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#1 2024-10-23 18:41:06

pinkink
Member
Registered: 2022-11-26
Posts: 11

[SOLVED] Mediatek mt7925e wifi has low reception compared to Win11

Hello,

I have a laptop using the Mediatek mt7925e chipset. The wifi works, but has very low signal reception. Basically works when near the AP, but for example when walked to next room, drops rapidly. The negotiated speed is for example 40 mbps, while my 8 year old mobile phone at the same location has negotiated 480 mbps. Also connection drops at that range pretty easily altogether.

One thing that I noticed is the txpower of the device is displayed as 3dbm, like so

# iw dev
phy#0
	Interface wifi
		ifindex 2
		wdev 0x1
		addr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
		type managed
		channel 44 (5220 MHz), width: 80 MHz, center1: 5210 MHz
		txpower 3.00 dBm
		multicast TXQ:
			qsz-byt	qsz-pkt	flows	drops	marks	overlmt	hashcoltx-bytes	tx-packets
			0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

I noticed this 3dbm issue also while searching on the web, but nothing conclusive. So it may or may not be related.

Would anyone have more experience or hints on this please?

Last edited by pinkink (2024-10-26 13:13:04)

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#2 2024-10-23 19:41:16

seth
Member
Registered: 2012-09-03
Posts: 58,413

Re: [SOLVED] Mediatek mt7925e wifi has low reception compared to Win11

One thing that I noticed is the txpower of the device is displayed as 3dbm, like so

Generally sound like https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=300335

when walked to next room

channel 44 (5220 MHz), width: 80 MHz, center1: 5210 MHz

Does it work better on a 2.4GHz connection?

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#3 2024-10-24 09:22:17

pinkink
Member
Registered: 2022-11-26
Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED] Mediatek mt7925e wifi has low reception compared to Win11

Hi seth,

thank you for the advice!

I am not sure about the 3dbm anymore, as it can't be changed even to 1dbm. It seems more like the card / driver does not report it properly.

# iwlist wifi txpower
wifi      unknown transmit-power information.

          Current Tx-Power=3 dBm  	(1 mW)

I have run a series of tests with an android phone, another laptop (with intel wifi) and with this mediatek laptop.

Mediatek laptop seems to consistently report up to 10 dbm less (worse) signal in similar spots than the other two devices. Because of that, mediatek has lower negotiated rx/tx speeds.
The signal diff increases with signal attenuation, usually between -70 and -80. Especially at the edge of operating range mediatek reports -80 dbm and stops working, while other two devices have for example -70 dbm or even -68 and work happily at high speeds.
However, where the signal is good (-70 or better according to mediatek), the negotiated speed is ok, stable, and works to expectation against a local FTP server.

The setting to disable power management seems to have a positive effect on the stability (by feeling), but not at the 5 to 10 dbm signal diff.

I haven't had a chance to configure and test 2.4ghz connection yet. I'll try that later, and probably I will try to run Windows on the laptop as well to see how it behaves.

What are your thought about this?

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#4 2024-10-24 12:32:19

seth
Member
Registered: 2012-09-03
Posts: 58,413

Re: [SOLVED] Mediatek mt7925e wifi has low reception compared to Win11

2.4GHz has better range than 5GHz but might interfere w/ bluetooth.
The signal quality, notably the rx one, is mostly driven by the antenna quality and position (ie. if it's a USB dongle, a different port may perform much better)

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#5 2024-10-26 09:07:21

pinkink
Member
Registered: 2022-11-26
Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED] Mediatek mt7925e wifi has low reception compared to Win11

This is the internal wifi.

I have booted windows 11 from usb disk to test and the signal reception seemed better. At places where Linux disconnected, Windows driver would report -72 dbm (comparable to mobile phone). At places where Linux would not connect, Windows would report between -75 and -85 but still work. I tested the transfers using winscp and they were functional.

Does that mean that the Linux driver has some issues? I don't see many bugs in kernel bugzilla for mt7925 ... I can report one though. Also in meantime I could replace the card with something like intel ax210...

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#6 2024-10-26 13:11:53

pinkink
Member
Registered: 2022-11-26
Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED] Mediatek mt7925e wifi has low reception compared to Win11

Bug created here, in meantime I will swap for ax210
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=219429

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