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Terrible broadband speeds on one computer only ..

jerryw
Grafter
Posts: 36
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Terrible broadband speeds on one computer only ..

I have bad feelings about getting this problem sorted, but here goes, any help greatly appreciated. Need help! :

 

- I've had Plusnet fibre broadband for a year or two, and a desktop pc, a laptop and smartphone.

- the desktop is an intel i7 machine with plenty of ram etc and windows 10, up to date.

- so far as I can see the router connection is stable and working OK

- until a month ago I was regularly getting 20-23Mb/s download and 4-5Mb/s upload on both the laptop and desktop.

- but then the speeds on the desktop plummeted. The download speed on the laptop is still around 20Mb/s but the desktop is getting 1Mb/s at most.

So .. I have carried out various basic test and everything claims to be running smoothly. I have bought a new wifi usb adaptor, an Edimax EW-7833UAC and having disabled the previous adaptor, installed it .. no change! Still pathetic ..

I think it must be something inside the desktop OS or wifi software but I don't know where to look. I would roll back the PC but system restore is not offering any old enough dates ..

 

Can anyone help or suggest what I can do?

 

 

12 REPLIES 12
Baldrick1
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Re: Terrible broadband speeds on one computer only ..

Try updating your PC Drivers. I use the free version of Iobytes Driver Booster https://www.iobit.com/en/driver-booster.php It's amazing how many out of date drivers you may find. Note that the free version is slow with updates but gets there in the end.

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jerryw
Grafter
Posts: 36
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Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Terrible broadband speeds on one computer only ..

Tried that .. it says it has updated 22 drivers, but no change in wifi speeds I'm afraid

thanks for the suggestion though, interesting software

Oldjim
Resting Legend
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Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Terrible broadband speeds on one computer only ..

have you tried a wired connection for the desktop

if that gives full speed it sounds like a wireless card problem

is the wireless adapter internal or a usb plug in device

if internal try disabling and then enabling the device via control panel

if external try unplugging it then plugging it into a different usb slot

jerryw
Grafter
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Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Terrible broadband speeds on one computer only ..

It is a usb adapter, given time I can connect the pc and router via cable, but it is not easy and I will have to keep that as a last resort. The computer and main BT socket are far apart ..

BUT  .. I have good news and bad news:

- having updated various drivers from the suggestion above, I now find my computer has no sound! Nothing .. if I try to play music the volume mixer says sound is there.. things go up and down .. but it is not reaching the speakers.

- so I thought I would restore to yesterday, but before I do that I will just do a broadband speed test .. heavens, it is back to 20Mb/s! Now, I did check it after updating drivers etc and it was unchanged .. but I have been fiddling with this and that, the computer has restarted once or twice .. and now the wifi link seems to be working properly again!

so I once again have responsive wifi but I have no sound .. I think I am better off but I would like sound too. The audio troubleshooter found no problem.. audio settings look OK ..

Mustrum
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Re: Terrible broadband speeds on one computer only ..

You could also open task manager and look to see if anything else is using the network on the PC. If you have Onedrive, or any other cloud based drive that could be copying stuff whilst you speed test.

Oldjim
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Re: Terrible broadband speeds on one computer only ..

try rolling back the audio driver and are you sure something hasn't changed the default sound device

Baldrick1
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Re: Terrible broadband speeds on one computer only ..

Did you reboot between noticing that there was no improvement in WiFi speeds and then noting the improvement? I assume that Windows only picks up a new driver on initial boot up.

With respect to your missing sound have you checked 'sounds' in your Control Panel settings? I have a Nvidia graphics card which incorporates high definition audio output I also have the standard 5.1 audio output on the PC Motherbird, which is what I use. I have found that this can cause confusion after a driver update and Windows assume that I am going to use the graphics card composite video sound output and set this as the default.

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Mav
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Re: Terrible broadband speeds on one computer only ..

Moderator's note:

Moved to Tech Help as it doesn't appear to be a broadband issue.

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ReedRichards
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Re: Terrible broadband speeds on one computer only ..

The vast majority of 'Driver Updater' programs are cons.  Steer well clear of them.  Get the wrong driver and your computer might stop working altogether.

A computer with a virus might well show poor broadband speeds if the virus is using most of the capacity.  Or one of these borderline legitimate file sharing programs could be using up a lot of your capacity.  Even Windows 10 updates sometimes seem to get out of hand.  

 

 

 

 

 

ReedRichards
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Re: Terrible broadband speeds on one computer only ..

I actually saw a problem that might be similar to this yesterday.  Two laptops running Windows 10 could not load many web sites and others did not load correctly, for example http://www.bbc.co.uk/news would show the text but failed to load any pictures.  But I was told that this problem did not manifest on other devices (I did not verify this).  And the connection speed reported by the router was very fast (>22 Mbps ADSL). 

 

The important point is that I was able to fix the problem by resetting the router.  So that might be worth a try if other attempts have failed.  I have no idea why it worked. 

jerryw
Grafter
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Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Terrible broadband speeds on one computer only ..

Just wanted to thank everyone for the helpful suggestions .. at present the broadband speed is intermittently good but mostly still around 2Mb/s and I can't get the sound to work. I don't think it can be a virus or malware because task manager shows no sign of unauthorised activity.

I have decided to give the desktop pc a good going over .. reinstall windows 10 etc

Will report back idc but might be a week or few

Thanks again

 

jerryw
Grafter
Posts: 36
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Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Terrible broadband speeds on one computer only ..

Just to finish this thread off, in the end Plusnet replaced the router and that has fixed the problem. Nothing else worked..