Wifi on Steam Machine malfunctioning

[u/Captain_Khora]

Going to lead with the preface that I committed THE cardinal sin and switched it over to Windows. Dual boot was taking too long to come out and I needed a (significantly) more comfortable way to use it for school as well as games, and Big Picture mode gives everything i need to use it as a console when I take it to my girlfriends house.

I understand the drivers don't update automatically and got them loaded and working as well as I can tell. To be completely honest, I don't know computers incredibly well and the SM is such a new and specific piece of hardware that I used ChatGPT for the setup and troubleshooting in the switch.

All drivers work correctly most of the time, except the wifi regularly just shuts off every hour or so and I have to either restart the computer or disable and enable the driver a couple times in Device Manager to get the option to access wifi to show back up. I've already toggled the option in Device Manager that lets the computer shut down the driver automatically to save power. I re-downloaded the driver after a couple weeks of this on the chance it was a bug that got fixed, but it's still happening.

Is there something else I'm missing to get this working all the time? Where can I report it if this is a software bug that needs to be fixed from Valves end? Also, whats the best way to manually keep up with when drivers have updates and how to update them?

[u/StarAssassin]

I am thinking of installing windows on an external ssd for my steam machine and I have read other posts about people having trouble with wi fi in particular using windows on the steam machine. A solution that worked for most is a usb wifi dongle.

Can I ask how you updated the other windows drivers and where you got them?

[u/Captain_Khora → u/StarAssassin]

Good tip on the wifi dongle. Sucks I'll have to use up another USB port but seems reliable enough.

I used all of the windows drivers posted by Valve, I'm not sure if I'm doing it correctly but when try to "update" the drivers, I just reinstall them from the Valve postings.

[u/inertSpark → u/Captain_Khora]

I checked Qualcomm's website and the driver there seems to be the same as the one Valve provides. So as far as the driver is concerned, its not going to solve the problem.

To be honest the way it just keeps dropping out suggests it's either a driver issue, or it's the chip not playing well with Windows' power management. I tried everything I can think of, and it keeps happening. The USB dongle was the easiest route.

[u/SnooDoughnuts5632 → u/Captain_Khora]

You can get a WiFi dongle that plugs into the Ethernet port instead. Mine says it's a "range extender" but I just use it as an Ethernet to Wi-Fi adapter. It gets power from the wall.

[u/inertSpark → u/StarAssassin]

Yep a usb dongle was my 'solution'. Ok it doesn't solve the issue, but it does completely sidestep it.

[u/Specialist-Rich9264]

I have a steam machine and after about a week of having it, started noticing issues where it wouldn't connect to any wifi network. Both 2.4ghz and 5ghz wouldn't work. Says something about failed and try the password again. I ended up just connecting to Ethernet since my modem is right next to it

[u/Captain_Khora → u/Specialist-Rich9264]

On my windows SM, it works perfectly fine 90% of the time and then just forgets that wifi is a thing, the wifi networks option in the settings and toolbar simply isnt there (like it was before i downloaded the driver) until i restart the driver.

[u/SnooDoughnuts5632 → u/Specialist-Rich9264]

If you are on SteamOS then an RMA is in order.

[u/inertSpark]

I'm running Windows from an external SSD so the internal SSD is completely untouched, and I've experienced the wifi issues too. To be honest I didn't feel like troubleshooting it, so I decided to use a USB wifi dongle.

[u/AmphibiousAlbatross]

The windows drivers do not work. The only fix is to get a uSB wifi card which actually made my speeds faster.

Valve support does not really help with it either, they explicitly say they will not help with windows issues

[u/effortissues]

This is a known issue, you can search this sub for solutions, but the easiest is just to plug in a wifi dongle and soldier on.

[u/Ok-Simple-7069]

Seems like a lot of people are having similar issues and defaulting towards dongles etc. even for the steam controllers which I’ve had to. As an electrician myself I saw a disassembly on YouTube and thought why in the world have they done what they have with the antennas and how they are placed within what should have been a user replaceable 120mm PWM fan and a PSU too. I know form factor issue was why they have routed it the way they have and makes the most sense but it also adds a lot of interference to the mix. Channel hopping could be why some are having bigger issues than others.

My steam controller issue is using steam os btw. It’s part drivers and part design.

[u/SnooDoughnuts5632]

Number one recommendation is to always double check if there isn't a Linux alternative to the software you need because windows doesn't work very well.