Atheros AR9485WB-EG Wireless Adapter - No 5 GHz Reception

tomrhyne · 11 Dec 2016

An update. I installed an Intel 7260 dual band wireless adapter in my ASUS without difficulty. To get the screw out of the adapter that the ASUS shipped with I had to take an utility knife and shave off some of the plastic frame that was partially covering it. Without doing that it appears I would have had to take the computer completely apart. After providing clearance for the screw head, everything was a snap.

Before replacing the adapter I used inSSIDer 4 to measure the 2.4 gHz signal strength. It read -56dBm. After replacing the adapter with the laptop at the same position the signal strength was -50 dBm. That is quiet a large signal increase. In addition, I now receive 5 gHz signals.

As recommended, while I had the computer back off I replaced by 750 GB HDD with a Crucial MX300 750 GB SSD. This has really made a tremendous difference in boot up and shutdown speeds. In addition, my big apps like LR and PhotoShop load so much quicker.

Again, thanks to all of you for your help. Have A Merry Christmas!

Adalwar · 11 Dec 2016

About your Signal "increase", I believe it is the other side round. The DB measures is related to SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) and the lower it is means that the reception quality decreases.
Anyway the 2.4 and 5 GHz frequencies have very short wave lengths and any single obstacle will affect the signal. So, any slight move on Antennas position related to emission will affect signal
I would not make any high thoughts about signals.

tomrhyne · 11 Dec 2016

Adalwar, you are wrong about the signal strength. The closer the signal level approaches zero from below (negative) the stronger the signal. For example -50 is much stronger than -80 for. My neighbor's WiFi signal runs about -86 which is much lower than my signal of -50dBm. You are thinking about Signal to Noise ratio which is not measured in dBm. It is just simply measured in dB. It is the signal strength relative the noise level expressed in dB.

As far as position of antennas effecting signal strength, I moved and rotated the laptop to see if signal strength changed where it was sitting and it did not.