Thinkpads Forum

I've got a refurbished T520 (i7, 2.50GHz, 8GB, 64bit, 1920x1080 screen) and I've recently upgraded the storage to a SSD/HDD combo. The Windows 10 Pro upgrade (clean install) went fine, except however, the wifi internet is extremely slow (<1 MBPS per SpeedTest.net). However, all other devices on this wifi at my home, including a similar T520 (still on Win 7Pro) achieves 20+MBPS. The LAN card works fine and hits the usual 75 MBPS when it's plugged in. However this is a road machine, so wifi is essential. I know the T520 is not on Lenovo's recommended list for upgrades, but I'd like to keep this going with Win10. Also, the wifi speed worked fine under the original Windows 7 Pro OS that came with the refurbished unit.

On wifi board is an Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000 PCI card (per Device Manager). The current driver on the wifi card is version 15.2.1.1 (dated 1/23/2013) and Update Driver reports that it's the latest one. Looking on Lenovo's website, I can find no references for any Windows 10 wifi drivers for the T520. There is a I suspect that's probably because the T520 isn't on their approved list. I see Win10 drivers on Lenovo's site if I tell it I have a T530; but it looks like they have Ericsson wifi boards on those machines. So I don't want to risk installing what looks like the wrong driver.

Does it make sense to buy a new PCI wireless card? On Intel's site for "PROSet Wiresless Software and Drivers for Windows 10", https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25833), there is a list of wifi adapters that are supported by the latest release. Should I try to find one of those? What I don't know is how to ensure that a wireless network PCI card will work with the T520. I don't if installing a newer PCI wifi card on a 4 year old machine is going to work, or just lead to more trouble. And looking around on eBay for PCI wireless cards, there are lots of choices with ideas like "dual band" and even some Bluetooth capabilities on board. Not sure what to get; or even if this is a good pathway to go.

Any thoughts?

Welcome to the Forum.
The N-1000 is a crappy card to begin with, single band (2.4GHz) only.
Get a dual-band card instead, like the half-size Atheros AR9280 or Intel 6200N/6205N.
You'll need a modded BIOS before you put a new card in: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Custom_BI ... ved_BIOSes

Note that there is no Windows 10 support by Intel for this CPU generation. You will find issues with HD 3000 graphics.

Give it a few days and then retest the data rate. Perhaps Windows 10 is busy using the wifi for it's own needs (read, slurping up your personal data).

Puppy wrote:Note that there is no Windows 10 support by Intel for this CPU generation. You will find issues with HD 3000 graphics.

I tested windows 10 on my T520 for 2 hours or so, and there was no issues, it auto-downloaded a driver for the HD3000 from windows update.

Does it make sense to buy a new PCI wireless card?

No. Your card worked fine in your previous operating system. The card is not your problem.

the wifi internet is extremely slow (<1 MBPS per SpeedTest.net).

RealBlackStuff wrote:The N-1000 is a crappy card to begin with, single band (2.4GHz) only. Get a dual-band card instead, like the half-size Atheros AR9280 or Intel 6200N/6205N.
You'll need a modded BIOS before you put a new card in...

<1 MBPS! That's a software problem. There isn't a wireless card in all of North America which'd fit in your T520 and perform at that rate on a properly functioning operating system. Your wifi card is fine.

Before you install bios from 'mediafire.com', king of unreputable places on the internet for downloading software, try another operating system. I've got a hundred bucks says the wifi card performs as well as any other card on your network with a neutral operating system - try it under Linux.

<1 MBPS... the N-1000 isn't THAT crappy. My N1000 is limited only by the speed of my internet - I get 22 MBPS with an N1000.

If card was fine under Windows 7 and is not not OK under Windows 10, it would be extremely unlikely that a hardware issue occurred at the same time as an OS upgrade (OK, components with mechanical parts will see extra use due to an upgrade, but not the case for a Wi-Fi card). So must be software. So you must need to fiddle with the driver settings. In my ThinkPads (under Linux, but still), I have to disable 802.11n mode otherwise they work very slowly (high packet loss). So it may be that under the Windows drivers there is the same option?

I just remembered, a clean install of windows 8.1 on T520, give me wireless that is a bit unstable, installing drivers manually from intel website fixes it.

My card is the 6300N though, but try intel newest drivers anyway for your card.

I'd get a new card. I've had trouble free experiences with the 5300/6300 on Lenovo HP and Dells under w10. The 3x3 and speed is probably masking the drivers.

That's a common issue with Windows 10. Z61t did the same thing, although that machine's wireless is completely unsupported.