Nova Wifi card issues

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leebee2110

Bronze Level Poster
Hey,

Had my Nova now for around 2 month. Absolutely amazing machine. I have no grumbles with it, baring 1...

The wifi card seems to be dreadful. I've posted the spec below for reference.

Basically it only connects to a router (I travel a lot so we are talking maybe a dozen) intermittently. Sometimes this can be fixed by either restarting the laptop or the router. At home it'll only connect to the 5ghz channel and won't let me connect to the 2.4ghz channel or my mobile phone.
The signal strength is also quite poor, my work laptop (3 year old Dell) gets full strength when I'm upstairs at home and from the same room, the Nova barely scrapes half strength.
The bluetooth connection also seems weak to be honest comparing against previous laptops.
I plumped for the Killer card thinking it would be good, but maybe I'm wrong? Or maybe it's something I'm doing...

My questions are, 1) Has anyone had any of the same difficulties? 2) Is it easy enough to change the Killer card for something else? And if so, what would you recommend as an alternative.

For information, the drivers are up-to-date, direct from the Killer website. I even tried downloading the Killer Control Centre, but that didn't help much.

Appreciate any help thrown my way :)

Chassis & Display
Nova Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.4GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2070 - 8.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st Storage Drive
1TB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 470MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated Micro-SD Memory Card Reader
AC Adaptor
1 x 230W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Battery
Nova Series Detachable 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 M.2 GAMING + BLUETOOTH 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x USB 3.2 PORT (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.2 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Keyboard Language
15" NOVA SERIES UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
How comfortable are you checking the internals of the laptop? What we need to do is check the 2 x antenna cables connected to the WiFi card, sometimes this can happen if one of them isn’t on right.
 
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leebee2110

Bronze Level Poster
Thanks @SpyderTracks. I’m travelling at the moment but when I get home I’ll certainly take a look. I believe it’s located near the m.2 slots isn’t it? I’ll update again with a photo when I can. Again, thanks for responding!
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
leebee2110 said:
Thanks @SpyderTracks. I’m travelling at the moment but when I get home I’ll certainly take a look. I believe it’s located near the m.2 slots isn’t it? I’ll update again with a photo when I can. Again, thanks for responding!
Click to expand...
Ah, you just reminded me, I’ve actually got a manual for the nova, I’ll find the part sheet and PM you with the relevant page, should help out a bit.
 
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leebee2110

Bronze Level Poster
It turns out you were absolutely right. Problems seemingly addressed, up to full strength signal and connecting every time with no issues 😊 thanks @SpyderTracks I’m still getting the hang of all this so appreciate the help
14EF47A4-181D-4EFF-B87F-F3CE7C4525DC.jpeg
 
C

Compwxr

Member
I want to thank deeply to both mod&user who started the thread and thrown a solution to this problem. I was facing same problems, random disconnecting, wifi stability issues and for my surprise both antenas were correctly placed. I've switched the position of the main&aux to the same config I've seen in the picture above and all the issues are gone. I had white sleeved cable on 2 (main) and transparent on 1 (aux). Not sure if the antena's are equal to each other but that did the trick. Thanks
 
FerrariVie

FerrariVie

Super Star
Compwxr said:
I want to thank deeply to both mod&user who started the thread and thrown a solution to this problem. I was facing same problems, random disconnecting, wifi stability issues and for my surprise both antenas were correctly placed. I've switched the position of the main&aux to the same config I've seen in the picture above and all the issues are gone. I had white sleeved cable on 2 (main) and transparent on 1 (aux). Not sure if the antena's are equal to each other but that did the trick. Thanks
Click to expand...
They're definitely not the same and some laptops (my old Dell included) even have different colours on each cable, to help you identify which one should be placed on the correct place. From the picture it looks like both of them are black on this chassis? Never noticed that on mine, as I did not have issues with my unit.
 
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Compwxr

Member
Yeah, I had a lot of problems with wifi since day one. Tested a lot of drivers and never found a solution till yesterday. Seems like there's a correct order and I had it the other way. Anyway, I have the AX200NGW, not the killer one, but as far as I know the HW is the same. Also, I find odd the placement of the wifi module beneath the fastest m2 port, shouldn't it be the other way? Majority of user's will have that slot occupied by hot ssd's overheating sharing heat with the wifi module.
 
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Compwxr

Member
It's hard to spot the sleeve order. If you can, unscrew it and take another photo so we can see which one is connecting to 1&2.
 
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Compwxr

Member
The wifi card, lift it up a bit and take a photo to the cables and the order of the connection, like "white sleeve to 1 and transparent to 2"
 
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Compwxr

Member
The white sleeve should be connected on 1 and the transparent on 2. If they are and you're getting issues, try to reseat them. Disconnect and plug it until you feel a click. Do not leave too much pressure on the cables. They are a bit fragile. I confirm, now that's passed some time, my issue with random disconnects and perf issues is completely gone.
 
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