Killer network driver problem.

Hi, I have a Alienware 17 r2 970m and did a clean install of Windows 10. I recently discovered a program named LatencyMon and it reported this:

Your system appears to be having trouble handling real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as drop outs, clicks or pops. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. At least one detected problem appears to be network related. In case you are using a WLAN adapter, try disabling it to get better results. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates.

I was thinking its a Network Driver Problem because I have a Killer Network Card which is very common with this issues. What I did was uninstalled my Killer Network Driver and tried installing the Killer network driver standard without its bloatware. After installing, the Wifi icon on the task bar is there and I can connect to a network but there is no internet connection. I tried troubleshooting it with Windows and it is stating that its a network driver problem and it cannot fix it. With that I tried installing back the Main Killer network driver software. After the installation I still got the same problem and I'm stuck without any internet connection. Good thing I backup my laptop using Macrium Reflect and got my system running back. So anyone of you know how to fix this kind of problem? The reason I did this because I did noticed a spike lag when playing dota 2. I just didn't bother with it straight away because I've been playing The Witcher 3. I only started bothering with it when I knew about LatencyMon.
Help me please. Sorry about my English. Thank you.

Oh here's a screenshot of LatencyMon.

 

I had the exact same problem 2 days ago. When I connect to the Wireless Router in the cafe I go to (ASUS AC5300), I would be connected but there is no internet activity. I had the driver only installed for my AC1535 WLAN adapter but then I tried installing the suite with the bloatware, still no luck. I can connect just fine at home though and I have that same router. Strange.

 

thanks for the quick reply.. so no fix for this?
are there ways to know if you have uninstalled the network driver properly.. sort of the same as using DDU?

 

Not in my experience. Thank you for making this post, you reminded me that I have a spade Intel AC 8260 WLAN Driver I just swapped the WLAN cards, installed the latest Intel Wireless Driver v19.0.1 and bam, problem solved. Killer cards have always been great on the hardware part, spoiled by crappy drivers.

Try the latest BETA Driver if you want: http://www.killernetworking.com/product-support/driver-downloads/beta-software

 

Thanks alot @Phoenix. I need to backup first before messing up with my network driver. The way I know how to uninstall the network driver is by going to Programs and Features and uninstall from there and restart. After that going to device manager and uninstall driver from there as well. Is that the correct way of uninstalling?

 

That is perfectly right. I even used Revo Uninstaller Pro to uninstall the suite and the good news is, Revo didn't report any left overs so don't worry about it. Just do what you said and reboot before installing the new driver.

 

Thanks again. I'll keep you posted..

 

@Phoenix I tried installing the beta and it didn't work at all. I also tried installing the drivers only without the killer network manager still didn't work. It will only show that you are connected but no internet connection. Also every time I uninstall my killer wireless network from device manager windows 10 will automatically install the driver but I can't use the wifi and cannot connect. I have also noticed that when I uninstalled the killer driver suite in the device manager the ethernet lan driver has a punctuation mark while the wireless driver doesn't because of windows 10 auto install. Now I installed the latest killer driver suite and noticed that the Lan driver was installed but the Wireless driver isn't. It's still on the windows 10 driver. Now my question is that If ever I didn't care about my network dropout's and I would just upgrade to a new network driver would it be the same scenario and I will be stuck without any internet connection. As I have said I tried install the drivers only and still no internet connection. Would this mean that this has got something to do with windows 10? My windows 10 version is Version 1511 (OS Build 10586.494)
Help me please. Thanks..

 

Since me and you had this issue around the same time, I think it's something in the latest Windows update that messed it up. The reason the WLAN driver gets installed automatically is because that driver is built into Windows Alabeit an older version. I cannot think of any solution other than formatting but better wait till the 2nd of August when the new Windows build will be out

 

I did get a hunch that the problem was caused by windows 10.. I was just wondering why I can't find people having the same issue.. Like when searching in google or reddit.. anyways thanks alot.. will wait after the 2nd of August and see if it would be for the good.. keep me posted as well please.. thanks..

 

I have this issues with my Intel Card at work, my systems admin said that certain network are configured in a certain way to cater to a specific array of devices. The same network works flawlessly on my phone and our mac books.
Its not always the WLAN cards fault, the networks needs to be configured correctly as well.

Another example, my ASUS AC router at home, when i leave everything at auto (specially the channels) it works great, until there are iphones or mac books on the network. The moment that happens the network ****s the bed. And once i switch everything to manual, i get flawless performance, whereas the iTurd devices **** the bed.

 

hi, thanks for the reply. as what i have understood on what you said is that my router also needs proper configuration as well. my routers channel is always not busy because i have a app on my phone called wifi analyzer which shows which channels are most occupied and i do always check it. why would this only happen if i uninstall and reinstall the driver and still won't work. also i tried using windows troubleshooting program and it stated it has a driver problem which it can't fix. even uninstall and reinstalling the same driver my network gets messed up. the only solution for me to fix the problem was to load my back image using macrium reflect. if you have any idea how to solved tbis problem please help out. thanks..

 

I have a feeling the DPC latency issues are not just because of the Network Driver. On a friends system, the DPC latency was going sky high because of his Realtek Audio Hardware, and was only fixed by using an external soundcard. For some its the Nvidia Drivers (Audio over HDMI).

Also the internet lag is probably ping spikes happening at regular intervals, check out this thread :
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/intel-7260-ping-spikes-while-gaming.792817/

I have a feeling you have the exact same issues as the OP in the thread above. One of my house mates had this issue way back, and changing channels fixed it for him.But it may not be the case for you.
For me it was because i had the Autodesk Application manager and their POT Akamai Network driver, that was causing these spikes.

 

I agree with you when you said that its not just the network driver that causes the DPC latency issue. I've been trying to look for the latest realtek software for my laptop. I think the one in the dell website is outdated. But lets try to set aside the DPC latency issue for awhile. My problem now is that every time I uninstall and try to reinstall the network driver whether new,old or same network driver, I don't have any internet connection. I am able to to connect to the wifi but no internet connection. I've tried flushing DNS as well in command prompt but still no effect. Windows troubleshooting as well no effect.Do you know what might have caused this problem not able to run the driver properly even though its the same,old or new driver? T_T

 

Well i would try booting into safe more with networking and see if you get internet access.
Are you able to access internet on other devices connected to the same access point?

If that is the case i would try this, uninstall everything Killer related from the system , including the drivers and then goto Device manage , right click on the Wifi adapter, go to Update Driver and manually point it to the Killer Drivers folder.

 

I haven't tried the safe mode thing.
Yes other devices can connect to the same access point without any issues.
I have tried that as well. Installing through device manager with just the main driver only without the bloatware of killer network. I have also tried the qualcomm driver from dell website using my service tag and still didn't work.
Does windows 10 got to do with this issues? Am I doing something wrong?

 

Maybe,If possible, try rolling back to a restore point from you started having this issues. Thats the only thing i can think of right now.

 

I think on @Phoenix guide for windows 10, he disabled windows backup which i followed. LOL. Im using macrium reflect backing images. I have a backup when installing windows 10 and no drivers installed. I'm actually planning to look for all the latest driver for my alienware 17 r2 laptop so that I'll install them again which I am really looking forward for the usb 3.0 driver. Plus on my network driver I'll install the standard one without the bloatware. @Phoenix can you help me look for the latest drivers for my system.. (I'm being cheeky here. LOL) here's the list on my service tag from dell.
Application: Command Center 4.0 for Notebooks; Alienware External Graphic Amplifier Software
Audio: Creative Malcolm chip+Recon3Di AP Driver
Bios: A06
Chipset: Intel HM87 Chipset Driver; Realtek RTS5227 Card Reader Driver; Intel Dynamic Platform & Thermal Framework Driver; Intel Management Engine Interface Driver
Mouse, Keyboard and Input Devices: Synaptics Touchpad Driver
Network: I'll use the killer network driver without its bloatware
System Utilities: Kionix Free Fall Sensor Driver
Video: I'll use from nvidia driver.

@Phoenix or anyone can help me look for updated drivers which are in blod please. Thank you.

 

No

 

hahaha.. its ok.. I'll try to look for them.. can you tell me though which one controls the usb ports? is it the Intel HM87 Chipset Driver? Thanks. Oh I'll do all of this after 2 of August when MS will rollout the new updates.

 

Since Windows 8/8.1 and now in 10, the USB drivers are integrated in the OS so no separate Intel Extensible Host Driver is required.

 

aw ok.. just show that don't have any idea.. I guess I'll just change the network driver and not touch the other bits.. hehe.. thanks again sir..

 

I've been having massive Latency issues from my NIC both wired and wifi.Clevo P870DM3