Wireless woes

Desktop running W7 x64. The wifi router is in another room. The little wifi strength indicator (bottom right) of the screen has been showing less and less over the last few months. Never more than two bars out of five but usually only one. Often so slow the internet connection cuts out completely. I have tried updating the driver for the Atheros AR9485 wireless network adapter but there is no improvement. This is an onboard wifi on the Asus P8Z77-V motherboard. I was wondering if I buy a seperate wifi card and plug it in will that help? Please don't tell me to simply move the PC closer to the router. I know that distance can be a factor but this machine has always been fine at the same distance. I have just finished a new-build and it is sitting right next to the old PC and it shows 5 bars at the same distance from the router.

Any thoughts?

Hi it could be just the age of the adapter I would try another one.

I was wondering about that.
As it is an onboard adapter will the board accept a plug in and allow it to take over the duties, much like a graphics card can over ride an onboard system?

You can disable the onboard one in device manager

Thankyou for the info.

It can be that you have another router nearby using same channel.
Download and run (doesn't need to be installed) WifiInfoView v2.60

I understand how that might work. But there is no other router within about 500 metres of here. I'm in rural France. And anyway, the new PC is on the same desk as the old one and it is showing 5 bars of wifi signal strength.

I had a laptop with the WiFi adapter hardly ever working. Removing then reseating it restored full functionality.

Bree, it's a desktop (P8Z77-V MB) that has a WiFi card and an external omni-directional antenna. I would say it's not attached.