WiFi issues on Windows 10 using bootcamp

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Level 1

2 points

WiFi issues on Windows 10 using bootcamp

After installing Windows 10 via bootcamp, initially I did not have the WiFi drivers installed automatically, however, installing the legacy WiFi driver from the bootcamp driver package resolved the issue. Recently, Apple pushed bootcamp 6 to my machine and I thought all my woes would be gone, but I was wrong.

As of now, I do not have any other issues using Windows on my mid 2012 Macbook Pro (non-retina, which also runs the latest OSX 10.11 El Capitan) except for the WiFi. My WiFi keeps on disconnecting/reconnecting in intervals of 5-10 minutes. To be very clear this is an issue only while using Windows (means my hardware is perfectly OK). Also, I have noticed that this happens only when I am home using my home WiFi. When I am at school using Windows 10 on my mac, there is no disconnection of the WiFi. It is also worthwhile to note that my other devices, which include 2 Samsung smartphones, and my roommate's devices including his laptop and his smartphone, do not have any drops on their WiFi connection.

So, is it possible that the same WiFi receiver which is in my Macbook uses a different frequency to connect to WiFi when booted with Windows, and all the other devices use a different frequency? I am not sure of this, but have read that most smartphones and laptops use the 5 GHz frequency, is it possible that Windows uses, or rather Apple makes Windows to use the 2.4 GHz band for its bootcamped devices? Will using a different WiFi switch/router/transmitter solve my problem? Are there any software tweaks that I can make to resolve this? Or perhaps a different driver? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Please let me know if you need any extra information. My current router at home is from Cisco (Model: DPQ3925, the stock router from the ISP) and my ISP is Cox Communications.

Sid

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X El Capitan (10.11.1), null

Posted on Oct 26, 2015 8:26 PM

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Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,483 points

Oct 27, 2015 4:21 AM in response to sidsden

sidsden wrote:

So, is it possible that the same WiFi receiver which is in my Macbook uses a different frequency to connect to WiFi when booted with Windows, and all the other devices use a different frequency? I am not sure of this, but have read that most smartphones and laptops use the 5 GHz frequency, is it possible that Windows uses, or rather Apple makes Windows to use the 2.4 GHz band for its bootcamped devices?

No. The Wireless adapter will decide based on conditions and availability to connect to a specific frequency/SSID.

Will using a different WiFi switch/router/transmitter solve my problem? Are there any software tweaks that I can make to resolve this? Or perhaps a different driver? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Please let me know if you need any extra information. My current router at home is from Cisco (Model: DPQ3925, the stock router from the ISP) and my ISP is Cox Communications.

Home WiFi is notorious for dropped connections, interference, etc. Since this happens in a specific environment, it may be easier to address. On the Windows side, there are many tools which will let you analysis the network. I personally use https://www.acrylicwifi.com/en/wlan-software/wlan-scanner-acrylic-wifi-free/

to analyze the environment. You may want to consider downloading this on the Windows side and learn/anaylze your environment at home.

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Answer 2

sidsden Author

Level 1

2 points

Oct 27, 2015 9:45 PM in response to Loner T

Hi Loner,

Many thanks for your suggestion. I installed Acrylic WiFi home and my home WiFi looks fairly decent in there. I wasn't surprised, since I said that none of my other devices including my MacBook (when booted in Mac OS) has no problems what-so-ever in connecting to it. Here's a screenshot:

Any idea what's wrong?

Sid

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,483 points

Oct 28, 2015 3:50 AM in response to sidsden

We should look at the main UI and look at the logs of the association attempts.

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Answer 4

sidsden Author

Level 1

2 points

Oct 28, 2015 11:55 AM in response to Loner T

How do I grab the logs? I do not see any option to get logs from the UI nor do I see any .txt files containing logs inside the Program Files folder for the program. Do you need to get the Premium version for this?

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Answer 5

Loner T

Level 9

59,483 points

Oct 28, 2015 12:46 PM in response to sidsden

You will need a tool like Wireshark to capture RAN packets. Event logs may also help.

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Answer 6

Nov 19, 2015 2:22 AM in response to sidsden

I've just upgraded to windows 10 here, same macbook model as yours (mine is 15) and I have exactly the same issue. I didnt happen with windows 8.1 at all.

I'll wait a bit more and see if any fixes from Apple or MS come up, otherwise I'll be going back to win 8.1.

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Answer 7

sidsden Author

Level 1

2 points

Nov 19, 2015 11:41 AM in response to timelover

So, I was right, this has nothing to do with my home WiFi, although I connect fine to my school WiFi. The fix has to come from Apple. Although they released Bootcamp 6 a few days ago, it didn't update the wireless drivers. Infact, when I installed Bootcamp drivers initially (I did not choose to download them while creating the bootable USB, and installed the drivers manually), There was no WiFi driver for Windows 10. There was one for Windows 8 and one for Win 7, however, the legacy driver worked for me. Apple has to release the Windows 10 WiFi driver for Bootcamp, that is the only possible fix that I can think of.

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Answer 8

Loner T

Level 9

59,483 points

Nov 19, 2015 1:31 PM in response to sidsden

The Schoold WiFi is most likely an Enterprise/802.1x network, while Home WiFi is a WPA2 Personal. There are significant differences. If W8.1 provides a stable working environment, instead of using W7//W8+ drivers in computability, look for W10/BC6 drivers to upgrade to and test.

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Answer 9

Nov 19, 2015 12:02 PM in response to sidsden

So using the Legacy drivers it fixed the connection dropping for you? Or are you still using win8 drivers?

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Answer 10

sidsden Author

Level 1

2 points

Nov 19, 2015 12:58 PM in response to sidsden

Possibly, the school WiFi is an enterprise network.

The problem is that in the Bootcamp drivers that I downloaded from the official website, did not have a WiFi driver for Win 10. There are only three options, Win 7/8/Legacy. Without installing a driver, you won't have WiFi at all, since the OS won't communicate with the Hardware. So, I tried the three drivers one by one, hoping that the Win 8/7 driver will work with Win 10, but, the Win Legacy driver worked for me in a sense that I got WiFi enabled on Windows. However, since the driver is probably incompatible with the OS, the WiFi disconnection issue persists. I have no idea, how the enterprise network at my school has no disconnections.

The Solution?

Apple has to provide the proper WiFi driver for Windows 10, period.

Temporary Solution?

Get something like this from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008IFXQFU/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&coli d=1QV9LM6D46CHO&coliid=I1A4C65TQS1SMB&ps…

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Answer 11

Dec 5, 2015 11:52 AM in response to sidsden

I've recently been having the same problem, except I'm on a 2012 i5 iMac. I've had windows 10 installed for a few months now but this problem recently started happening to me within the last week and a half or so. What happens is, my WiFi will randomly disconnect and it won't reconnect; I have to troubleshoot and it will tell me something along the lines of the wireless service is turned off and it was turned back on again. This is very annoying, is there still no solution to this?

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Answer 12

Loner T

Level 9

59,483 points

Dec 5, 2015 11:56 AM in response to Denzelbrown

Please post the Vendor and version of the Wireless adapter and driver details.

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Answer 13

Pwham

Level 1

0 points

Dec 7, 2015 12:34 PM in response to Loner T

I'm having the same problem as Denzelbrown above. My Macbook Pro has a broadcom 802.11n network adapter with driver file version 6.30.223.215 any help would be greatly appreciated. This is driving me insane!

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