Windows 10: Wifi Signal always at full bars - not matching real signal

Hello, I just noticed that my wifi signal bars stay at full bars and does not change even if the signal is truly low. I realized this only recently when I transferred to our bedroom which supposedly had the worst signal in the house, but the signal bar still stays at full. Whenever I click on it, the real signal will appear and does not currently match the one shown in the system tray icons.

Note:
My current wireless network adapter is Intel Dual Band Wireless AC-7265
Updated to Windows 10 Anniversary Update on August 17, 2016

Solutions I've tried but failed to fix it:
1. Uninstalling the wireless network adapter, restarting PC and scanning for hardware changes, although it did show the true signal for a second then went to full bars
2. Updating the wireless network adapter to no success in fixing it. Also tried rolling back the driver to the original one.
3. Turning Network system tray icons on and off in the windows 10 settings

And BEFORE doing that, I was also trying to fix various problems that also came with my laptop.

1. Updated Intel HD Graphics 530 and Nvidia drivers which seemingly fixed my BSOD problems that never again happened since then.
2. Updated my BIOS to the latest which fixed black screen/restarting problems when laptop wakes up from sleep.

NOTE: all the drivers ive installed came from the manufacturer's/model's support website for my specific laptop

I've fixed all the other problems of my laptop, but I can't seem to fix the wifi signal bar staying at full.

Below is an attached image of my problem.





:)

 

Windows 10 network icon always display as there is strong signal.

I hope
this website can help you understand the problem better. Thank you.

 

problem in checking signal strength of wifi

Hi

I have Lumia 710, when i connect my phone through WIFI, it shows an WiFi connectivity icon on top, which is always full. but sometimes due to low signal unable to access the internet, but that time also, WiFi icon shows full strength, while if i go in WiFi
setting, there it shows the real signal which notifies too low.

so how can i see the signal strength on my home screen as other phone displays, without going in WiFi setting?

It is very painful to go in the wifi setting just to examine the signal strength.

 

You do not need to scribble out the names on that screenshot, since it will do nothing for any of us. That signal graphic is just like on a cellphone. It does not mean anything. There are a lot of factors why you can have great radio signal, but have interference causing a blackout or outage. If you want to see a snapshot of all signals your wifi adapter is seeing, open up a Command Window as administrator and type it 'netsh wlan show all'.

 

Thank you for your comment.

First, let me explain that hackers can use any information available in your pc to break into it, including the size of your screen or even your webcam that's why I scribbled them out.

Anyways, I've been using this laptop since last year and anyone can be pretty sure that the signal bars vary depending on many factors like wireless cards, interference, or where the router/modem is placed relative to the device.

Other than that, I'm also pretty sure that Microsoft set these signal bars in a way to show the user how strong the connection is. I don't think they'd naturally set it to be FULL every time just because it's detected. I've been living in this house for such a long time already that I already know which room gives 2 bars, 3 bars or 4 bars. And one more thing, how can you explain how the signal bars don't match?

 

It is not a bug, it is a feature. It displays signal strength based on all available networks around, mine is the same.
MS does not care, that 99% of the time, they are not yours, theoretically you can connect to them, so ... . *Rolleyes

For the record, the only thing, that really protects WiFi, is 63 special characters long WPA2 password.
Anyone can see your WiFi name, if he is in range, MAC address can be spoofed within seconds as well.

 

You are right, Schulte, that the icon in the taskbar notification area for Wifi is now not animated to show signal strength in the AU. It is probably a bug, and the sound volume and battery state icons both work as they should, showing the state of the related devices. Feedback - Feedback - upvote for action!

 

Is there a possible way around this bug? I'm really trying to avoid recovery options for a problem as small as this, but despite that, it still "bugs" me from time to time.

 

It will be fixed in a later cumulative update I guess - but it is pretty minor. Keep letting MS know it bugs you - it may be fixed sooner if enough folks complain.

 

Thank you for your suggestion! I opened Feedback Hub and was surprised that there are also other users experiencing the same thing after installing the anniversary update. I upvoted every one of them, hopefully Microsoft will notice and could fix it.

Although I'll keep this topic unsolved as there might be someone out there with a solution for this *Smile

 

No hackers cannot use those names, since they would have to be physically near you. They do not mean anything to anyone online. Those signal bars in the graphics do not mean anything other to show that your wifi radio is able to get a signal. The real information is what you get from the command I stated in my previous post.

 

It is actually a non-issue with that graphic that comes from Wireless Zero Config. You can show no bars in it and still have a strong signal. Never go by those graphics, always go by the information either through inSSIDer or in a Command Window with netsh wlan show all.

 

It is not a bug. If you install the Intel software with their version of Wireless Zero Config, it causes the bar graphic to appear low, but if you pulled it up in inSSIDer or in a Command Window with netsh wlan show all, you would see that the AP has a high strength, but may have another more powerful radio transmitting that is causing signal problems. That can be from a bad tv, microwave oven, high voltage power lines, neighbor with a ham radio antenna that is bleeding over into that frequency. Or just a issue with the antenna foil or wire for the wifi card on your device.

 

Wireless Zero Config is old, deprecated technology from XP and Vista/Server2008 see:

Wireless Zero Configuration Reference (Windows)

The graphics then, were a coloured bar chart in the taskbar notification area to show signal strength and they worked as designed, based on bitmap graphics icons stored in the wzcsvc.dll file associated with the wireless configuration service.

Replaced in Windows 7 and later by WLAN AutoConfig. Over time, the animated icons have become simpler, more universal, and less resource-hungry, by using monochrome fonts instead of icons. The overlay warning triangle on the Wireless icon indicating no connection is monochrome yellow on black, and still works as it should.

The Windows 10 WLAN AutoConfig service wlansvc.dll uses the font Segoe MDL 2 Assets for the several glyphs to provide the animation, in the same way that layered glyphs are used to create animated emoji - They just have not implemented it properly yet in the Notification area - but there may be hope for a more colorful, lively notification area once again:

Project Emoji: The complete redesign - Windows 10 Forums