Gaming z690-G WIFI - WIFI and BT issues

[Dedmoin]

Hi,

I have a ROG Strix Z690-G Gaming Wifi with Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 160MHz adapter. 

First of all, my Bluetooth does only recognize my TV but not my phone, headphones, speakers, ... Those just don't show up when scanning. I am able to connect all of those things to my phone(s), pad, ... 

This is already my second PC were BT does not work and I have no clue why. Drivers are up to date and the PC is able to find my TV but nothing else. 

The WiFi adapter does not work at 6GHz even when configured to do so. I can switch between 2.5 and 5 GHz but 6GHz is never used. I read 6GHz is not supported in all countries and my country allows 6Ghz only since begin of this year. Could it be possible the card does not recognize 6GHz is now allowed and does not enable it?

Also the performance is really bad for some clients when using my PC at hotspot, barely reaching 100MBits. I could not find a way to set channel/width ... but as far as I can see the auto settings are always uncontested and my hotspot/PC is the only AP.

I have updated all drivers and firmware, the antenna is 2m away without any obstacles, I can see the antenna.

any advice is much appreciated

[JohnAb]

I don't know what the problem is, but I have the AX210 chip and everything works great. Maybe try MoKiChU's drivers here:

https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/hardware-build-advice/index-all-my-drivers-firmware-software-threads/m...

They are much more up to date than the support page versions, so maybe something has been fixed. Also, have a look in device manager and just make sure that WiFi and Bluetooth are confirmed as working correctly. 

I also remember that when BIOS 2305 was released for the Hero, the description said this:

"To comply with Wi-Fi regulation in Japan, this version does NOT allow rolling back to the previous versions, not even via USB BIOS FlashBack"

Maybe your BIOS has changed something, might be worth checking the support page description as well for your BIOS history. Might give a clue.  

[Dedmoin]

Thanks a lot!

I will try out those drivers.

Unfortunately i could not find a way on how to retrieve the regions the WiFi adapter thinks it is allowed to use 6Ghz. It seems to be possible in Linux though. 

Does MB BIOS affect WiFi adapter behavior. Of course it does somehow but I mean in regards of what protocols, band, ... are supported?! There is a newer BIOS version available but I hesitate to update... currently everything I touch seems to break in the past weeks lol

Could there be any other component that might affect the performance of the WiFi adapter? Like ME?

[JohnAb]

Really not sure how (or if)  the BIOS or ME firmware might affect Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, I but I can imagine that they could, perhaps changing the way it's allowed to operate anyway. Generally, I think it's fair to say that BIOS versions have been getting better over time, so an upgrade might be worth a try if the newer drivers don't help. If you do, then update MEI drivers first, then ME firmware, then BIOS. The more recent BIOSs now automatically update the ME firmware (if needed) - it will say on the support page.  

I'd suggest checking the forum carefully before going ahead though - there can be BIOS horror stories, especially if you have fast RAM, a lot of it, or 4 sticks. I've never had a BIOS problem, but then again I have slow RAM, 2 sticks and I can't be bothered with overclocking.  Having said all of that, no locked BIOSs have been released for a while, so you can probably roll back again if needed.

[Dedmoin]

Ok... after a lot of reading, I spent the last couple of days following all possible directions on this topic... I found a lot of people are complaining about lack of support or unreliable behavior of WiFi products of this company and Windows. 

People had to downgrade their drivers and still not all of them could fully use their internal WiFi adaptors. 

[JohnAb]

No experience with the AX211 myself, so if the drivers didn't help then I guess that only leaves the ME/BIOS options. Worth a try I would say. What did you try?

[Dedmoin]

Thanks for your reply

The list of what I tried is long 😄

• tried previous driver versions (suggested by people having similar issues)
• tried driver provided by Asus, provided by Intel, the drivers from the link above
• of course with countless driver un-/install and Win restarts
• tried registry settings (orginal for Win10 and already active in Win11)
• tried several hotspot SW (but could not find a free version that is not outdated and has more than 1 button to start the hotspot)
• tried several WiFi monitors and analyzers to at least find the reason why 5Ghz performs bad if I cannot use 6Ghz
• tried countless combinations of advanced device settings in Windows
• verified available features (eg netsh wlan show drivers) and 6Ghz is supported (theoretically by the drivers)
• read for hours in forum about people having the same problems and how random their solutions were (mostly driver downgrades)
• tried to find a SW to tweak the WiFi adaptor like Intel Killer Performance Suite (but could not find any)

I don't see how MB BIOS upgrade should help since the drivers already show 6Ghz is supported.

[JohnAb]

That's a comprehensive list. I agree, that the ME firmware and BIOS are probably not the culprits, but who knows? I would try it anyway, but that's just me. 

Just a random idea, could the issue be with your router? Any firmware updates available? I have the Netgear RAXE500 using 6E and until the last firmware update earlier this year, I was getting an issue where WiFi would disconnect every few days. Mind you, that wouldn't explain Bluetooth issues, but again, just something to check. Good luck...

[Dedmoin]

I could not find anything related to firmware for the AX211.

It seems Asus mixed up some meanings. For some reasons the kernel drivers for Linux are called 'firmware'. This 'firmware' is all I found. So nothing for Windows or actual firmware.

[Dedmoin · Accepted solution]

I have now got the confirmation from Asus support that 6GHz is not supported by Windows 11, at least for my adapter. lol Just nice to have this MB promoted as WiFi 6e + Win 11 ready. But I am in hope to get this issue resolved soon... after Asus didn't fix this for the past 2 years and there are already new chipsets on the market. ... this is so not funny

Now I just have to figure out why the supported 5GHz is not reliable.