Unable to connect to 5GHz Wi-Fi after Windows 10 update on ACER Nitro 5 Spin (NP515-51) laptop

Ever since I updated my windows 10 on this laptop, the wifi's been really annoying. I can't detect any 5ghz wifi where I could when I first got this laptop. I have tried swapping out the stock wifi card with an intel dualband 7265 to no avail. Itried Windows 11 and my 5ghz wifi showed up, but the speed was almost no different compared to the 2.4ghz capped at about 10mb/s. On my other laptops I can use the 5ghz just fine at 35mb/s. I'm back on Windows 10 and the 5ghz won't show up again. I've tried reinstalling the wifi drivers, also tried the device properties prefer 5ghz still no show….

[Edited the thread to add model name to the title]

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JackE

What is your full model number? For example, PH315-54? Or An515-22?

And what do you mean by updating Win10? Was this the Acer OEM version of Win10 designed for your proprietary mainboard? Or the Microsoft generic version of Win10?

SeanYK

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1317512#Comment_1317512

Hi, thank you for your reply and sorry for the confusion.

Laptp Model: Acer Nitro 5 Spin (NP515-51)

It came with Windows 10 - 1809 preloaded with the Acer Apps.

Mid 2019 I had to move out of town for work, so I gave the laptop to my little sister. She's not super tech savvy and she ended up updating the WIndows 10 to the latest version. I told her to revert the update, that was about 5 days after that happened, but she factory reset it instead.

When I got back to our parent's house where she lived in 2020 the computer was bogged down with virus and malware, you can guess what she was doing with it yarr harr harr…

I scrapped the old SSD and chucked in a 1TB m2 Boot drive and a 2.5 inch 2TB Samsung Evo and re-installed it back to Windows 10 - 1809. But the stock app that came with the laptop's no longger listed on the ACER download page. Mainly the ACER Care Center, I used to use it to limit the battery charge to 80% because the laptop's mainly used plugged in to play games.

Aside from the missing limit charge feature we used to have on this laptop, I can't seem to find the 5ghz wifi now. The laptop came stock with a Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174, it's dual band and I had been using it with 5ghz wifi alll around 2018 before I gave it to my sister. I thought, heck maybe the wifi card's gone bad, so I bought an Intel Dualband 7265, no luck, bought an identical QCA6174, still no luck.

Next I tried updating all the way to Windows 11, to my surprise, the 5ghz wifi popped up, but the Download speed was not optimal. On all my other laptops I have a 300mbps download speed on 5ghz, even on my old vaio from 2013, meanwhile, the Nitro 5 Spin can only get about 120mbps on 5ghz and 100mbps on 2.4ghz wifi.

I thought maybe it's something to do with the driver, tried re-installing the Qualcomm Driver, tried the Intel Driver, no luck. I noticed that unlie all my other laptops, there was only 2 options for the wifi bandwidth for bot 2.4ghz and 5ghz, 20mhz and auto only.

Out of curiosity I tried using a Totolink AC650 external Wifi card. To my surprise it worked almost perfectly at 290mbps. Anyways, me and my sister hated Windows 11 (we can't get used to the UI), so I re-installed a clean install of Windows 10 22H2, but now the 5ghz won't show again using the internal wifi card, surprisingly the Totolink still works fine, but it's reallly quite annoying having thet Totolink sticking out the side of the laptop.

Should I try installing Windows 10 - 1809 back on it?

P.S. We don't care about Windows security and stuff like that, I've installed malwarebytes on there and completely disabled Windows security. She's been using it all around Covid until now with no more Virus and Malwares, still as snappy as when I clean installed it 3 years ago.

JackE

Open Device Manager. If no red or yellow warnings, expand network adapters folder. Right click wifi properites. Click advanced tab. What is value setting? For example, 6. Dual Band 802.11x/y/z? What are other options available in dropdown?

SeanYK

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1317763#Comment_1317763

There's no red or yellow warnings, in the advanced tabs

Alejandro_AC

Hi @SeanYK your computer is not compatible with Windows 11:

Windows 11 Compatibility | Acer United States

Install Windows 10 using Microsoft media, from a USB, and with their USB installation creation tool:

Download Windows 10

Windows Update will offer you new updates over time when they become available.
Please note that the 5Ghz band has less interference than the 2.4Ghz band but has less range.
The 5Ghz network will always be faster than the 2.4Ghz band but much slower than the wired ethernet network.
Make sure to perform the 5Ghz tests on a different computer under the same distance conditions from the router and logically in the same place.

Regards.

JackE

The NP515-51's 7th gen mainboard and thus its internal wifi interface is not currently on the Win11 compatibility list. No Win11 drivers are available for the proprietary chipset or wifi interface. In fact, no Win10 Acer drivers are available beyond ~2018. This means that, while it might run Win11 and more recent Win10 versions with some mod overrides, it may not run them correctly or optimally under any circumstances. You can play around with the wifi settings in Device Manager but unlikely to change things much.

Accordingly, if it were mine, I'd probably try to install the 1803 version of Win10 as a rufus iso from the archive-org site. Then install the chipset and wifi drivers from Acer downloads If it resolves the problem, let Windows 10 auto update service take over from there rather than try to install the latest Win10 directly.

SeanYK

Even if you say that this laptop is not supported by Windows 11, Windows 11 had worked properly and had showed the 5ghz wifi. We just hasted how Windows 11 feel compared to Windows 10.

I am on WIndows 10 22H2 now as I've stated previously. Windows Update hasn"t give me any newer driver, and the latest drier for 7265 I donwloaded from intel won't install, say I have the latest driver installed. I think that the driver in Windows update is the one with the issue.