Acer R7-572 internet incredibly slow when bluetooth enabled?

MDacerGuy

anyboyd else have this problem?

 

trying to play music over my bluetooth speaker and browse the net,internet bogs down to like 1mb

 

turn off bluetooth and I get full 30mb down

 

what gives?

MDacerGuy

nobody runs bluetooth AND internet at the same time?

greg1

I do not do this... but it is a problem that I have read about elsewhere.  For example:

 

http://www.surfaceforums.net/forum/microsoft-surface-pro-2/6537-horrendous-wireless-performance.html

 

I think a lot of people using WiFi and Bluetooth mice/keyboards do not notice the problem, but when streaming audio over Bluetooth it is an issue.  Is it because streaming audio uses more bandwidth?  Because both radios are on a single card?  Because both radios are using the same 2.4GHz frequency band?  Don't know.

 

Can't help you fix the problem - I have read of people having it get fixed by Windows Update, or by changing driver settings, and those same things not helping others - but I will suggest that an inexpensive Bluetooth USB receiver is an easy and hopefully temporary workaround.

 

MDacerGuy

thanks, maybe i'll look into a small inexpensive bluetooth dongle

PenguinJim

Another user here suggested going into the Properties for the Broadcom 802.11n Adapter, going to the Advanced tab, and disabling the "Bluetooth Collaboration" setting. (They also suggested enabling the Xpress setting at the end). Perhaps have a play with that?

Ryanrr

The use of a Bluetooth device or having it enabled should not be impacting your WiFi performance. In this case I would recommend you contacting technical support in your region and request service as it sounds like you may have a mechanical/electrical problem with 1 of the 2 antennas on your WLAN/BT card.

matts3001

I tried this and it literally made my r7 lightning fast and not just internet...it made my computer overall super snappy! Ive only had it a few months and its been ridiculously slow, thank you very much for this post lol! Yeah it sucks you can't enjoy wifi and blutooth at the same time but I can definitely do without blutooth for right now! Oh and I also disabled both blutooth devices in the same drop down menu as broadcom 802 w adapter. Cheers!

TheOldIslander

"The use of a Bluetooth device or having it enabled should not be impacting your WiFi performance. In this case I would recommend you contacting technical support in your region and request service as it sounds like you may have a mechanical/electrical problem with 1 of the 2 antennas on your WLAN/BT card."

I'm sorry, Ryan... nothing you say here is correct.

1) the R7-572 has *one* antenna attached to the WLAN/BT card (that's precisely the reason there's a "Bluetooth Collaboration" setting available in the device properties)

2)  the R's 7wireless setup is *deliberately* made such that using the BT capability of the Broadcom card results in degradation of both WiFi and BT services.

3) techinical support (unless you're *incredibly* persistent and have a lot of time on your hands) will not even acknowledge this issue unless escalation of your report to level 2 doesn't intimidate you.

 

This problem has been a nonstop cause of complaint for people worldwide... and Acer's policy so far has been to either pretend it doesn't exist, or replace machines (and eventually refund the purchase price) when they're forced to admit it's a real problem.

My own R7 is connected to the net through a 50Mbps feed.   When I run without "Bluetooth Collaboration", my actual d/l speeds vary from 48 to 54 Mbps... and my bluetooth mouse (the only bluetooth device I use) is *very* difficult to control due to intermittent latency of more than 3 seconds.   When I run with the "Bluetooth Collaboration" enabled, my mouse works like a charm, and my d/l speeds drop to between 4 and 11 Mbps (not to mention at least 100 dropouts per hour that are long enough to stall a 128kbps http audio stream).

Is Acer going to admit this is a problem and offer something concrete to make good...?

TheOldIslander

"but I will suggest that an inexpensive Bluetooth USB receiver is an easy and hopefully temporary workaround"

 

Yes it is "greg1", and I do have one of those... it's the one that I used to use with my Logitech BT mouse.   I can even vouch for your suggestion as a good workaround solution for some people... because it works just fine here.

Trouble is, the Logitech BT dongle 2 inches long, and attaching the thing to the side of a laptop is an open invitation to destruction of both the dongle and the USB port socket.  :-(

 

What I'd prefer is for Acer to just fess up about the awful $0.25 compromise they made in supplying only one antenna and a dumbed-down driver for a Broadcom transceiver that's *made* for two antennae and is capable of so much better performance on both 802.11 and BT connections.

PenguinJim

Converting your measurement, I can see your dongle is 5.08cm! I agree, I wouldn't like something that big sticking out from my laptop.

 

Try searching for a bluetooth "micro dongle" or "microdongle" (sometimes also "mini dongle") online. I can see they start from $1.92 in the US.

TheOldIslander

PenguinJim:    Thanks, man... but I'd really prefer to just get what I paid for:  functional BT 4.0 and unhindered WiFi both at the same time.   Acer's own literature says it can do that, so I expect that as part of my purchase.

I was part of the reason Coleco's "Adam" computer project tanked in the 1980s... I was an electronics engineeering student in the middle of designing a system that used the same video management chip that Adam and ColecoVision used, and their own engineers agreed with me that there was absolutely no way to make that chip do what Coleco's marketing info caimed for their new computer.

If I have to, I'll do the same thing here.

TheOldIslander

Just for info... here are my own results (screenshots of speedtests done through my own local ISP about half an hour ago).

The top picture with no BT-collaboration shows my avg download speed is a little slow tonight... a bit over 49Mbps.  Pain in the butt to open the graphics app to deal with the capture, though:  my mouse cursor wandered all over the screen for about 4 secs before it re-acquired full BT support.

In the bottom picture (taken about 4 minutes earlier with BT-collaboration enabled), the average is under 8Mbps, and even my ISP is complaining that something must be wrong with the connection.

 

http://members.shaw.ca/muirheadm/Wifi+-BT_DoubleScreenshot.jpg

TheOldIslander

"maybe i'll look into a small inexpensive bluetooth dongle"

If your R7 is still under warranty, maybe you should look into getting it replaced with a fully-functional build like Acer promised you when you purchased it.

TheOldIslander

"disabling the 'Bluetooth Collaboration' setting"

Yep.  For those who are willing to live with horribly dysunctional Bluetooth (or never use BT at all), this works just fine and restores the R7's *total* WiFi capability.

 

Acer nbever mentions this in their communications, though... because it would mean confessing to the world that it's been intentionally misleading people for *years* about the R7's WiFi/BT support.   The Broadcom card they installed can do what they claim, but Acer intentionally crippled it.

PenguinJim

"If your R7 is still under warranty, maybe you should look into getting it replaced with a fully-functional build like Acer promised you when you purchased it."

 

What was the promise, exactly? I think it might be worth comparing Acer's promise, word-for-word, with what the R7-572 actually delivers. Please quote them verbatim - that should definitely reveal the full extent of Acer's duplicity.

 

"I was part of the reason Coleco's "Adam" computer project tanked in the 1980s... I was an electronics engineeering student in the middle of designing a system that used the same video management chip that Adam and ColecoVision used, and their own engineers agreed with me that there was absolutely no way to make that chip do what Coleco's marketing info caimed for their new computer.

If I have to, I'll do the same thing here."

 

That was YOU!? Holy cow, I remember reading about you in Time Magazine. It's no exaggeration to say that you were a major inspiration to me throughout my entire life. With your power and influence, it shouldn't be a problem to accomplish the same thing with Acer and this "Antennagate" furore. Yes, I have faith in you. I fully believe that you can get one of Acer's engineers to agree with you that the R7's wireless performance is not optimal when both Bluetooth and Wifi are enabled due to having to share a single antenna.

 

(Of course sharing an email would be easiest, but please make sure you're recording any telephone calls you make so that you can share the results with us here! I would be most interested to see/listen to this confession that using both Bluetooth and Wifi at the same time on the R7 will reduce Wifi performance.)

 

[edited to comply with guidelines]

TheOldIslander

"What was the promise, exactly?"

 

Exactly, it was 802.11a/b/g/n AND BT 4.0.   By my lights and those of any rationable and informed  consumer, that means both should therefore be fully functional at the same time unless marketing info stipulates otherwise (and perhaps stipulates and enumerates preventing conditons)... which it doesnt.  Anywhere.

Other than this one thing (which frankly bugs me), I have nothing bad to say about the R7.    The machine has done yeoman service for months with hardly a hiccup... but if I actually have to choose between my using mouse dependably and using only 8% of the bandwdth I pay my ISP for (interrupted nonstop at that:  ever try to watch a hockey game that's interrupted for at least 3 of every 15 seconds?) just because Ace'rs engineers cheaped out, this machine's still a total ** as an internet-connected system. 

 

 

[inappropriate content removed]

PenguinJim

"Exactly, it was 802.11a/b/g/n AND BT 4.0."

 

Ummm... I'm sorry, but I'm not able to bring up this quote from Acer regarding the R7. I've tried Non-Specific-Internet-Search-Engining "acer 802.11a/b/g/n AND BT 4.0", "acer r7 802.11a/b/g/n AND BT 4.0", and even just "802.11a/b/g/n AND BT 4.0", but your quote simply isn't coming up verbatim. In fact, I do get "No results found for acer r7 "802.11a/b/g/n AND BT 4.0".""

 

Is this something they said to you on the phone? Or did a sales clerk say it to you before you purchased your R7? If you could share your source for "802.11a/b/g/n AND BT 4.0" on the R7 (preferably where Acer have listed it under the heading "Promises") it would be most appreciated.

 

It might also be worth starting a thread denouncing Acer as the R7 doesn't support 802.11a and 802.11b simultaneously - and I cannot find a single admission about this fact anywhere in Acer's marketing info!

TheOldIslander

You\re quite right about the 802.11a/b thing... and about my own statement I can only (it's bedtme here) quick quote a webpage's URL:

http://www.cnet.com/products/acer-aspire-r7/

The comparison table (ade from manufacturer propaganda, let's face it) makes it plain at least that te thing is meant to run wth both 802.11 AND BT.

PenguinJim

No, Acer does not own CNET. You are thinking of CBS Corp, I think?

 

I think that if Acer owned CNET and produced that review as part of their "manufacturer propoganda", they would probably have scored their own laptop higher than 3 stars out of 5.