Is your wireless slow? | Star Labs Help Centre

Improving Slow Wireless Performance on Star Labs Devices

If you’re experiencing slow Wi-Fi speeds or unstable wireless transfers, this guide can help you identify and resolve common issues.

🔍 Understanding the Issue

Star Labs devices use Intel AX200 or AX201 wireless cards.
These cards include advanced power-saving features that help reduce energy consumption, but on some wireless N networks, this can lead to lower performance.

💡 Note:
If your wireless adapter appears as “Wireless-AC 9462”, don’t worry — this is simply how some Linux kernels identify the AX201 card.

By default, the wireless card operates in power-saving mode, which can limit throughput.
The steps below will show you how to temporarily disable power saving, test performance, and (if effective) make the change permanent.

1. Temporarily Disable Power Saving

Open a Terminal window and run the command for your device:

LabTop Mk IV:

StarLite Mk IV:

Then test your connection speed again to see if performance improves.

2. Installing Useful Network Tools

To better monitor your wireless connection, install wireless_tools and wavemon — a simple, live Wi-Fi monitoring tool.

🧰 Install Wireless Tools (for Manjaro / Arch-based)

📡 Install Wavemon

Debian / Ubuntu-based:

Arch / Manjaro-based:

Fedora-based:

To start live monitoring:

3. Checking Wireless Signal and Connection Quality

Use these commands to view available networks and monitor your connection:

List all visible networks:

Monitor your current connection status:

These tools will help you detect weak signals, interference, or unstable links.

4. Make the Fix Permanent

If disabling power saving improves performance, you can make the change permanent by adjusting your system configuration.

⚙️ Enable Link Aggregation and Disable Power Saving

Run the following commands:

Then reboot your laptop to apply the new settings.

5. Advanced Configuration (Use with Caution)

⚠️ Warning: The following settings are for advanced users only.
Incorrect changes may cause reduced performance or compatibility issues.

You can further adjust /etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf to experiment with other driver options.
For example, to disable only power saving, edit the file to read:

Alternatively, you can create a new configuration file:

To revert to default settings:

6. Optional Driver Parameters

You can test additional parameters to fine-tune wireless performance:

Parameter	Description
`options iwlwifi bt_coex_active=0`	Disables Bluetooth coexistence (may improve Wi-Fi throughput).
`options iwlwifi bt_coex_active=1`	Enables Bluetooth coexistence (recommended if using Bluetooth devices).
`options iwlwifi 11n_disable=8`	Enables antenna aggregation for improved performance.
`options iwlwifi swcrypto=1`	Uses software encryption (can improve stability on some systems).
`options iwlwifi power_save=off`	Disables power saving (increases throughput).
`options iwlwifi d0i3_disable=1`	Disables low-power idle state (LAR).
`options iwlwifi uapsd_disable=1`	Disables U-APSD; may fix low throughput on some access points.

✅ Summary

Test disabling power saving with iwconfig.
Use wavemon and nmcli to monitor your connection.
If speeds improve, make the change permanent with /etc/modprobe.d/starlabs.conf.
Reboot and verify stability.

You should now experience faster and more consistent wireless performance.