 2019 I've had no issues with the network, but in the last couple of weeks I've experienced some weird stuff.

When I normally did a speed test on speedtest.net it would end up with a ping on 9-10 and pretty much match my 200/200 connection to my computer on the wifi mesh.

Problem described

However as said in last couple of weeks I've experienced when gaming that my ping is going nuts and my game ends up looking like this:

https://streamable.com/351gnz

And when taking a speed test it end up on still 9-10 ping and 40/40 or around that - which should still be fairly okay

Troubleshooting and tried solutions

When I do troubleshoot the network adapter and reset it and reboot the computer it all returns to normal and runs smooth and connection is good, but as soon as the computer has been shut down, the nightmare begins all over again.

I have tried to factory reset both my fiber router, the mesh router and the complete wifi mesh system (without noticable result)

I have also tried reinstalling the drivers for the wifi adapter and even tried installing older versions of the driver. (Worked untill next reboot)

Last but not least I have tried to reinstall the entire OS on the computer to see if it helped. (Worked untill next reboot)

Solutions I haven't tried

I have not put a cable from the router to the computer to see if that eliminates to issue - however that is also a tricky task due to the layout of the house

Also I haven't tried putting in a seperate PCI-E network card or a powerline adapter with cables - I'm not really interested in putting money into something that has been working well for more than 3 years and all of a sudden starts to go nuts.

I hoped for a kind soul that would be able to figure out what my network is doing and why it is behaving like that.

Thank you!

Best regards - Ras, Denmark

[BeemerBiker]

When powering a PC up, windows will check for updates and attempt to download.  A reinstall of the OS can cause problems with the upgrade.  For example, if the copy you used to re-install is before the "1709" version then the downloads will fail as the modules needed are not available anymore.  A reinstall of windows should be from the latest media creation tool

Please check your update history and see if it is stuck attempting to download the same items repeatedly.

There are other possible problems'

Windows 10 feature updates and 3rd party apps (McAfee, Norton, Office, etc) grow in size.  Bring up the task manager and see how much available memory you have. If your system came with 8gb you may need 16.

Many apps phone home. I found that McAfee would phone home and would time out trying to contact servers that did not exist or were blocked.  Consider using Microsoft's Defender.  Look at all the apps running in the tasks manager, google their names and uninstall them if not useful.  Look in the event viewer in "system" for timeouts.  Unfortunately, there is a lot of flak which can hid the real problems.

As far as Wi-Fi you might run the channel optimization program which most modems have plus ensure you are using the 5ghz freq and the latest protocols.

[RasJeremy]

Hi BeemerBiker

Thank you for taking yoour time to reply and try to help me with the issue.

The link you've provided resulted in multiple different apps installed on my PC... That didn't go well

As for the rest of your comment, it didn't help, but it got me on track for narrowing down the issue.

I changed the preferred band to 5GHz band and when troubleshooting afterwards this made me realize something.

(have in mind that in the following it id set to preferred 5GHz all the time)

When I turn off the computer I always flip the switch on the wall socket so my monitors and computer doesn't eat power on standby.

I have the set the BIOS to power up the computer as soon as it gets power - which works like a charm.

But everytime I do so, it will connect to 2,4GHz on channel 6 - where all the issues persists.

If I reboot or turn on the computer without having cut the power prior to startup, the computer will immediately connect to 5GHz on channel 36, and no issues what so ever

So something fishy is happening in the software when the power is cut from the computer...

[BeemerBiker]

---

@RasJeremy wrote:

When I turn off the computer I always flip the switch on the wall socket so my monitors and computer doesn't eat power on standby.

---

If your system is actually on standby when you turn off the power then basically you have pulled the plug on a working system.  Alternately, you have have powered the system off before it had actually shut down which is the same problem

I suspect when the system starts back up it attempts to restore to when the "power failed" and will load the hibernate file which probably had never been updated and has old information such as using 2.4ghz

You can delete the hibernate file as shown here but you need to get a better shutdown procedure.

Some things to avoid:  If laptop, after clicking on shutdown do not close the lid until all the lights go out

For desktop wait till system completely shuts down before turning off power.  This could be as long as 2 or 3 minutes

If a message is displayed that an app is running and does not want to stop then shutdown will never take place.

If you hear a fan running, the system has not shut down.

Question:  What have you configured shutdown to do?  Do you have fast start enabled?

[RasJeremy]

Again - sorry for the long time reply but had to test some stuff to make sure it worked.

My shutdown procedure is correct - also accordingto your reply. It is a desktop and I shut it down and wait for it to go completely silent and the fans stopping - then I flip the wall switch.

I tried the hibernate file trick without any change but as stated in previous reply, I figured that the 2.4 and 5GHz issue was also something that had a mind of it's own.

I figured out that if the computer booted and was connected to 2.4 I could just turn off wifi and turn back on and everything was in order. That had to be done for a week or so and now there is no issues anymore. I check on every boot of the computer and both the connection and speedtest is as it should be. I don't know why it had to be an issue for 14 days and nw suddenly everything is in order.

Yet again - thanks a lot for your time and your replies.

[BeemerBiker]

You are welcome

Generally, the 5ghz band is better due to a lot of 2.4ghz "appliances" causing noise.

If you modem supports separate SSID for 2.4 and 5 then select that SSID for your system

[RasJeremy]

Makes good sense!

I have surveillance, door lock, doorbell camera, lighting throughout house and garage, washing machine, dryer and other applications that runs the 2.4

I have tried to see if there was an option to plit up SSID for the different connections but Netgear's routers doesn't offer this option

[BeemerBiker]

If you can set a different password for the a 5ghz band then that will work.

I have a similar problem with an iPhone when configuring 2.4ghz cameras.  The iPhone cannot be forced to 2.4 and I have to disable the 5ghz band at the modem to allow camera configuration.