Windows Tablets

[michael07]

Yesterday I've bought a switch 10, in place of a return.

I noticed that the wifi card does not see 5GHz connections, while the first model that included this feature.

The card is the following:

802.11abgn broadcom wireless SDIO adapter (which should be dual band)

May depend on what? Has anyone had a similar problem?

Thanks!

[Acer-Ryan]

michael07,

I noticed you are in Italy and due to various specifications and configurations, I would recommend you contacting our technical support in your region. They would be better equipped to see what hardware your system shipped with and may even assist in connecting to your 5Ghz network.

[padgett]

If it were mine, I'd go to Device Manager > Network Adapters > [your card] > advanced and see if any of the selections (may need to scroll down to see all) might be turning the 5GHZ bands off. (e.g. "g only")

Cannot say for sure since I do not have a Switch 10.

[michael07]

The product was defective, I asked for a change and now everything is ok!
I changed the settings, drivers, anything ... but there was nothing to do! Among other things, also the signal 2.4 was slow and not stable.

[kieranc3]

I have the exact same problem. My Switch 10 (SW5-012-12TV) cannot see the 5GHz band.

It is using the Realtek RTL8723BS Wireless LAN 802.11n SDIO Network Adapter which is a b/g/n adapter. I have tried to update to newest drivers and check all the settings to ensure that it is not blocking out any band.

Prior to this, I have sent in to Acer Singapore for repair as the wifi was slow and they took nearly two weeks to return it back to me. All that was done was an update of the system bios. It is still slow in my opinion.

I have a gigabit router and the maximum speed that I can connect on my Acer Switch 10 is 72mbps. (On my 5 year old Fujitsu, I can connect at 130 mbps). On Speednet test, I can only clock at most 40 Mbps right in front of my router while my Fujitsu can do up to 90 Mbps. I have a 100 Mbps fibre connection.

Can someone help to confirm if the RTL8272BS is dual band or single band? I hate to go back to Acer repair but is this unit defective? 

[michael07]

The new version of switch 10 (code 012) is single band...

[kieranc3]

Oh no! That's a shame.

I should have gotten the old model (code 11) instead. I am aware on the 12, they have downgraded the processor to Z3735F. I never expect them to downgrade the network adapter too. This is my first time buying an Acer. It is leaving a bad taste especially with the need to navigate the changes to Window 8 and Onedrive. It is frustrating.

[padgett]

Seems to be an industry phenomena. At the start of the year I was looking for a 8" tab with Z3770, 4GB ram, 64 GB SSD, GPS, and Windows 64. Looks like this season what we are getting are downgraded CPUs, no GPS, reduced RAM and general cost cutting.

Anymore I generally use my aunchient Aspire One netbook with upgraded RAM and HD & USB GPS.

[kieranc3]

I was quite frustrated that my link speed on the Acer Switch 10 is confined to a maximum of 72 Mbps. If Acer specs the network adapter as b/g/n, shouldn't I be getting at least 150 Mbps link speed?

So I called up Acer Support to confirm if the Realtek RTL8723BS Wireless LAN 802.11n SDIO Network Adapter if indeed single band or dual band and why can't I get n speed? I shall not get into the details but the CS actually suggested for me to sell this to a friend and buy another computer that meets my requirements since there is no refund or exchange if they think the unit is in functioning order. This is the worst cop-out I have ever heard!

Anyway, I spent the day reading up and did some tweaking with my Asus Router and Realtek adapter. I also downloaded the inSSIDer to check on interference. My router has been set to auto 20/40 Mhz. I found out that if I set it to 40 Mhz, I could get a link speed of 150 Mbps on the Switch 10. Correspondingly, the link speed of my other devices are also bump up to 300 Mbps. I was quite excited and did Speednet tests. However, to my dismay, there is not much improvement on my Switch 10 in term of speed. However, speed degraded tremendously when I moved far away from the router due to the shorter range of the 40 Mhz. In the end, I set by router back to Auto but optimized it by choosing a less crowded channel.

My conclusion is that the Realtek adapter is not only single band but also does not support MIMO. That explains why it can only get half the link speed of my other devices.

For a Tablets, internet speed is very important since we basically use it for online work. Acer has done themselves a great disservice by cost cutting and providing a lower specs machine. This is probably my first and last Acer.

[padgett]

Have noticed that some tabs (I have several) have reduced range on WiFi compared to my W510 or Aspire One, may be a result of cheaper parts. OTOH my 7" android tab is very good.

When I need "more", have two options:

1) RJ45 wired commection. Requires a $12 adapter, cheaper ones are limited to about 10Mbs. My Targus dock has a Gb adapter.

2) Use an external WiFi adapter. I have a couple of enGenius EUB9603H devices.