Crawling wifi with BCM4313 at Bytes/second or None while on AC power

[sling-shot]

I have a laptop based on AMD E450 with a Broadcom BCM4313 Wifi chip. (I think it actually is a single chip wifi/bluetooth solution or something)
The first PCLinuxOS I have tried on it must be 2012.08. With it during the initial configuration I used to get a "Network down unable to connect" at the first attempt and silently followed it up with a nework up and your ip number is so and so kind of tray popup. And then there would be no problem with the wifi.

Recently, with the 2013.02 series or 2012.12 (I am not sure and sometimes the install was directly updated) I am seeing that the wifi is almost always showing this behaviour:
-It connects successfully each time.
-Transfer rates are normal 20-40 KBps for initial few seconds (varying from 5 - 60 approx) and then start dropping to 1 - 2 and then even down to few Bytes /second then stop / start / stop / start and then seem to drop off altogether.

There is something else that I would note. I too had problems with the upgraded wpa_supplicant and loss of wifi along the time when some other forum members reported it. At that time a downgrade to wpa_supplicant provided by Just17 worked.
But this problem was not solved by a downgrade.

I have checked with both 3.2.x kernel and 3.4.x in testing.

I am not knowledgeable about checking drivers etc. (according to Synaptic I have wl driver)

I do not think it is an issue with the router because my Symbian and Android mobiles connect just fine with it.

I have Chakra on the same laptop and I could check if this is shown there too.

What other information would be needed to solve this?

[Ramchu]

Some information:
http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

https://www.google.com/search?q=Broadcom+BCM4313+Wifi&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

[sling-shot]

We have the same driver in our repository currently and I am using it.

The internet searches were fairly not relevant to me or not workable in our situation or my search was not specific enough. Most of those who are posting seem to have problems that were reported on this forum with the wpa_supplicant update.

In my case I am able to connect each time but the problem is with the tapering and finally ending speed.

[sling-shot]

Another update:
I rebooted into Chakra and checked. It too displays the same behaviour.
I also remembered I had an inactive installation of OpenSUSE updated a few months back. Checked there. It did not even see the wifi.

Rebooted into Windows 7 Home Basic 64 bit. Long behind on updates because I almost never use it. Updates are flying at 50 KBps+ speeds consistently.

So I assume this is a malady affecting Linux in general and not PCLinuxOS in particular.

I have been searching further but not got anything else to go on.

[sling-shot]

Noticed a strange thing just now. The wifi crawls on Linux if the charger cable is CONNECTED and ON.
But the presence of charger cable does not seem to affect Windows.
Hmmm....

[sling-shot]

I had been struggling with the problem of wifi crawling on my Samsung laptop with Broadcom BCM4313 wifi.
It works fine on Windows.
I came across a strange discovery. I can easily demonstrate the wifi works relatively fine when running on battery. The moment I connect AC cord, the speed drops to Bytes/second and ultimately stops altogether. If I disconnect AC, it picks up again.

This behaviour was not present when I bought this laptop. This has been a recent phenomenon.
I had to replace the keyboard and touchpad about 3 weeks back when touchpad had stopped working.

Is it possible that this replacement has somehow affected things?

[monsee]

Hi!
I are using same driver (the Broadcom BCM4313 driver) on my notebook Presario CQ (64-bit), and Wi-Fi connection works good, as when I are using my PCLinuxOS LXDE 64-bit, as when I am using my PCLinuxOS XFCE 64-bit...
PCLinuxOS support that driver whitout any problem, in my experience.

[Droopy]

I am also using the same driver (the Broadcom BCM4313 driver) on my Acer Aspire One D255 Netbook and the Wi-fi is working without any problems. When I download updates from Synaptic the download rate is between 1200 kbs - 1800 kbs. My O/S is PCLinuxOS 32-bit KDE but did installed the 64-bit without any issues. 

Droopy

[sling-shot]

Sad to report that this problem still persists here. And Windows is still unaffected.

There is something that triggers wifi to slow down on a/c power. Are there any power profiles for wifi?

I have tried with different kernel versions.

----

May be a new kernel help in someway?

[gseaman]

If you still are having this problem, take a look at these suggestions. This site seems to cover the issues with all broadcom cards.

Galen

[sling-shot]

I do still have this problem. And this is common to all Linux distros I have tried.

I have been reading but am yet to come across another report of the same problem. Most of the people report reduced speed on battery power while in my case it is the reverse.

[DeBaas]

Just been fighting with a BCM4318 with a very low transfer speed.
Solution is the dkms-ndiswrapper (testing)
and installing WiFi with ndiswrapper.
Now the speeds are at win spec's again.
Maybe you could check with the ndiswrapper ?