06-01-2020, 10:13 AM
One thing I've noticed on my Pinebook Pro ever since launch is that the 2.4 GHz-band wireless networking appears to be very, very unreliable. It initially works on first connect, but then goes completely dead for long periods with only brief moments of functioning in between, leading to intermittent connections with lots of dropped packets. It feels almost like it's overheating, but I can't quite figure out how to test that. It happens pretty much regardless of signal strength, and on every network and access point I've tried. 5 GHz-band wireless works fine, and has no apparent reliability issues. Curiously, Bluetooth does not appear to have these issues either, despite using the same 2.4 GHz frequency band and presumably similar functionality on the same transceiver chip.
Are others having these 2.4 GHz-specific issues as well? Is anything known about what might be causing them?
Intuitively, I wonder if the antenna in use on the Pinebook Pro is just not well-matched for 2.4 GHz use, and as a result, transmitting on that band is causing the RF energy to mostly get dissipated as heat in the transceiver and cause problems, rather than being radiated. I don't really have much evidence for this, though, and Bluetooth seems to work a little too well for that to actually be the case. Hmm...
Are others having these 2.4 GHz-specific issues as well? Is anything known about what might be causing them?
Intuitively, I wonder if the antenna in use on the Pinebook Pro is just not well-matched for 2.4 GHz use, and as a result, transmitting on that band is causing the RF energy to mostly get dissipated as heat in the transceiver and cause problems, rather than being radiated. I don't really have much evidence for this, though, and Bluetooth seems to work a little too well for that to actually be the case. Hmm...
