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23H2 destroyed wifi download speeds

I have seen all of the other "similar" posts and none of them have worked. There is something very specific in 23H2 that has completely rendered my download speeds to DSL speeds at best. Here is is the skinny. I have a 2.5gbps fiber connection to the house. The router reports full 2.5 gbps down and 1.9gbps up. All other device on my network reports max speeds for their respective capabilities - my Android phone reports ~500mpbs, my Raspberry pis report between 100-200mbps, my Linux laptops report between 300-500mpbs all over wifi. And prior to the 23H2 this Windows 11 machine reported, on average, 602-610mbps. It now reports 290KBPS at it's fastest. That's KILOBITS per second. I haven't seen those numbers in years. This is all using fast.com across all tested devices.

What have I done to attempt remediation?

1. I went directly to Intel and downloaded the latest and greatest drivers for my AX201. No change.

2. I "removed" the device from Device Mangler and restarted. Waited for it to add the device. No change.
3. I tried the Network Reset tool from Network Connections in Settings. Reboot. No change.

4. I tried flushing the DNS cache, resetting winsock, SFC scan. Reboot. No change.
5. I tried all of the above in a single go. Reboot. No change.

6. I booted to a live USB Manjaro Linux image to see if it was a hardware issue. Loaded fast.com and it reported 612mpbs. Not a hardware issue.

7. I tried setting the Preferred Band to 5ghz. No change.

8. I tried forcing the 802.11 a/b/g mode specifically to 5ghz. No change.

9. I even checked to see if there was a BIOS updated. Already up to date.

I cannot seem to rollback the update to see if that makes any difference. Something tells me ya'll didn't learn from the "similar" 22H2 fiasco. So what do I do now?

Hi Mark Litchfield,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

Would you mind sharing more information about this issue with us?

If I misunderstand your situation, feel free to correct me and share the information.

Best Regards,

Kyo - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

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Yeah. It seems those directories appear to have been cleaned up because all I can do is see the release notes. But I feel like this is the least of my concerns as the core issue is the Wifi taking a dump. Nor does this explain why my download speeds only are impacted. I can upload like a crazy person at 400+mbps but heaven help me if I need to download anything larger than a jpg.

As a side note, it's not just this machine that has poopy wifi. I have another laptop that hasn't updated to 23H2, using an Intel AX200 and it also is suffering from the same issue. There were some security updates and then kaboom. It has carrier pigeons for downloads but can upload all kinds of things without issue.

Funny thing just happened. As I was looking at the update history, an update for the network drivers showed up as available to download. Even though I have already installed the latest drivers from Intel directly. Kind of at a loss for words here. What happened to the wifi?

I have also posted inquiry with Intel. To save myself from duplicating my efforts, here is the link. All additional pertinent details are there.

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I stand corrected. I was able to find the 23H2 updates and "uninstall" them. I rebooted and there didn't appear to be any improvement. I ran SFC after "uninstalling" the update and still no improvement. I even tried a different adapter, an AX210. In Windows, dead download speeds. Boot to USB Linux - I get full speed. The issue is definitely something Windows specific.

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Another thing I noticed is when I use speedtest.net, the download speed flips between 2-3mbps and 400-600kbps a few times before settling in around 280kbps and slowly drops toward the end of the download test. The upload test spikes really fast to about 350mbps, climbs quickly to about 400mpbs and stays there for the duration of the test. When I boot to Linux, I get the same results on upload and download - quick spike to 350mbps, climb to 400+mbps and stays for the duration. Certainly narrowed down to a Windows specific issue, but what I can't tell. Maybe some patch to network IO library for wireless maybe? I don't have these issues when wired direct to ethernet.

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On further examination looks like it's behaving like there is major packet loss on downloads over wifi specifically. Ethernet connections appear to be stable. I've about reached the extent of my "expertise" in network troubleshooting.

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Hi Mark Litchfield,

Thank you for getting back to us.

Thank you for adding such detailed information.

The problem was narrowed down to the network processing between Intel's driver and Windows.

Considering that you have tested a variety of ideas, one of the few directions for testing falls on the driver version.

As was the process of discovery and analysis between the customer and one of the community members in this thread.

Disclaimer: Microsoft provides no assurances and/or warranties, implied or otherwise, and is not responsible for the information you receive from the third-party linked sites or any support related to technology. 

You mentioned that another one of your Intel AX200 powered devices is experiencing similar issues.

If possible, it might be worthwhile to test an older version of the driver on that device, such as the one supplied by the OEM.

Another uncommon but possible direction is interference from certain services, such as the case in this thread.

Very slow download speed on Killer Wi-Fi 6E AX1690i 160MHz Windows 11 - Microsoft Community

Best Regards,

Kyo - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

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None of the steps in the second link worked. From that link, the things I tried that I had not tried before:

  • Restarting the WLAN service.

  • The netsh and ipconfig commands

  • Rebooting in Safe mode with Networking

  • Turning off non-windows services. I did not have any of the Intel services listed in the last message from HaMoDAS.

I previously tried removing / rolling back the drivers for the adapter without success. Once I remove the device from Device Manager (checking the box to remove the driver also), it doesn't show that the driver has rolled back when I reboot and the device is re-registered. It shows the same version of the driver that was previously loaded.

I tried the "clean driver install" method that was in another Intel post of similar nature. It also did not work. The driver download from their site offers a 22.240.1 and 22.250.1 version. I had updated to the 22.250.1 driver and everytime I remove the device and try to install the 22.240.1 version, it complains that a newer driver is installed and does not continue.

My gut still tells me that somewhere along the line, packets are being dropped all over the place OR there is a hiccup in the IO bus between the wifi driver and Windows WLAN service. Whether that's because of a bad driver or a misconfiguration somewhere, is beyond me. Suffice it to say, my custom tweaks of Windows is pretty much limited to the wallpaper and desktop theme. I have touched zero driver settings until now and even then, I've limited my changes to the wifi adapter settings.

I will try the selective boot through msconfig once more with ALL non-windows services turned off to see if anything could be causing an issue, but I saw nothing out of the ordinary in the resource monitor.

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Last updated April 16, 2025 Views 1,298 Applies to: