Fix Dell XPS 13 5GHz wifi speed issues [SOLVED]

When I first connected my Dell XPS 13 to my ASUS router I was quite impressed by the 893Mbps connection speed. However, a few days later and I could not even see the 5GHz wifi network. 🙁 I was stuck at 144Mbps and not loving it.

After experimenting with the drivers, I determined that an automatic driver update had effectively disabled the 5GHz capability of the internal wifi card and that by reverting to the original (stock) Windows 8.1 driver I could regain those sweet high speed connections 🙂

Basic instructions:
#1 Uninstall the Dell driver
#2 Have Windows search for your hardware and install the default Windows Broadcom driver
#3 Make sure automatic driver updates do not replace your driver again

Screenshots:

WiFi speeds as they should be :-)

WiFi speeds as they should be 🙂

Disable automatic driver updates to prevent this from happening again!

Disable automatic driver updates to prevent this from happening again!

Have windows find new devices, then it will install this default Broadcom driver that works with 5GHz networks

Have windows find new devices, then it will install this default Broadcom driver that works with 5GHz networks

Right click on the Dell wifi card and select 'Uninstall'

Right click on the Dell wifi card and select ‘Uninstall’

I hope these steps are useful to you! 🙂

PS if you are encountering CPU issues and slow speeds with your Dell, checkout this post!

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