New WiFi card problems

Sokoloft · 13 March 2021 02:10

I recently upgraded my WiFi on my old laptop that runs manjaro xfce.

It worked perfectly for a few. However it has issues where the wifi chip will randomly turn off. I watch livestreams on that laptop primarily. Wanted bluetooth to connect an xbox one controller.

I was thinking it was all the other 2.4g networks interfering. Maybe the bluetooth. Turning the bluetooth off helps for a few on 2.4g. However it’s been doing it a lot tonight. I enabled the 5g radio on my router and it’s even worse.

The second there is any major load. The chip shuts down in a way. I have to reboot the computer for it to work again. Doing a ping on my router and launching a browser. It’ll say no buffer space available. When it was pinging fine until I launched a browser.

Is it just the chip I bought? I thought intel was the best nic you could get. It worked perfectly when I initially installed it. Any suggestions?

EDIT
I failed to mention what model it was. I had an image but it wouldn’t let me post it.
I upgraded to an Intel 7260HMW from a Realtek RTL8188CE. The laptop is a Toshiba L655-S5155.

Fabby · 14 March 2021 21:06

Welcome to Manjaro!

Please read this:
How to provide good information
and post some more information so we can see what’s really going on. Now we know the symptom of the disease, but we need some more probing to know where the origin lies…
An inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --width would be the minimum required information… (Personally Identifiable Information like serial numbers and MAC addresses will be filtered out by the above command)
Sokoloft:

I recently upgraded my WiFi

What did you do exactly?
Sokoloft:

I was thinking it was all the other 2.4g networks interfering. Maybe the bluetooth. Turning the bluetooth off helps for a few on 2.4g. However it’s been doing it a lot tonight. I enabled the 5g radio on my router and it’s even worse.

What’s the output to:
```
nmcli device wifi list
```

P.S. If you enter a bit more details in your profile, we can also see which Desktop Environment you’re using, which CPU/GPU or Kernel, … you have without typing it every time

Sokoloft · 14 March 2021 22:38

I re-seated the card yesterday. As well as added some electrical tape to the back of it since there was a label insulating the back side of the old chip.

I swapped the WiFi chip on my Toshiba Satellite L655-S5155. From a Realtek RTL8188CE to an Intel 7260HMW. I’ll be upgrading the processor soon too to an i5 560m.

Here is the output from the inxi command.

System:
  Kernel: 5.11.2-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 
  parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.11-x86_64 
  root=UUID=3d101873-976d-49b6-9ceb-1b292bba2679 ro quiet 
  resume=UUID=1b72c134-89b1-4b72-9805-b75302358b03 udev.log_priority=3 
  Desktop: Xfce 4.16.0 tk: Gtk 3.24.24 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm4 
  dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: Manjaro Linux 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: TOSHIBA product: Satellite L655 v: PSK2CU-0QU01U 
  serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: Intel model: N/A serial: <filter> BIOS: INSYDE v: 2.80 
  date: 07/03/2012 
Memory:
  RAM: total: 3.64 GiB used: 1.5 GiB (41.2%) 
  RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required. 
CPU:
  Info: Dual Core model: Intel Pentium P6200 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Nehalem 
  family: 6 model-id: 25 (37) stepping: 5 microcode: 7 L2 cache: 3 MiB 
  bogomips: 8514 
  Speed: 1604 MHz min/max: 933/2133 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1604 2: 1115 
  Flags: acpi aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon bts clflush cmov constant_tsc 
  cpuid cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts est flush_l1d fpu fxsr ht ibpb 
  ibrs lahf_lm lm mca mce mmx monitor msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae pat pbe 
  pcid pdcm pebs pge pni popcnt pse pse36 pti rdtscp rep_good sep ssbd sse 
  sse2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2 tsc vme xtopology xtpr 
  Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX unsupported 
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion 
  Type: mds 
  status: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode; SMT disabled 
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
  Type: spec_store_bypass 
  mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
  Type: spectre_v1 
  mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, 
  IBRS_FW, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling 
  Type: srbds status: Not affected 
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics vendor: Toshiba 
  driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:0046 class ID: 0300 
  Device-2: Chicony CNF9055 Toshiba Webcam type: USB driver: uvcvideo 
  bus ID: 2-1.1:3 chip ID: 04f2:b1d6 class ID: 0e02 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.10 driver: loaded: intel 
  unloaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa display ID: :0.0 screens: 1 
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1848 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x489mm (20.0x19.3") 
  s-diag: 705mm (27.8") 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics (ILK) v: 2.1 Mesa 20.3.4 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 5 Series/3400 Series High Definition Audio vendor: Toshiba 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:3b56 
  class ID: 0403 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.11.2-1-MANJARO 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Wireless 7260 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: 5000 
  bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 8086:08b1 class ID: 0280 
  IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global 
  broadcast: <filter> 
  Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR8152 v1.1 Fast Ethernet vendor: Toshiba 
  driver: atl1c v: kernel port: 2000 bus ID: 03:00.0 chip ID: 1969:2060 
  class ID: 0200 
  IF: enp3s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
  WAN IP: <filter> 
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 
  bus ID: 2-1.6:5 chip ID: 8087:07dc class ID: e001 
  Message: Required tool hciconfig not installed. Check --recommends 
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data was found. 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 494.67 GiB used: 60.39 GiB (12.2%) 
  SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends 
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Hitachi model: HTS725050A9A364 
  size: 465.76 GiB block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s 
  rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter> rev: C72E scheme: MBR 
  ID-2: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 type: USB vendor: PNY model: USB 2.0 FD 
  size: 28.91 GiB block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B serial: <filter> 
  rev: PMAP scheme: MBR 
  Optical-1: /dev/sr0 vendor: TSSTcorp model: CDDVDW TS-L633C rev: TF20 
  dev-links: cdrom 
  Features: speed: 24 multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes 
  rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram state: running 
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw size: 457.73 GiB size: 449.55 GiB (98.21%) 
  used: 36.81 GiB (8.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 label: N/A 
  uuid: 3d101873-976d-49b6-9ceb-1b292bba2679 
  ID-2: /run/media/sokoloft/USB20FD raw size: 28.91 GiB 
  size: 28.89 GiB (99.95%) used: 23.58 GiB (81.6%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sdc1 
  maj-min: 8:33 label: USB20FD uuid: 4023-F7FE 
  ID-3: /run/timeshift/backup raw size: 457.73 GiB size: <superuser required> 
  used: <superuser required> fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 label: N/A 
  uuid: 3d101873-976d-49b6-9ceb-1b292bba2679 
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache pressure: 100 (default) 
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 8.02 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 
  dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 label: N/A 
  uuid: 1b72c134-89b1-4b72-9805-b75302358b03 
Unmounted:
  Message: No Unmounted partitions found. 
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 3 rev: 2.0 
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 1d6b:0002 class ID: 0900 
  Hub-2: 1-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 8087:0020 class ID: 0900 
  Device-1: 1-1.1:5 info: PNY USB 2.0 FD type: Mass Storage 
  driver: usb-storage interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s 
  chip ID: 154b:00ee class ID: 0806 serial: <filter> 
  Device-2: 1-1.2:6 info: Logitech G105 Gaming Keyboard type: Keyboard,HID 
  driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 1.5 Mb/s 
  chip ID: 046d:c248 class ID: 0300 
  Hub-3: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 3 rev: 2.0 
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 1d6b:0002 class ID: 0900 
  Hub-4: 2-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 8 rev: 2.0 
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 8087:0020 class ID: 0900 
  Device-1: 2-1.1:3 info: Chicony CNF9055 Toshiba Webcam type: Video 
  driver: uvcvideo interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 04f2:b1d6 
  class ID: 0e02 
  Device-2: 2-1.4:4 info: Realtek USB 2.0 multicard reader type: Mass Storage 
  driver: ums-realtek interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s 
  chip ID: 0bda:0158 class ID: 0806 serial: <filter> 
  Device-3: 2-1.6:5 info: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface type: Bluetooth 
  driver: btusb interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s chip ID: 8087:07dc 
  class ID: e001 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 48.0 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:
  Processes: 177 Uptime: 2h 26m wakeups: 3 Init: systemd v: 247 Compilers: 
  gcc: N/A Packages: pacman: 1011 lib: 351 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.0 
  running in: xfce4-terminal inxi: 3.3.01

Here’s some of the information from nmcli:

 Infra  8     130 Mbit/s  100     ▂▄▆█  WPA2 
 Infra  48    405 Mbit/s  45      ▂▄__  WPA2 
 Infra  1     130 Mbit/s  40      ▂▄__  WPA2 
 Infra  153   405 Mbit/s  40      ▂▄__  WPA2 
 Infra  36    405 Mbit/s  39      ▂▄__  --   
 Infra  36    405 Mbit/s  39      ▂▄__  WPA2 
 Infra  36    540 Mbit/s  34      ▂▄__  WPA2 
 Infra  2     195 Mbit/s  32      ▂▄__  WPA2 
 Infra  48    405 Mbit/s  32      ▂▄__  WPA2 
 Infra  2     130 Mbit/s  29      ▂___  WPA2 
 Infra  40    405 Mbit/s  24      ▂___  WPA2 
 Infra  48    540 Mbit/s  24      ▂___  WPA2 
 Infra  161   405 Mbit/s  22      ▂___  WPA2 
 Infra  157   540 Mbit/s  20      ▂___  WPA2 
 Infra  48    405 Mbit/s  19      ▂___  WPA2 
 Infra  149   270 Mbit/s  19      ▂___  WPA2 
 Infra  36    540 Mbit/s  17      ▂___  WPA2 
 Infra  165   0 Mbit/s    17      ▂___  WEP

The first one listed is my network. However on my tablet I used WiFi Analyzer and it shows a lot more WiFi networks than listed from that command. I removed some info from the output. If it’s absolutely needed I can post the un-edited output.

So far I changed my 2.4ghz to 802.11b/g/n only from mixed. I’m on channel 8 since it has the least devices on it. However I’m thinking I should leave it to auto. It’s been on 8 for a while, I was troubleshooting another device a while ago. I also added a “iwlwifi-7260-14.ucode” file to my firmware directory I got from Intel’s site here. However I don’t think it’s being used. I added it to the /lib/firmware/ directory.

It’s been more stable but I think its because its the weekend and the weather is nice. People are out and about. Not at home as much using their devices. I still had the same issue last night a little after midnight. All day it was fine though and even now I have it playing a stream just fine.

Fabby · 14 March 2021 23:00

In the future, when providing code/output, please copy-paste that output in-between 3 backticks ``` at the beginning and end of the code/text so that the output looks like this:
```
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
```
instead of like this:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.`

(as that makes both our lives much easier)
No need to do anything right now as I’m an editor here on this site and have fixed it for you already. However, in the future I might not see your post so review my edits by pushing the orange pencil above the post I just fixed.
Sokoloft:

I swapped the WiFi chip on my Toshiba Satellite L655-S5155. From a Realtek RTL8188CE to an Intel 7260HMW.

You were lucky to still have a BIOS machine because on UEFI systems, changing brands is a royal pain in the lower abdomen.
Sokoloft:

Kernel: 5.11.2-1-MANJARO

Try 5.4 and 5.10 LTS (Long Term Support) first and see what that does.
Sokoloft:

Infra 8 130 Mbit/s 100 ▂▄▆█ WPA2

You’re on your own channel not in use by anyone else so that’s not it.

Please report back on #4.

Sokoloft · 15 March 2021 00:42

Alright.

I’ve changed to the 5.4 LTS kernel. So far so good. The WiFi did mess up earlier but that was on 5.11.

If it stays playing a stream throughout the night I’ll try the 5.9.16-1 kernel tomorrow. It was installed when I initially installed Manjaro a few weeks ago. Switched from an old Linux Lite install. Pacman is much better than apt.

Cheers!

Sokoloft · 15 March 2021 00:56

Okay well I spoke too soon. It just did it again… On the 5.4 LTS kernel.

Sokoloft · 15 March 2021 02:10

Could it be that I have my router set to specifically channel 8? I’m thinking other routers in the area are set to auto and jump around often.

Looking at WiFi analyzer there are no good channels in the 2.4g or 5g range that my router can do. There can be anywhere from 6-14 other routers on channel 8.

I don’t see how. I added up all the different access points WiFi analyzer found. 124 networks in the 2.4ghz band. 60 in the 5ghz band.

I wasn’t having these disconnection issues on the old WiFi module/chip. Could it be the hardware itself? I got it used from ebay. However the seller is reputable.

One thing I’ve noticed is when I run a speedtest. I get up to 80Mbps out of my total 130. I thought 2.4 was limited to 40Mbps when there are so many networks. Could that be why the WiFi is being disabled on my laptop?

Thanks.

EDIT:

Another thing I’ve noticed is forum posts where people are saying they disabled power saving features. However that’s on windows. I tried locating the iwlwifi.conf file in modprobe.d however there is nothing inside of modprobe.d. Maybe I needed sudo to view the files. Idk.

Sokoloft · 15 March 2021 04:44

Well I’ve found this. It works but its not optimal.

I remember reading somewhere while troubleshooting a WiFi card in a desktop that Realtek is considered a joke in the I.T world. I go to buy Intel thinking it’s better and have these issues. Go figure, assuming and all.

EDIT: It definitely was that specific 7260 module. I returned it and bought a Wireless-N model and haven’t had an issue. No 5ghz but I don’t need it. Just wanted bluetooth and faster speeds over 2.4.

Fabby · 15 March 2021 09:42

(emphasis mine)

Sokoloft · 15 March 2021 20:08

Kernel isn’t going to change a thing. The problem is the hardware. Unfortunately. The HMW model of the module has problems with interference. It’s a common issue among the 7260HMW modules from what I gather.

I’ll try 5.10 as you suggest. However it isn’t listed as LTS.

I’m not on my own channel. There are no good channels in my area. I got those numbers from WiFi Analyzer on my tablet. Idk how accurate that is but it seems accurate.

Seems to me I bought the wrong WiFi module. $15 down the drain. Should’ve done my research. The script I found works to reset it but I can’t get cron to run it as suggested. It’s not optimal but at least I don’t have to restart the laptop now.

I’ll let you know if there’s any difference on 5.10. However I think my last post is the solution sadly.

Fabby · 15 March 2021 20:28

I’ve marked this answer as the solution to your question as it is by far the best answer you’ll get.

However, if you disagree with my choice, please feel free to take any other answer as the solution to your question or even remove the solution altogether: You are in control! (If you disagree with my choice, just send me a personal message and explain why I shouldn’t have done this or or if you agree)

P.S. In the future, please don’t forget to come back and click the 3 dots below the answer to mark a solution like this below the answer that helped you most:

so that the next person that has the exact same problem you just had will benefit from your post as well as your question will now be in the “solved” status.

system · 30 March 2021 20:28

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