Laptop issue with high cpu from 'System Interrupts'

[Royston]

We have a Toshiba Satellite C850 which has a Wi-Fi communication issue

When connected to our home Wi-Fi, the laptop freezes every 2 to 3 minutes due to ‘system interrupts’ using +50 % of CPU. This happens even if there is no internet activity (i.e. the laptop is just sitting there doing nothing, then after a couple of minutes ‘system interrupts’ exceeds 50%) I’ve tried a number of suggestions from the internet including resetting the modem and hub, but none have sorted the problem

This problem only happens on our Wi-Fi router which is the Talktalk supplied hub and Openreach G-fast modem. If I turn off the Wi-Fi at the laptop and plug in the Ethernet cable the Toshiba flies. The other 3 laptops we have (two work laptops) connect to Wi-Fi and run with no issues

However, the Toshiba runs with no issues on other people’s routers!

Toshiba Satellite C850

Windows 10 64-bit (upgrade from Windows 7)

Intel Pentium CPU B960 @ 2.20 GHz

8 RAM (upgrade from 4)

SPCC Solid state disk (upgrade from original)

All drivers appear to be up to date

In Summary

The laptop connects and flies on all Wi-Fi systems apart from ours

The laptop flies when connected with the Ethernet cable

All other laptops and mobile phones connect with our Wi-Fi and fly

If anyone has any idea’s I would be grateful

Kind regards

Roy

[KeithFrench]

Shame that you bought such an out of date WiFi adapter, but so long as you are happy with the results, that is the main thing.

[Royston]

Good evening Chris & Keith

I purchased a Wireless USB 802.11n adapter 300Mbps) as the quickest / cheapest way to check the existing adapter.

Once using this USB adapter the wifi flies. System Interrupts stayed under 3% while reviewing Task Manager for the first half hour. You Tube videos etc. were no problem

I think this closes my problem so thanks guys

Roy

[Chris-TalkTalk]

OK Roy, please let us know how you get on 🙂

Chris

[Royston]

Hi Chris & Keith

I'll update the wifi adapter and get back to you

Thank you for your time

Regards

Roy

[KeithFrench]

Looking at the information that you have PM'd me with @Royston the WiFi card only supports the old 2.4GHz WiFi band and Chris has already said that there is a lot of congestion (WiFi interference) on there. I think this must be the problem & would explain why it works on other routers as the interference is probably not as bad. Other WiFi devices are probably using the 5GHz band in your house & that is why they are OK.

I think the best solution would be to change the WiFi adapter to something more modern that supports the 5GHz band. The simplest solution is to use a USB adapter, but disable the old one in Device Manager.

[Chris-TalkTalk]

OK thanks. It sounds like it could be an issue with the laptop wireless adapter or driver but this doesn't really explain why it works on other routers. I've just taken a look at wireless congestion and the 2.4GHz band does appear to be very congested so perhaps it something to do with the laptop potentially only being able to connect to the 2.4GHz band (because it's older) - other devices may be connecting to the less congested 5GHz band

Chris

[KeithFrench]

Do the other laptops connect to the same WiFi band (2.4 or 5GHz) as this laptop and if so, are they OK in the same position as the laptop that is having these issues?

Please open a command prompt window & enter these commands one at a time, pressing enter after each one and waiting for the response. Then copy and paste the output from each into your reply.

netsh wlan show drivers
netsh wlan show interface
netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid

None of these commands will reveal your Wi-Fi password, although other netsh commands will.

Please feel free to PM the results to me, but if you do, please include a link back to this thread, so that I can quickly find it again.

Note I will need to know the names of your wireless networks.

Thanks.

[Royston]

Good morning Chris

It worked when using Windows 7, and I'm sure it was good with W10 and the system upgrades. I can't remember the problem suddenly happening, though I've been fighting the issue over the last 6 month at least We upgraded to Fibre about a year ago but I can't see why that would cause a problem to just one laptop. Really strange

Roy

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Roy,

That's a strange issue, has it ever worked?

Chris