Maximum PC

I just built a new computer today...

ATI Radeon 4890
Intel i7 2.66GHz
MSI X58 Pro-E mobo

I have a linksys PCI adapter (this one)
and I have Verizon FiOS high speed internet with the router Verizon gives you when they install FiOS.

My laptop is in the same room as this new computer, they both get pretty good signal, but my laptop loads webpages and downloads files soo much faster than this PC.

I am running Windows 7 on this computer, but Vista on my laptop.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Is that 64-bit Windows 7? Wireless cards are absolutely NOTORIOUS for not working correctly with a 64 bit system.

Yes, it is a 64-bit version. Are there any fixes to this problem? Also, my laptop also has a 64-bit version of Vista but runs very fast.

So now I am downloading a game through Steam and I see that the connection seems completely unstable, the download speed spikes up to 500kb/s then drops to 20kb/s in a matter of seconds... Please, I need help!

For your laptop, is it an EXTERNAL wireless card, like a PCMCIA card, or is it internally built in? If it's internal, that driver was custom rolled by whoever made that laptop to work with Vista 64.

Using external add-in wireless cards under a 64 bit Windows operating system has been buggy, and will continue to be so until the manufacturers decide to do something about their crappy drivers. I will look into this more in-depth, but I wouldn't count on it too much. Is there any way to run an ethernet cable to this thing in the meantime?

I can tell you that looking at this that card is not made to run on a 64 bit system. Additionally they only offer drivers for XP.

However on another note I have one in this machine that seems to work just fine running 64 bit Vista. It is using native Vista drivers and seems to do fine when I run this system un wired using just wireless. I also have one in my Windows 7 test box running both 32 and 64 bit versions. The card doesn't seem to work well with Windows 7 64 bit. However, I haven't had time to really screw with it.

Ron

My laptop has an internal wireless card. And there isn't any way to wire it... The router is downstairs. Could it be EMI? The adapter runs on 2.4GHz frequency and I'm pretty sure my monitor does, too.

Also, my connection speed is spiking and unstable, it jumps up to 48mbps, then down to 11mbps, then 34mbps, then 5mbps, and so on.

You can log into your modem/router and you SHOULD be able to change the channel the wireless operates on. IIRC, the available channels are 1-11, so set it to something in the middle, like 5 or 6, and see if that clears it up.

My router is connected to all my FiOS TV boxes... If I mess with the channel on the router, will that screw up the TV's/other computers?

So I'm thinking of freshly installing a 32-bit version of Win7... hopefully this can solve some issues. 64-bit OS's are just to buggy for it to be worth having, IMO. If the 32-bit version of Win7 doesn't work, I'll probably go get a copy of XP!

now on a 32-bit version of win7 and everything is so...so......fast!

The only issue with a 64-bit OS is some wireless cards, to be honest. The only buggy 64 bit OS was XP, and that's only because it was so new, no one had any drivers for it at the time. If you think a 64-bit OS is buggy, I would highly recommend doing some research about Vista and Windows 7 64-bit. They are, with that one exception, bug free. I've been running them for over a year now, and have not had a single issue.

If your router is wireless-n, you may want to consider upgrading your computers’ wireless cards to wireless-n. Also, if you have cordless phones, they interfere with wireless signals. If you replace your cordless phones with ones that are DECT 6.0, they run on a dedicated frequency preventing any interference. I have done all these things and typically run at a speed of 130 Mbps with no connection interruptions. Previously, I was running at 54 Mbps and would get interference when the wireless phone was in use.