Internet crashes when I try to play any game!!

PlayerrCP

Hi - I recently purchased a powerspec g444 gaming pc from micro center and it has been working perfectly for about a month but all of a sudden yesterday I try to load into apex, and I can't connect to the servers. I suspected that the servers were down so I checked and they weren't. Then I thought my wifi could be the problem so I quit apex and pulled up youtube and it was working just fine. I soon discovered that my internet would just stop working whenever I tried to load any game. Nothing changed in terms of my software, but I've been in contact with 5 people from micro center via the help center online trying a plethora of troubleshooting solutions, and I even brought in my pc to the store today for help and it still isn't working now that I'm home again and have it all hooked up.

PowerSpec_MikeW

@PlayerrCP

What games have you tested and had this issue with besides Apex? I know some users have had major issues with Valorant that seem related to Vanguard, but I believe Apex uses Easy Anti-Cheat.

Lets try this. Open cmd and type: ping -t 8.8.8.8

That's an endless ping to Google's DNS servers, they should reply the vast majority of the time. Start a game that has the issue and lets see if you're suddenly unable to reach the server.

PlayerrCP

I've also tried playing fortnite and csgo, neither of which have worked. but i will try this out and let you know!

PlayerrCP

here is a snippet of what it's giving me:

Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=116

Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=116

Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=7ms TTL=116

Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=2709ms TTL=116

Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=29ms TTL=116

Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=123ms TTL=116

Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=116

Request timed out.

Request timed out.

Request timed out.

PowerSpec_MikeW

@PlayerrCP

Are the time outs happening as you launch the game? I assume you can't test via Ethernet. Are you connecting via 5Ghz or 2.4Ghz? Have you tried both?

PlayerrCP

@PowerSpec_MikeW

you are correct in terms of ethernet. my router is too far away from my computer so i've been using wifi ever since I got the computer. I'm not too sure how to check for that, can you walk me through how to do it?

PlayerrCP

I'm just so confused because nothing changed regarding software or my wifi when things went wrong

PowerSpec_MikeW

@PlayerrCP

Typically on your router if it's dual band, it would broadcast two networks. One for each band. Trying to figure out if maybe there's some 5Ghz interference that we might not encounter on the 2.4Ghz band. Do you have two SSID's that your router broadcasts?

Also. What if you run an online speed test. What results do you get?

PlayerrCP

@PowerSpec_MikeW

I live in an apartment complex and I have at&t fiber wifi. In my device manager under my network adapters i can select the adapter for my wifi and there are many options i can choose from. I think in my troubleshooting I had changed it a few times to test different ones. I remember before anything went wrong i was getting over 500 mb/s download but now im getting right around 200 so that's another thing I just discovered is wrong. on my phone it's still over 500 mb/s so ideally I could get my computer back to that as well

PlayerrCP

I'm at 180 mb/s download and 110 upload which is not nearly as fast as it was before

PowerSpec_MikeW

@PlayerrCP

Right click on the adapter in Device Manager and go to Update Driver. Click Browse this Computer, then the Let me Pick from a list... option. What do you have there?

PlayerrCP

@PowerSpec_MikeW

2 options:

Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX211 160MHz Version: 22.180.0.4 [10/18/2022]

Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX211 160MHz Version: 22.250.1.2 [8/7/2023]

PlayerrCP

@PowerSpec_MikeW

Sorry it took me awhile to figure it out but it does look like it's a dual band - both 2.4 and 5 GHz. i restarted my computer and now im back up to 500+ mb/s download and 200 ish upload. but the internet still crashes when i start a game

PowerSpec_MikeW

@PlayerrCP

Select the driver from 10/18/2022 and hit next. Lets see if there's something going on with the latest driver install.

PlayerrCP

@PowerSpec_MikeW

ok do i need to restart my computer for this to take affect

PowerSpec_MikeW

@PlayerrCP

Please try that. And I want to verify. If you start a game, and Alt+Tab out, you're WIFI connection is down and you have no network access, correct?

PlayerrCP

@PowerSpec_MikeW

That is correct unfortunately. it's working before i start the game, says im connected but no internet while the game is running, and then the internet returns once i close the game. I just restarted after trying the older driver but it did not work

PlayerrCP

@PowerSpec_MikeW

I appreciate your help thus far.. I have to leave for work in about 15 minutes so I won't be able to respond until tomorrow morning. We are still at square one in terms of my internet not working as soon as i load up a game. If there's anything you can tell me to do or switch regarding the advanced settings in my network adapter for my wifi, I could try those tomorrow and get back to you. right now my property is 802.11a/b/g Wireless Mode and the value is Dual Band 802.11a/g - there are a ton of different properties to choose from and corresponding values but I don't know what each of them does. Again, thank you for the help and I'd appreciate us being able to chat tomorrow as well!

PowerSpec_MikeW

@PlayerrCP

Open Event Viewer after this happens, and look at what you have under Custom Views - Administrative Events. It seems clear that putting load on the card is what causes the issue, but the card is in use, it can't be a resource conflict. EMI from the GPU under load interfering with the WIFI connection would make sense. Are you familiar with MSI Afterburner?

PlayerrCP

@PowerSpec_MikeW

Good morning! I've heard of msi afterburner before and seen other people use it to look at real-time computer performance stats but I don't have it myself. I'm doing research now and going to install it and try to see what happens exactly when i load a game

PlayerrCP

@PowerSpec_MikeW

Also I looked at my administrative events under the custom views in my event viewer and it's full of warnings and errors dating two days ago when I started running into issues.

This is a recurring warning in what seems to be every time i try to load the game when looking at the administrative events:

The description for Event ID 6062 from source Netwtw12 cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event: 

\Device\NDMP20

Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX211 160MHz

PlayerrCP

@PowerSpec_MikeW

Ok i got msi afterburner installed and looked at what happens when i try to run apex. before my pc is at 210 MHz GPU and 405 MHz MEM but when i start apex it shoots up to 2505 MHz GPU and 10501 MHz MEM.

PowerSpec_MikeW

@PlayerrCP

That's normal behavior. Event viewer seems to indicate the card just disappears when the game starts. Lets try Device Manager - Network Adapters - WIF Adapter. Power management, uncheck the box to allow the PC to turn the device off to save power. Top checkbox. Try that first and see if there's any change.

PlayerrCP

@PowerSpec_MikeW

That box was already unchecked from prior troubleshooting attempts

PlayerrCP

@PowerSpec_MikeW

Referring back to my administrative events - there are a series of errors in between the warnings. Like 15+ attempts all within 15 seconds of 'Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX211 160MHz : Has encountered an internal error and has failed.'

Here are the sources of all the warnings:

DNS Client Events, WLAWN-AutoConfig, DistributedCOM, Time-Service, Dhcp-Client, DJC{v6-Client, e2fnexpress

And here's the sources for all the errors:

Netwtw12, SideBySide, Microsoft Security Client, .NET Runtime, Application Error

I'm not sure if this is useless or good information for you, but it seems that there are multiple things going wrong. I just want to let you know what I see

PowerSpec_MikeW

@PlayerrCP

The DNS Clients, WLAWN-AutoConfigs are. Just shows the connection drop which we expect. Test this real quick. If you start a game then Alt+Tab and check Device Manager. Does the WIFI adapter show it's working properly?

PowerSpec_MikeW

@PlayerrCP

I'm going to move on to the next step and the reason I brought up MSI Afterburner. I'd like you to try -200MHz on the core and mem clock on the bottom. Then hit Apply circled check mark and test again.

PlayerrCP

@PowerSpec_MikeW

Hey sorry I was at a swim meet earlier today but now I'm back and will be for the remainder of the day. when i start a game, the wifi adapter does say it's working properly. I'm now going to try the afterburner

PlayerrCP

@PowerSpec_MikeW

Ok this is insane, I was able to load into the game!! Can you explain to me what this did and if it's a long term fix? Why did this work/what could have gone wrong in the first place

PowerSpec_MikeW

@PlayerrCP

It would seem at the clock frequencies we're operating at, that card is producing interference that knocks your WIFI connection. We need to figure out how wide that window. Try going in Stages. -150, -100, -50, -40, -30, -20. Let me know when the problem reoccurs.

As to why it happened now, I'd guess thermals changed in the area where the PC is and that would effect your boost clocks.

PlayerrCP

@PowerSpec_MikeW

ok it worked at -200, -150, and then stopped working at -100. What do the differences in these values mean? Like is keeping it at -150 "better" than -200 or do they affect my computer differently in any way?