Win10 - ASUS USB-56AC adapter

[sfx2000]

Just a quick note - don't install the Asus utliities - they're meant for Win7/8, not for 10..

Win10 does include a Plug and Play (e.g. Grab and Grope) driver for this adapter and installs cleanly...

Driver version - Realtek Semi, 1027.4.1120.2014, dated 2/17/2015 - this is a signed driver, BTW...

Couple of things to note:

1) the default band preference is none, which means it'll go to 2.4GHz first and camp in on a Single SSID - fix here is to go into Advanced Config and change preferred band to 5GHz

2) TurboQAM in 2.4GHz is off be default - can be enabled again in advanced config.

Posting this here so that it might be useful for other - know there's been some discussion about the PCE-56ac card, so check advanced settings there, it might be similar to what the USB-56ac has - seems that the defaults are very conservative.

 

[SwampKracker]

Thanks for the info. I will try this out after I get my Windows 7 laptop upgraded to Windows 10.

Edit: Windows 10 upgrade complete. USB-AC56 device detected and drivers installed. Seems to be working fine.

 

[Diamond67]

Thanks for the info! By the way, it is Asus USB-AC56, to be exact.

 

[bodean]

I see no drivers in windows for the ASUS PCE-AC68
Not sure how you download P&P drivers when the card does not work without drivers to begin with

 

[sfx2000]

I see no drivers in windows for the ASUS PCE-AC68
Not sure how you download P&P drivers when the card does not work without drivers to begin with

Saw that over in the other thread - hard to imagine that Broadcom hasn't released drivers directly to MS for PnP - I know the drivers are out there, as Apple's BootCamp utility has them already for the 11ac equipped newer MacBook Pro and iMac, which run a similar chipset, but Apple is providing those drivers, not MSFT...

So that means the drivers are in fact there - but perhaps the Device ID isn't present in the MSFT Win10 repository for the Asus card... so Asus should provide them directly thru Support.

 

[sfx2000]

The BCM4360 drivers are forthcoming - I misspoke earlier suggesting that they're public, they're not, at least not just yet, and this impacts all vendors, Asus with the PCE-AC68, along with others, and this is a frustrating pain point for many - and using earlier drivers isn't really an option..

That being said - getting back to the USB-AC56 USB3 Dongle - some items to check and tweak perhaps...

Properties/Advanced...

Check BeamCap - default is disabled, try "VHT BEAM TX|RX"
Check LdcpCap - default is disabled, try "VHT LDCP TX|RX & HT LDCP TX|RX"
Check StbcCap - default is disabled, try "VHT STBC TX|RX & HT STBC TX|RX"
Check Preferred Band - default is No Preference, try "3. 5GHz first" <-- this I mentioned earlier
Check VHT 2.4G - default is disabled - can try Enable, but this one is really dependent on AP in use - my suggestion is to disable, but play around and see.. what's nice is this is one of the few adapters that you can enable/disable the 2.4G VHT modes for experimentation.

These settings should be fine for most 11ac and newer 11n AP's in both bands...

 

[Numan]

Thanks for the settings. I've noticed Windows 10s wireless is about as stable as a house of cards on a table with a short leg, specifically with the Intel AC 7620 and the AC56. I think my AC56 was trying to jump bands randomly so this should help it

 

[adamson]

Sadly the drivers in Win 10 are junk. Adapter does not connect at start most of the time, also drops connection at times. Im back to no issues forcing Win 8.1 drivers. Run .exe with troubleshoot compatibility on right click and install and finalize test.

 

[adamson]

I have been trying everything to fix the issues for days, hours spent for nothing. Now I can move on and not hate 10!!

 

[RogerSC]

Yeah, when you got to Asus web site, all they have posted for Windows 10 is a note to use the "built-in" Windows 10 plug-and-play support. Haven't used the USB-AC56 much on Windows 10 yet, so haven't seen any problems, just verified that it works. Good to hear that 8.1 drivers are usable on Windows 10, if needed.

 

[KSoze]

Hi,

I'm having some issues where I have to manually reconnect to my wireless network anytime Windows starts up as it automatically connects with "Limited connectivity" and no matter how much I wait, it never seems to fully connect. If I just disconnect and connect again, it instantaneously works.

Well... at least it is better than before where I couldn't get a stable connection. Thanks!

 

[Anorax]

Well... at least it is better than before where I couldn't get a stable connection. Thanks!

For reference here are some settings I used to get some stability in Win10 when using the USB-AC56 adapter at 5Ghz:

Win10 settings (Ver 1027.4.1120.2014 Date 17/2/2015):>
BeamCap = BEAM Disable
EnableAdaptivity = Auto
High Adhoc Mode = Disable
HLDiffForAdaptivity = 7
L2HForAdaptivity = F5
LdpcCap = VHT LDPC TX|RX & HT LDPC TX|RX
Preferred Band = No Preference
QoS Support = Auto
StbcCap = VHT STBC TX|RX & HT STBC TX|RX
USB SF Mode = Disable
USB Switch Mode = Auto
VHT 2.4G = Disable
WiFi Config = Performance
Wireless Mode = IEEE802.11a/n

This forces the card to connect at 802.11n but I found this very stable compared to 802.11ac with this Win10 driver. When I connected at 802.11ac speeds to either my RT-AC68U or my FritzBox 7490 the pings would be all over the place and I would suffer disconnects under network load.

 

[sfx2000]

This forces the card to connect at 802.11n but I found this very stable compared to 802.11ac with this Win10 driver. When I connected at 802.11ac speeds to either my RT-AC68U or my FritzBox 7490 the pings would be all over the place and I would suffer disconnects under network load.

Thanks for sharing - as others have mentioned in this thread - Win10 and WiFi is a bit spooky - which is pretty crazy when we consider how much public testing was done before the formal Win10 release...

 

[Numan]

Just this past weekend I gave up and forced the latest Win 8.1 drivers into Win 10. So far not so bad (WoW gave me some hiccups) but better than the built in drivers. Next step...back to Win 8.1 where I had no issues whatsoever.

 

[charlie2alpha]

There's an updated driver from ASUS for the USB-AC56U for a while now but I recommend to everyone to avoid it. It has a memory leak issue that after a while forces windows to display a "System memory low" message. Only way to recover is a reboot. The Windows 10 included driver doesn't have that problem.

 

[SD Dude]

Charlie: Could you please tell me exactly what steps I should do ? I have Win10 and also a AC3200 router (w/ merlin) and the AC56-USB card... cant get it to work for the life of me ;( I already returned the 1st one back to newegg as I thought it was the wlan usb56 card not working
thanks in advance !

 

[sfx2000]

Just use the windows 10 Plug and Pray Driver, it works fine...

 

[SD Dude]

I had installed the ASUS drivers (under win10) and didnt work, so I uninstalled and It looks like it went back to original win10 driver, but when I plug in the stick (it makes the windows usb noise like it detected a usb plug in device) but it doesnt light up the LED on the USB56 stick ;( any suggestions ? thanks in advance

 

[SD Dude]

Does anyone have any suggestions ??? thanks in advance !

 

[sfx2000]

I had installed the ASUS drivers (under win10) and didnt work, so I uninstalled and It looks like it went back to original win10 driver, but when I plug in the stick (it makes the windows usb noise like it detected a usb plug in device) but it doesnt light up the LED on the USB56 stick ;( any suggestions ? thanks in advance

That's odd - works fine for my USB-AC56...

(just wished it worked for Linux, but one can only hope...)