RAlink rt3290 b/g/n maximum speed 54Mbps

[Petre]

Hi, I recently bought an HP Pavilion Sleekbook 15-b001sq with RAlink RT3290 radio.

I installed the latest WiFi driver: sp59525 [Ralink 802.11 Wireless LAN Adapter - 2012-10-29 , Version 5.0.5.0 ].exe

My Router is b/g/n; other computers in my home are connecting at 150Mbps with no problems.

Still, the maximum connection speed with Pavilion Sleekbook is 54 Mbps.

Why is that and what can be done ? I need an answer a.s.a.p. because I cannot stay at this speed and if this problem is not solvable, I will return it to the vendor and buy another brand. Please help. Thanks.

[Lyubo]

Hi,

I have the same problem. My environment:

Router - TP Link TL-WR720N

Laptop - ProBook 4540s

WiFi card - RaLink RT3290 - latest driver Version 5.0.5.0

Router settings:

- channel - 2 (tried with auto)

- mode - 11bgn mixed

- channel width - 40 (tried with auto)

- security - WPA2-PSK with AES encryption

- no packet burst option

Everything I try I got no luck here - the connection speed is 54mbps even the router and the WiFi card are n enabled. I am sure my router is able to transmit 150 mbps as my previous laptop (1 week ago) was able to connect at 150 mbps. No settings changed for the router... Please help...

[Cloud_Strider]

I understand that your wifi cards are connecting at speeds no higher than 54Mbps.

This sounds like it is negotiating the connection at the Wireless G standard instead of the N standard.  Previous versions of Windows provided a setting to specify what standard to connect at (a, b, g, n, etc.), but I haven't seen this on any of the Windows 8 units I have looked at.  For testing purposes, what happens if the router is set to N only instead of a mixed mode?

[Petre]

The router was set to N mod ...  a long time ago.

[Emx77]

I have exactly the same problem. Maximum speed is 54MBps. Laptop HP ProBook 4540s.

[Petre]

Well, ... I am not satisfied with ralink wifi chipset, even with other drivers I found on the internet. I returned the Sleekbook back to the vendor. I will try another brand.
This topic can be closed.

[Lyubo]

if possible I would like to keep the topic open until a solution. I can't return my laptop and this is really disturbing

[Emx77]

I also wouldn't like to see this thread closed as I'm not in position to return laptop.

Last night I tested Ralink WiFi more thoroughly in my home. I first started with my old D-Link DIR300 router which works in 812.11g mode. In the room where I usually use laptop (router is in another room some 8-10m away) signal is not best one but my old Dell Studio 1555 never had any obvious problem with it. I was able to open web pages and watch YouTube videos smoothly on 360p and 720p. However, with HP 4540s Internet browsing become very tedious business. There are constant oscillations in signal quality and speed. YouTube is useless with often interruptions of video stream even on lowest quality.

I borrowed another router form my friend (Tenda W308R 812.11b/g/n 200Mbps). Situation with signal improved slightly, less complex web pages are loading ok, but YouTube still doesn't work smoothly (constant freezes). Despite router working in n mode (300Mbps),  Ralink WiFi card is reporting only 54Mbps speed. I have noticed another thing. When I start to downloading something and, let say, download speed is 400Kbps - sometimes wireless signal strength in Win7 indicator drops from 4 to 3 bars (indicating degradation of wifi signal). At that moment download speed decreases to 30-40Kbps. So far so good... But when signal strength increase back to 4 bars, download speed doesn't follow this and stays at same low rate of 30-40Kbps. I need to turn-off and then turn-on again WiFi card in order to take advantage of better signal. This is something I've never had to do with my Dell studio 1555.

Conclusions:

1. Ralink WiFi card doesn't use 812.11n signal and it is stuck at 54MBps.

2. Compared to WiFi card in older laptop (Dell 1555), this Ralink card in newer laptop (HP4540s) handles weaker WiFi signal much worse.

Questions:

1. Are others have similar experiences?

2. Is it possible that behavior of Ralink card as described above can be improved with driver update or there is no hope for us?

[Lyubo]

Alright, got it fixed with the driver Version 5.0.21.0 from here:

http://www.station-drivers.com/page/ralink.htm from this section "Ralink RT2860 /RT2760 /RT2890 /RT2790 /RT306X /RT309X /RT35X2/RT539x/RT32xx PCI/MiniPCI/CardBus"

Just noticed that there is a new driver 5.0.23.0 but I am currently with 21 and connected at 150mbps (highest speed of my router) so I think I will stick with this for now.

I recommend everybody with the problem to try this driver and update if will help.

THANK YOU HP!!!

[Emx77]

Lyubo, thank you man. It works now. WiFi is at 150 Mbits and seems more stable then before.