kushwavez Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 (edited) Hi! I changed my BCM94352Z to BCM94360NG (from fenvi) in my Lenovo X1 Carbon 6th because it's OOB, and I wanted to put the BCM94352Z to another notebook replacing Intel WiFi. So everything is okay, not lagging, not crashing, but there is a very strange behaviour on macOS and I don't really know what is causing that. Speed/rate was okay with BCM94352Z. The problem: 1. If I boot to macOS from a cold start, or from a normal shutdown/start, the rate is always capped at 434 Mbit/s no matter what. Also the download speed is capped at 25-30 MB/s (should be ~60 MB/s) As you can see, the speed is slow, rate is not 866 Mbit/s 2. On Windows, everything is okay, the rate is 866 Mbit/s, speed is also okay (~45 MB/s, not as good as on macOS, but it's okay). Speed/rate on Windows is okay 3. So here is the interesting part: If I reboot from Windows (not shutdown and start but reboot) to macOS, the rate is okay, 866 Mbit/s, and the speed is ~60 MB/s. Still good after sleep, breaks after a shutdown. Speed/rate are okay after restarting from Windows I really don't know what is causing this. System specs are in my signature (Notebook 1). Tried things: - With AirportBrcmFixup.kext (without 4360_injector) - With AirportBrcmFixup.kext (without plugins) - Without AirportBrcmFixup.kext - With AirportBrcmFixup.kext and "brcmfx-country=HU" or "US" bootarg - With AirportBrcmFixup.kext and "-brcmfx-alldrv" bootarg All of the above tried with both OpenCore 0.6.5 and Clover v5128 = Same behaviour. I don't know if it'll help or not, but the router is an ASUS RT-AC66U (AC 1750) with original fw, 5 GHz settings: mode: 80 MHz, channel: 44 I'm in the same room with the router, it's on the top of a large cabinet, the wifi is covering the whole house (the notebook is ~3 metres away). My other devices connecting with 866 Rx /866 Tx rate I collected a verbose log: bootlog.log Very strange... Thanks in advance! Edited January 22 by kushwavez Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hervé Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 Check your Box/Wireless Router settings and try to change channel to a different range for 5GHz/80MHz like the 1xx ones. Check it out when running windows. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels#5_GHz_or_5.9_GHz_(802.11a/h/j/n/ac/ax) Depending on the country in which you reside (Hungary?), it may not be suitable to specify a country code at all. I for one stick to ETSI locale and FR country code in France. Also, you could try without AirportBrcmFixup (which I don't believe you actually need for your card). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kushwavez Posted January 23 Author Share Posted January 23 (edited) @Hervé Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately that didn't solve the problem. I tested with my main router too (RT-AC56U) but the results are the same. With or without AirportBrcmFixup, doesn't matter, the results are the same. In this case, I didn't use AirportBrcmFixup. 1. RT-AC66U - Original Up-to-date FW - 80 MHz/channel 36, notebook is 3 metres away Boot Windows from off state: 866 mbit/s rate - ~45 MB/s speed (OK) Boot macOS from off state: 434 mbit/s rate - ~30 MB/s speed (NOT OK) Boot Windows, restarting from macOS: 866 mbit/s rate - ~45 MB/s speed (OK) Boot macOS, restarting from Windows: 866 mbit/s rate - ~60 MB/s speed (OK, PERFECT) 2. RT-AC66U - FreshTomato custom FW (2020.8) - 80 MHz/channel 151, notebook 3 metres away So in this case, the speed was ~25 MB/s either on Windows and macOS, doesn't matter if booted from off state or not. The speed is capped by the FW. I put back the original FW after seeing the results. Boot Windows from off state: 866 mbit/s rate - ~25 MB/s speed Boot macOS from off state: 434 mbit/s rate - speed ~25 MB/s Boot Windows, restarting from macOS: 866 mbit/s rate - ~25 MB/s speed Boot macOS, restarting from Windows: 866 mbit/s rate - speed ~25 MB/s 3. RT-AC56U - DD-WRT FW v3.0-r44772 std (11/11/20) - 80 MHz/channel 112, notebook 1 metres away Boot Windows from off state: 702 mbit/s rate - ~45 MB/s speed (OK) Boot macOS from off state: 434 mbit/s rate - ~30 MB/s speed (NOT OK) Boot Windows, restarting from macOS: 702 mbit/s rate - ~45 MB/s speed (OK) Boot macOS, restarting from Windows: 702 mbit/s rate - ~60 MB/s speed (OK, PERFECT) I don't think that the card is defected, but I don't really understand why it is working after a restart from Windows... Oh and I tested with another notebook too: Lenovo ThinkPad T440. The results are same... 434 mbit/s if I boot macOS from off state. Same with Clover and OpenCore. Then I tested again with the BCM94352Z: boot macOS from off state: 866 mbit/s rate - ~50 MB/s speed (OK), same on Windows. Edited January 23 by kushwavez Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hervé Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 'beats me. I too have one of those Fenvi BCM94360NG (because Bluetooth works faultless) but I found its wireless performance to be a little inferior to my DW1820A so I put it aside and kept using the DW1820A cards. But I can't say I've experienced anything like what you described. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kushwavez Posted January 23 Author Share Posted January 23 (edited) Hmm.. It's not a big deal for me to restart from Windows to get it working, but sure it's a little bit annoying. Well, I'll make a script to do that automatically and will use this card for a while... I'll also try and look into a bit deeper about what the hell is going on with that. If that won't work out, then I'll change back to the BCM94352Z... -10 MB/s, but that's not the end of the world. The only 'major' issue is that iPhone Instant Hotspot isn't working with that card. Anyway thanks @Hervé! One question: My notebook have 2 antenna connectors for wifi (1 main, 1 aux). Can I install a 3 antenna type card (for ex. BCM943602BAED) and leave one connector unconnected? Or do I need to install one more antenna wire? Edited January 23 by kushwavez Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hervé Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Such a card will not work at full speed without all its antennas connected, you'd only get reduced speed. As such, no interest at all ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kushwavez Posted January 23 Author Share Posted January 23 Understandable. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wern apfel Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 @kushwavez Similar issue here, but does not work at full speed after Windows was stared, but after Linux. What Windows driver do you use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kushwavez Posted February 26 Author Share Posted February 26 (edited) It's installed by Windows Update. Driver date: 2015. 07. 20. Version: 7.35.295.2 Someone here on Insanelymac posted a bootcamp driver zip for BCM94360CD, that is also working with this card I also reported this to the Acidanthera team, hopefully they'll add a patch for this. https://github.com/acidanthera/bugtracker/issues/1532 EDIT: They closed the issue, safe to say that there won't be any patches/fixes. Really unfortunate... I really thought this card will be awesome when I bought. Next I'll buy an original Airport BCM94360CS2 with an NGFF adapter. That is the best. Edited February 26 by kushwavez Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wern apfel Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 (edited) I've tried a Bootcamp driver an a driver from Windows update, the Windows driver is from 2016 and the speed is only 400 MBit/s. Can you please upload the driver you're using? Maybe I find a difference. I wonder if no one else noticed this issue, or do we have faulty cards? Spoiler Spoiler Edited March 3 by wern apfel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kushwavez Posted March 3 Author Share Posted March 3 @wern apfel You can download it here: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=broadcom+802.11n+network+adapter version: 7.35.295.2 Others also experienced this issue: https://github.com/acidanthera/bugtracker/issues/1532 Looks like this card was a mistake... I'll buy an original Apple BCM94360CS2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wern apfel Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 On 3/3/2021 at 6:57 PM, kushwavez said: @wern apfel You can download it here: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=broadcom+802.11n+network+adapter version: 7.35.295.2 Thanks, the speed goes up to 866 even after sleep. Let's se what I can find out. On 3/3/2021 at 6:57 PM, kushwavez said: @wern apfel Looks like this card was a mistake... I'll buy an original Apple BCM94360CS2 I own such a card, WIFI works perfect but the Bluetooth range is low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kushwavez Posted March 4 Author Share Posted March 4 1 hour ago, wern apfel said: Thanks, the speed goes up to 866 even after sleep. Let's se what I can find out. So it seems it's completely a driver issue after all... 1 hour ago, wern apfel said: I own such a card, WIFI works perfect but the Bluetooth range is low. Yeah? Could you please give an approximate in meters for example? If THAT is not working then... I have to install a 3rd antenna into my notebook and get a BCM94360CS (not CS2, CS is the one with 3 antennas), or a BCM94360BAED (but then Instant Hotspot won't work) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wern apfel Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 19 hours ago, kushwavez said: Yeah? Could you please give an approximate in meters for example? About 1 meter. The Computer on the floor and the Magic Mouse on a glass plate table. I'm not sure if the glass makes a difference, but had some delays when using the Mouse, with the NG card no issues anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kushwavez Posted April 19 Author Share Posted April 19 (edited) Just an update: Got an original Apple BCM94360CS2 card with an NGFF adapter (same price as the 94360NG), the speed is perfect, working Instant Hotspot, all good! Glad I bought it. 94360NG is a piece of junk. Just barely fit in the X1 Carbon 6th, because of the size the SSD and the wifi card made contact, so I used 3 layer tape so they won't make contact anymore iperf3 local speedtest 76 MB/s max Download speed!!!! On Windows it's about ~60 MB/s but it's jumping between 20-60 MB/s quite often. Most likely because of the driver is older (2015), so I'll update and see if it changes the speed or not, but I don't really care, it is perfect either way. EDIT: Yes, it was the driver. After updating to the latest (2016) it went stable ~60 MB/s Edited April 19 by kushwavez 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wern apfel Posted April 23 Share Posted April 23 (edited) I think we have faulty cards, since other users not complaining about speed issues (this card is widely used). It may be a power management issue. It seems that the speed does not drop while downloading, but after some inactivity. Strange thing, still have 2 streams after sleep (after Windows was once loaded). Edit: After some changes (e.g. ASPM off) the Tx-Rate appears to remain at 434 MBit/s, before it often fell to 7 MBit/s. More tests needed. Edited April 23 by wern apfel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whatnameisit Posted 19 hours ago Share Posted 19 hours ago On 3/4/2021 at 2:57 AM, kushwavez said: @wern apfel You can download it here: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=broadcom+802.11n+network+adapter version: 7.35.295.2 Others also experienced this issue: https://github.com/acidanthera/bugtracker/issues/1532 Looks like this card was a mistake... I'll buy an original Apple BCM94360CS2 Hi. The catalog shows two drivers with the same name but different download file names. The Tx rate is the same old 434 Mbps with both drivers. Maybe my card is even worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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