WiFi Signal Strength under Windows.

I have a Macbook Air (late 2010) with a similar issue. Wifi signal very weak at times. Using a Airport Extreme.

Less then 10 ft from Router. Not a issues with OSX, so considering its the same hardware. I must conclude a issue with Windows 7 drivers. I have seen problems before with Apple's drivers for Windows. Throughput does compare to what a weak signal would degrade speed. I get 54Mbps in N mode. Certainly this reflects a weak signal issue. But why in Windows 7 and not OS X?

OK I have found a solution to weak WiFi. You need to go into Windows control panel and select your WiFi card.

Go to Advance settings and look for Minimum Power option. By default it is enabled. Select disable and click OK.

You will notice a big improvement in WiFi signal.

Is there also anything under Power plan options for Wifi?

Interesting about the affect of the default setting.

What I did was adjust the power plan for the wifi card in it's advanced settings in control panel. Their are also other options which I have yet to try. I think the low power setting was affecting range. I did notice that my through was still at 54mbps even though I show a very good signal. So throughput was still a issue. I suspect that the driver Apple has provided for the Wifi card in Windows somehow does not enable full N router throughput. It is limited to G mode speeds. Which for most is plenty as it is generally faster then a broadband connection. For me I was happy to improve range as that was my biggest issue.

I have the same issue of weak wifi signal on my new MBP 8.2. My old MBP 3.1 in the same place of the house related to the router has a full signal!

Anyway, John Scott please help me finding the Advanced settings for Wifi card on Win 7.

Thank you in advance!

> adjust the power plan

Go to your control panels.

Get into Control Panel and select System and select Device Manager. Find Network devices and select your Wireless card. Double click and select Advanced settings tab. Find the Power consumption option. Select it the default should show minimum power enabled. You want to disable that setting. Select OK and your Wifi card will now run at full power.

Done. Thank you again!

Hi, I know this thread is a little old by now but I'm experiencing the same issue with weak Wifi reception in Windows on my 2011 MBP. I've tried the above suggestion with the power setting for the wireless adapter, but the effect has been unnoticeable. Can anyone suggest something else?

Thanks.

Unfortunately I have not found any other solutions. I suspect its a driver issues only with Windows because none of us experience the same issues in OS X. Considering all the hardware is still the same. You have to look at a driver issues or a OS issue. On certain Mac's you may try and find a alternative driver for the WiFi card. Many computer makers use the same or similar WiFi cards that Apple does. Atheros does not provide a driver through its own site. But you can search for a driver once you find out which one you have. Then manually update the driver. Otherwise it is what it is and I doubt Apple will be addressing it. For me I stopped using Bootcamp, or a Virtual Machine like Parallels and just bought a cheap Windows PC to do what I need on Windows. I found other issues that annoyed me enough about trying to run Windows on a Mac.

Thanks for the help, John. I can't really stop using BC at this stage because I use it for games. 😟 I'll keep my fingers crossed for a driver update!