Does MWB cause my WiFi to disconnect? Strange problem after installing MWB

[crazyXgerman]

Lenovo Yoga 13 laptop running Windows 10 fully up-to-date. 

Symptoms: 

After installing MWB, the following behavior now occurs regularly. Booting up, Windows comes on, connects to my home WiFi (Netgear R8500 Nighthawk router) just fine. All seems normal. After about a minute, network/Internet stops working. Shortly after that, the WiFi icon in the system tray shows the yellow triangle alert that the network no longer works. 

The only way to get the network back is to disable the network adapter (Realtek RTL8723AU Wireless LAN 802.11n USB 2.0 Network Adapter) and then re-enable it again. Of course, this only works for about a minute, then it disconnects again. 

Steps taken so far:

I have spent hours searching online for solutions, tried changing various settings f the network adapter, but no luck. I finally gave up and gave it to my friend who is an IT professional. First, he reproduced the issue in his office on his WiFi to confirm it was not an environmental problem. I had also reproduced the issue using a mobile hotspot - same crap. He could not find the cause either so he imaged the drive, clean installed Windows 10 and then tested it again. That apparently solved the issue. After testing for several hours including various reboots, he was satisfied that it was fixed. 

I picked up the laptop, installed a software program I need for work (Homegauge), used it for an hour at a local restaurant on their WiFi, used Chrome, everything was fine. I was happy. Assuming the issue was fixed with the clean install, I then proceeded to re-install apps I regularly use on the machine, i.e. LibreOffice, IrfanView, 7-Zip, Image Resizer and MWB and shut it down. 

When I came home tonight and booted up the laptop to continue working on it, it exhibited the exact same symptoms as before the clean install. I uninstalled MWB and rebooted, but the problem persists. 

So I'm frustrated and at my wits end. The common factor appears to be MWB. When installing it on a Windows 10 machine that worked perfectly fine for years, the issue suddenly started. When installing it on a Windows 10 clean install on the same machine, the issue returned. 

I'm posting this from my PC since my laptop is useless. I have MWB on this Windows PC as well and everything works fine. I don't know if it's an issue with this particular WiFi adapter/its driver or what. 

Help, please? 

[Malwarebytes]

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[crazyXgerman]

Here is the zip file...

mbst-grab-results.zip

[exile360]

Greetings,

I'm not aware of any issues with Malwarebytes causing network adapters to fail/disconnect, however that doesn't mean that there isn't some issue on your system that we haven't discovered yet, particularly since you appear to be using a Realtek USB Wi-Fi adapter that I've never seen before, so there could be a conflict there.

That said, I also noticed the following entry in your logs which may have something to do with it:

DNS Servers: 192.168.217.1

If you manually configured your DNS settings and that is the correct DNS server then it's fine, otherwise you might want to configure your connection to automatically obtain the appropriate DNS server address:

You should be able to access the setting in the properties of your network adapter here (the instructions under How to change your PC's DNS settings using Control Panel is the method I'd recommend).

Once configured to automatically obtain the DNS server address, disconnect and reconnect from your Wi-Fi and see if the issue is resolved.  If it isn't, then please try installing the latest drivers for your wireless adapter from Lenovo's website.  I've also come across several reports similar to yours such as this one which indicate there are known issues with that particular Realtek adapter and in that thread in particular, disabling Bluetooth functionality seemed to eliminate the issue so that also may be worth a try and there's also a post here at the bottom of the page (the last post) that provides additional details about known issues with those adapters/models and provides some options, including alternate settings, drivers and info about the overall issue and likely cause(s) .  If I'm right, it's possible that whatever the issue is with those particular adapters, it could be that Malwarebytes' Web Protection driver or some other component triggers it by being installed into the network stack.  Some users went as far as replacing the device with an alternative PCIe internal Wi-Fi card adapter (such as the Intel 8265, which is what I have in my laptop at the moment) however Lenovo locks down their BIOS/motherboard so that only approved devices may be used with the system (apparently the Intel 8265 is on the whitelist; I'm not sure about what other devices might be on it so more research may be needed if you do end up going that route should that turn out to be the issue).  The second post I linked to provides a list of compatible adapters, at least for the version of the Yoga 13 being discussed in the thread I linked to (yours may be different depending on the model number).

I hope this helps, please let us know how it goes and if you're able to find a resolution.

Thanks

[crazyXgerman]

Thank you for your effort to look into this; much appreciated. To your points:

DNS: 192.168.217.1 is the gateway/router. It uses Google's public DNS servers and passes those on to all devices on the network. There are half a dozen other devices using the same DNS settings without issues. I think we can rule that out as a problem. 

Driver: The only driver available for download from Lenovo is from 7/14/15. The driver installed on the laptop is from 3/4/16. I can't seem to find a newer version. 

Bluetooth: The context this possible "fix" was mentioned in pertains to different models than the one I have (Yoga 13 Type 2191 Model 219159366357) but it's an easy thing to try. I turned off Bluetooth and ran a ping -t to see what happens. 

Replace hardware: From what I understand, the particular model laptop I have contains a circuit board with everything soldered on, including SSD, RAM, etc. with no modularity or options to replace individual components, so this might be a moot point. 

Anyway - that's what I got so far. 

 

[exile360]

It's odd, I found the Lenovo support page for your system (located here), but unfortunately the only driver it lists for Windows 10 is for an Intel device.  I suspect that part of the issue may be a relative lack of support/updates from the manufacturer for Windows 10.  Overall the drivers they're offering are all pretty old.  It might be worthwhile to try and find a driver direct from Realtek if you can or to check Windows Update to see if Microsoft has a newer driver for it (they often do for devices on Windows 10 as they'll get drivers directly from the individual chip makers/manufacturers like Realtek and Intel).

As far as the parts being soldered on, yes, they often do that, however I don't think that's the case for the internal wireless card slot, and as long as the device you choose is on their whitelist of devices/manufacturers (which clearly Intel is based on the drivers they're offering on Lenovo's site) then it should be possible, though that is a bit extreme so hopefully we can find another solution.

In the meantime please let us know how it goes with disabling Bluetooth, and you might also try configuring the wireless card to only use 2.4GHz or 5GHz and configure your router the same way to see if that makes any difference (it can sometimes help when a device is having trouble with connection issues and I did see multiple users discussing this also with regards to that particular wireless card).

Other than that, I assume that it works normally when Malwarebytes is not installed, is that correct?  If so, you could also try just disabling the Web Protection component as it would be the most likely driver to be causing this since it is the one that hooks into the network stack.  It may be a reasonable workaround temporarily until a permanent solution is found to just keep that individual component disabled and you can supplement the missing functionality with the Malwarebytes browser extension beta which is currently available for both Chrome (and other Chromium based browsers such as SRWare Iron and Vivaldi) and Mozilla Firefox.  You can learn more and download it from the links below:

Chrome
Firefox

It blocks the same sites as Web Protection in Malwarebytes 3 but only shields your browser rather than the entire system and it is compatible with Web Protection so you may continue using it once this issue is resolved (again, assuming disabling Web Protection actually helps).  It also includes some additional functionality including new behavior based blocking for certain types of malicious sites such as phishing sites and tech support scams and also adds ad blocking, tracking server blocking to protect privacy as well as clickbait site blocking; features which aren't currently included in the Web Protection component in Malwarebytes 3.

[crazyXgerman]

After disabling Bluetooth, it appeared to be working fine for several hours. However, after a reboot, it was back to the same issue. 

Like I said above, I uninstalled MWB but the issue persists. 

I'm not really interested in beta testing the extension or sinking more money into the laptop. 

I'm a bit frustrated because I still don't have a lead on a cause for the issue, the laptop is almost unusable as is, I don't really have time to waste troubleshooting this, and I don't want to sink hundreds of dollars into a six year old laptop. 

I appreciate your effort to help with this so far. 

Is there a way to force remove the Wifi adapter from Windows 10, reset the TCP/IP stack, clean install the driver, and give that a shot? 

[exile360]

You could uninstall its drivers, then use Device Manager to manually uninstall/delete the device and its drivers from the system then reboot and try reinstalling the newest driver you can get your hands on for that device (the links I provided above should help as there are multiple drivers available for it which are newer than the one provided by Lenovo for your OS), however based on your experience and all the other threads and discussions I came across when researching this issue it is very likely that you will continue to have problems with the device as it was just a bad hardware implementation unfortunately.

[PostHEX]

On 3/26/2019 at 7:01 AM, crazyXgerman said:

Thank you for your effort to look into this; much appreciated. To your points:

DNS: 192.168.217.1 is the gateway/router. It uses Google's public DNS servers and passes those on to all devices on the network. There are half a dozen other devices using the same DNS settings without issues. I think we can rule that out as a problem. 

Driver: The only driver available for download from Lenovo is from 7/14/15. The driver installed on the laptop is from 3/4/16. I can't seem to find a newer version. 

Bluetooth: The context this possible "fix" was mentioned in pertains to different models than the one I have (Yoga 13 Type 2191 Model 219159366357) but it's an easy thing to try. I turned off Bluetooth and ran a ping -t to see what happens. 

Replace hardware: From what I understand, the particular model laptop I have contains a circuit board with everything soldered on, including SSD, RAM, etc. with no modularity or options to replace individual components, so this might be a moot point. 

Anyway - that's what I got so far. 

 

Have you ran Windows's Troubleshooter? What did it tell you?

Also re you sure that the WNIC can't be swapped? Searching your model lead me to this iFixit tutorial. If I'm wrong it would be very weird that being the case, as I know that the Yoga C920 that released in 2018 does allow for the exchanging of the WNIC. In any case find out your WNICs, and try to search & download the drivers on the WNIC's OEM's site instead. Chances are that their repository is more up to date than Lenovo's. If not, then again try to replace the WNIC (I believe yours is a Realtek, and Realtek's WNICs are universally sh*t; always prefer an Intel one if you care for stability and driver support longevity). If that's not possible, then just use a USB WNIC (there are plenty models that don't stick out too much... though just don't expect great performance... then again if your WNIC is still 802.11n and 2.4 Ghz only, then it might not be a significant difference).

[crazyXgerman]

I gave the laptop to a friend who is an IT professional. He confirmed that the problem starts with installing MWB and persists even when removing it. He has a connection into MWB and is trying to get some assistance with the issue. 

Thanks for iFixit link. That procedure is pretty intrusive and there is too much that can go wrong, so I'm not gonna do that. 

A $15 USB WNIC or not installing MWB appear to be the two main options to avoid the issue.... 

[exile360]

Yes, I bet the issue stems from the widely reported problems with these particular models/wireless cards (apparently that particular device *barely* passed FCC and Windows driver signing requirements; that's how close to being out-of-spec it is) and that the installation of the Web Protection filter pushes it over its limits and once removed, either some remnant of the filter is being left behind (likely in WFP), or else some other setting tied to the network connections remains modified to a degree that the issue persists afterwards (it can't be the driver itself, as it gets removed whenever the program is terminated or uninstalled).

If possible, please keep us posted on your progress with this issue.  I'm anxious to see what the full details and resolution of the issue turn out to be.

Thanks

[PostHEX]

1 hour ago, crazyXgerman said:

I gave the laptop to a friend who is an IT professional. He confirmed that the problem starts with installing MWB and persists even when removing it. He has a connection into MWB and is trying to get some assistance with the issue. 

Thanks for iFixit link. That procedure is pretty intrusive and there is too much that can go wrong, so I'm not gonna do that. 

A $15 USB WNIC or not installing MWB appear to be the two main options to avoid the issue.... 

It looks more daunting than it really is though. If you can assemble a desktop PC, then this is similar. The only difficult things are patience, and remembering the order in which you disassembledm so that you can do it in reverse when reassembling. I do this with my new laptops all the time, because I hate that so many of them come with crappy Qualcomm, Broadcomm or Realtek ones (<3 Intel WNICs). Not to mention that some require DRAM upgrades anyway. Or the occasional battery replacement. But I recommend asking your IT professional friend. I'm sure he could, if he wants.

[PostHEX]

Also by the looks of it you'd may need to connect a modern m.2 WNIC, but (almost) nothing that can't be found on the web.