Windows 10 (A6100 A6200 A6210) Installation Heads Up

[Update4WinX]

Update to my last post: I streamed with no lag for 16minutes before I got a BSoD, but I think it's someone elses drivers now, because it was a _WATCHDOG_ error.  I've watched a few episodes worth of Netflix on 5Ghz connection since the updated download with no issues. Hopefully others with AMD processors will find this thread and get the info they need to get their 5Ghz wifi working again.

Give @UMDTERPS last post the thumbs up in comments for the post updating about the newest driver so others can see.

[tthomas1947]

Good try but no prizes.

Installed standalone new driver.22 and rebooted system plus checked its there ok.

Tried 200mb file download x2 and compare - fails on both 5 & 2.4G.

Tried on internal adapter and files compare ok.

Also if I download two test files in parallel on internal adapter it works ok but on A6210 both transfers fail part way.

An ideas most welcome

[zmaniacz]

Had major issues installing the new driver until I rememebred I had to uninstall MediaTek Drivers first.  Doh.  Once I did that, install was unable to complete and kept showing me the box instructing me to insert the adapter.  FInally clicked no, then went into Device Manager and picked update device driver for the card and it found the new netgear driver.  Appears to be humming along nicely.  No evidence yet of dropped packets, but will be keeping an eye on it.

Thanks!

[steve1954]

Tried the new driver but it seemed to be for the A6210 adapter and I have A6200.???

[douga54]

This is crazy.  Why should Netgear users have to do anything special to make the hardware/software compatible, like downloading new drivers for windows 10?  I spent 2 weeks trying and got nowhere!  Eventually had to wipe my drive and rollback to Windows 7.  Now I'm back online.  Netgear seriously inconvenienced a lot of users and I haven't seen a global fix yet, nor any public notice that there are issues and an apology.  If there is a fix then Netgear needs to make it public!!

[UMDTERPS]

I downloaded a few 1GB test files, no errors or fails.  Using intel CPU/board and newest A6210 driver.

[Teck1015]

So. What? Do A6200 users just not get a driver update because we're using "outdated hardware"? Common Netgear what the hell.

[Babylon5]

TECK1015, Netgear are very actively working to resolve all issues identified in this thread, so all the adaptors named in the title are receiving attention.

[dug_less]

Is the new Netgear driver connecting @ USB 3.0 spec? Previous drivers all connected @ USB 2.0 spec. Could someone verify if the new driver connects at USB 3.0 speed. Thanks. I'm currently using the MediaTek driver with no issues and it connects at USB 3.0 spec.

[zmaniacz]

Running at 3.0 near as I can tell.  WIndows isn't giving me any messages stating it could be running faster.

[UMDTERPS]

How do you check if it's running at the USB 3.0 spec?

[dug_less]

Google usbtreeview and download the tool. It will identify at what speed your usb device is connected.

[DarkNeuron]

Is the new Netgear driver not just the repackaged Mediatek driver?

Does Netgear even have any control over the drivers?

The Netgear installer still sucks. It loops forever in the "insert wifi adapter" step. I have to cancel that step, and "update drivers automatically" from the device manager to properly install the drivers. Wish companies would stop BS installers and just supply the drivers for power users.

But I digress... If these are just the mediatek drivers, I expect more intermittent packetloss on my system. Even yesterday the wifi adapter seemed to crash completely: The windows wifi list was completely empty (usually has loads of wifi in the area).

Question, the release notes mention: 

• Always set U2 mode in ETRON & ASMedia USB 3.0 Host control

I actually have an Etron USB3 host controller, but you don't mention where you change this. Is it a bios setting? Doesn't appear to be a driver setting.

[tthomas1947]

Improved but not fixed packet loss.

Changed D6300 5G channel to 600Mbps operation and now can load smaller test files ok (200MB) but still fails on 1G files downloaded simultaineously.

No expert on TCPIP protocols but using MS Network Monitor I see all ok until i start getting lots of Fast Re-transmits and the downloads fail.

Adapter is connected to USB 2 port as older laptop but as I'm on a 34Meg fibre broadband that shouldnt be a problem.

I got the A6210 as I had the D6300 router so trying to avoid this sort of issue. Didnt see any problems on win 7 but didnt try any big test files.

[UMDTERPS]

DarkNeuron,

More than likely it's the mediatek driver wrapped  in their netgeine software.  Most companies don't make their own boards or the base drivers.  If you peel open most similar routers today they have similar internal compents.  In if I am not mistaken most 1900AC routers use the same broadcom TurboQAM chipset. The software is what really serperates them, but yes companies should release the base driver in case people have issues with the wrapped driver. 

It also should be noted, most networking equipmeht comes out of Taiwan.  Netgear is an American company, however their engineers (possibly outsourced?) are based in Taiwan.  I know this because I was speaking with one through email to help resolvd the 6210 issues.  

[UMDTERPS]

tthomas,

What is the site you are using for test downloads?  I would like to see if I have the same issue.

Thanks

[dug_less]

Have you tried running traceroute to find where the packet loss is happening? You might want to check and see exactly where your packet loss is coming from.

[DarkNeuron]

Well I'm pinging my router, so it's pretty clear where its coming from.

[dug_less]

Fire up command prompt and traceroute www.google.com. Let the process complete and see what your result is.

[ChristineT]

Good morning Community,

Thank you for all of your contributions and posts. After working with a few customers and conducting in-house testing there appears to be various scenarios in which this condition can happen across the three different products. Due to the complexity of this issue, we have found that one set of step may resolve the issue for one product but may not work for the other models. This includes installing the newest firmware following very specific steps to resolve this issue. 

We are actively working on beta firmware in addition to finalizing documentation that will assist customers resolve this issue depending on their device and upgrade path to Windows 10. Once the beta firmware and documentation has been finalized and posted, I will provide another update with the location of the beta firmware instructions.

For any users that would like to continue to troubleshoot this issue with NETGEAR support and engineering please feel free to send me a private message with your contact information and we will reach out to your promptly.

We truly appreciate your patience and understanding while we continue to verify and validate the instructions to resolve this issue.

Thank you,

Christine

NETGEAR Community

[tthomas1947]

Website for test files 5mb to 1gb is:
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/download.html
Pretty good download speeds. Can get 35mb on my fibre with 2 downloads so not server limited.

[Upizmeov]

So I had nothing but trouble with my A6210 when I upgraded to windows 10 from windows 7.

I had the same freezing and then complete inability to see any wifi networks. Even some blue screens.

I finally managed to get Wondows 10 up and running but the A6210 would not do anything...even with the latest fdrivers that everyone had suggested. Until: I decided to uninstall the drivers yet again and try one last reinstall (good thing I had another computer available to get the drivers! Anyway once I installed as a standalone driver (without the genie) things began to work.

Just wanted to mention this to anyone trying to get their adapter to work.

Hope it may help someone.

[TheBinaryX]

Not sure if this problem is just me.

If I update using the updated .32 drivers for the a6210, my network works fine, even on 5ghz connection, to my knowledge at least.
However if i restart my PC or if my PC wakes from sleep i'm forced to REINSTALL the drivers (Standalone) to make it work again.
EVERY TIME.

AMD Based system

I've even FRESHLY installed windows 10, does NOT fix

[zmaniacz]

After a few days of stability on the new drivers, I'm back to the dropped packets and 3000+ms packets to my router.  Getting new wires run on Wednesday, so not going to worry about it anymore.  Good luck to the rest of you.

[DarkNeuron]

Since Netgear's responded on the issue, I'm giving them some more time.