USB/Wifi problems?

Hello again guys, there seems to be one slightly complicated issue with my PC after a a few weeks of use.

My USB WiFi adapter seems to work intermittently - some days connects to my router easily and other days just will not connect at all. I do not move the PC at all, it is about 4-5 metres away from the router, a few walls in between.
The adapter is the "TL-WN725N V2" and I have downloaded the latest drivers from the TP-LINK website.

At first, I assumed it was a USB issue, as my computer used to crash whenever I plugged in my external USB HDD (Powered by mains) and I had to cold reboot to recover. Also the backlights on my keyboard used to flicker between red and blue randomly (point is whenever I reconnect keyboard it resets itself to blue lights). I realised I had not installed any drivers for the motherboard, so I used the all in one package, NEC USB3 driver and the SATA3 Marvell driver from here:

ASRock > 890FX Deluxe4

This sorted the crash issues with external HDD and the flickering keyboard lights.

But I still cannot connect to the internet consistently :/ One thing I have noticed is that in Device Manager, the devices "USB Controller" (shows two instances) and "Ethernet Controller" do not have their drivers installed. Of course, updating via Windows Update when I had internet access did sod all.

I have also noticed, when attempting to connect to my router, if it does connect properly the signal strength is 4-5 bars before connecting. When it fails to connect, the signal strength is always 3 bars before connecting. When I go to the "change adapter settings" in Network and Sharing Centre, if I'm unable to connect, the status of the adapter is in "attempting to authenticate" and nothing else happens.
Just to note, I have enabled legacy USB in BIOS. If I disable that, the keyboard is unresponsive during POST and I'm unable to enter BIOS unless I clear CMOS.

I'm tempted to think the adapter is faulty, as installing the drivers for the motherboard seemed to fix the other USB issues I'm aware of, but the USB Controller devices with no drivers still indicates a USB problem to me.

Any guidance/troubleshooting would be great, as I have tried everything I can think of off the top of my head (as I am happy playing Just Cause 2 and Amnesia: TDD offline completely fine :P) so I'm not tooo bothered. But my inner OCD wants everything fixed (not to mention updating MSE and Windows Update, not just gaming ).

Thanks in advance!

Hi Dom If your Ethernet Controller is not working proper . You should be able to get the Driver from the Motherboards website .. Regarding your USB issue sorry dont have a clue about that

Thanks for the suggestion, right now I do not need to use Ethernet so I never bothered installing the driver. I'll do it now anyway and see if anything changes :)
Anyway, this is essentially a *bump* since no one seems to have anything to offer. I'm tempted to just buy a PCI adapter :/

Well, I've come to learn that there is no fault with the adapter... installed it on my laptop, disabled the inbuilt wireless and all is fine and dandy with the adapter.

I'm going to tinker around with BIOS settings and drivers meanwhile for USB.....

I'm also going to guess no one has any advice still. Gonna have to mark as solved :/

Hey Dom .. Sorry i could not offer any more Advice .. Just curious though why do you prefer WiFi connection ? I would imagine it would be slower .. Mine is not but i have really fast fiber Broadband

Dom ,Did you download the NEC usb3 driver and the AMD all in one driver from the website these should sort out the issues you are having

pebbly said:

Dom ,Did you download the NEC usb3 driver and the AMD all in one driver from the website these should sort out the issues you are having

Dom said:

I used the all in one package, NEC USB3 driver and the SATA3 Marvell driver from here:

ASRock > 890FX Deluxe4

This sorted the crash issues with external HDD and the flickering keyboard lights.

@pebbly ^

maxie said:

Hey Dom .. Sorry i could not offer any more Advice .. Just curious though why do you prefer WiFi connection ? I would imagine it would be slower .. Mine is not but i have really fast fiber Broadband

The only spot in my house where I have access to the phone line is in our living room, which is where our Sky router is. My mum is annoyed enough as it is having to use a TV from another room haha, so it's a defo no-no to have a wired connection

If I can't solve the USB issues, I guess I'll just sell the USB adapter to a friend and just buy a PCI adapter instead :/

Noticed a link on the ASRock website for my motherboard, "Beta Zone".

ASRock > 890FX Deluxe4

If you scroll down to "Beta BIOS", there is a BIOS update to "Improve USB legacy support".
Having never updated or modified a BIOS, does anyone think I should install it and see what happens?

I was referenced to this thread by maxie as I had a USB 3.0 problem with my Gigabyte motherboard. I had tried everything (Intel USB 3.0 drivers, motherboard chipset drivers, etc) and nothing would help. Finally, on a whim, I installed the latest BETA BIOS update and it fixed the problem.

I don't usually recommend BIOS updates, but in this case it fixed my problem. There was no mention of USB 3.0 in the BIOS update fixes.

You can read the entire thread here: Info Post - BIOS Update fixed USB 3.0 Problems on a Gigabyte MB

Whether this is your problem?? If the Wi-Fi is a USB 2.0 device and you are using it in a USB 3.0 port, the port is supposed to be backward compatible, however there could be an issue, either with the port or the adapter. Another thought is power that is available Versus what the Wi-Fi adapter requires. If you are using the adapter in a rear USB port, try a front panel USB port as it (usually) runs from a different USB hub. I have a recording studio and I've seen many posts about USB connected recording devices that use the USB port power and the many problems because of (lack of) power.

I notice this is marked solved. What was the fix?