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New Macbook Pro: Wifi drops when externals connected

mrex said:
that was the point. it is well known that wireless bt devices at 2,4ghz are causing issues (your link above), it has been years like that. but then also wired usb3-devices can affect 2.4ghz wifi.
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x-evil-x said:
I'm surprised Apple did not notice this on the 13". I'm curious to see if the 15" will have the issues being it's larger size. Not sure where they placed the wifi chip in not both machines
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Well at Work on my HP Workstation Laptop, I had to place my Logitech 2.4GHz Unified Dongle 1,5m far away (USB2 extension cable), to avoid interferences with the USB3 disk array.
WiFi is just not affected, because we mainly use Ethernet there.
Means it's not a problem only related to Apple.
15-inch won't help much, a 46-inch laptop maybe. :)
 
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x-evil-x said:
I'm surprised Apple did not notice this on the 13". I'm curious to see if the 15" will have the issues being it's larger size. Not sure where they placed the wifi chip in not both machines
Click to expand...

You don't get it. If you use poorly shielded USB3 devices they will knock out the WiFi no matter what, irrespective of what Apple does. The same is true of any laptop manufacturer.
 
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poorly shielded or not, the vid shows that the same dongle works well with dell but not with macbook. this indicates that there is something differend in macbooks - i quess antennas are too close usb-ports to be affected easily?? i cant find where the antennas are, but from ifixit pics, if the antennas are those next to usb-ports, why on earth they are placed next to the ports??
 
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CreativeC said:
You weren't aware because unlike Apple, other PC manufacturers usually don't screw it up. Now your overpriced machine can't even use USB and Wifi at the same time.
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mrex said:
poorly shielded or not, the vid shows that the same dongle works well with dell but not with macbook.
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Right.

https://www.cnet.com/forums/discussions/usb-3-0-and-wifi-on-xps-13-ultrabook-558338/
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19578968
https://bugs.launchpad.net/dell-sputnik/+bug/1323690

People, frankly, your irrational Apple bashing doesn't stop to amaze me.
 
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your link shows problem with older 13" dell laptop. if the same problem doesnt exist on the 15" dell (like on the vid), there is something differend and better design than in 13" dell.

however... it is not the point how many other have the same problem, we are here talking about the new macbook having this known issue and what is the reason for it. it may be bad shielding (lets blame manufacturers) or just poor design letting antennas to be affected too easily (blame apple).

i have never had problem with usb3-devices and wifi with my asus, but if i remember correctly, antennas are on the screen rather than placed next to the usb3 ports.

when looking pics about new macbook from ifixit, it seems to be that antennas are next to the usb ports. (right?) so the question is (if the antennas are placed next to the ports), why did they put them there knowing that using usb3 devices has this kind of problem.

and remember also hdmi was affected - the screen was blinking constantly when connected to macbook, but not when connected to dell.
 
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mrex said:
your link shows problem with older 13" dell laptop. if the same problem doesnt exist on the 15" dell (like on the vid), there is something differend and better design than in 13" dell.
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Its because I looked for 13" model. When one googles for dell xps 15 instead, one also finds mentions of the same issue.

mrex said:
however... it is not the point how many other have the same problem, we are here talking about the new macbook having this known issue and what is the reason for it. it may be bad shielding (lets blame manufacturers) or just poor design letting antennas to be affected too easily (blame apple).
Click to expand...

Well, it seems that the problem is not Apple-exclusive but affects many different laptops with different external devices. It shouldn't be surprising that there are variations across different laptops due to construction differences. The important question is whether MacBooks are more prone to this issue than other laptops. And thats a very tricky one to answer.

mrex said:
when looking pics about new macbook from ifixit, it seems to be that antennas are next to the usb ports.
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If I see it correctly, the antenna more or less in the middle of the hinge. One question that I am still not clear at: does the USB 3.0 radio interference originate at the host (laptop) connector, at the cable, or at the connected device? Because if its the later two, the proximity of antenna to USB ports should play such a large role...
 
Meister said:
Louis Rossmann posted this video where he shows how wifi drops once externals are connected to the new dumbed down 13" rmbp.

Can anybody confirm this?

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This video shoul be a frontpage article.
It is a very informative video.

I'd like to remind everyone about the "good old" SCSI times, when scanners, bad tape drives or early CD burners would screw all devices in the chain.

Thunderbolt is also a bus and there is one controller routing the PCIe lanex to the four ports and handling the protocols. Aftet this video, I would not trust connecting a TB RAID or anything of value to these ports.

On the previous MB Pro, HDMI and DisplayPort would come from the GPU and Ethernet would be a separate chip as well. Also USB would be routed through a Host Controller.

I'm more and more skeptical about Apples idea of connectivity.
Please let someone make this front page news.

The whole video of Louis is excellent by the way.
 
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mrex said:
poorly shielded or not, the vid shows that the same dongle works well with dell but not with macbook. this indicates that there is something differend in macbooks - i quess antennas are too close usb-ports to be affected easily?? i cant find where the antennas are, but from ifixit pics, if the antennas are those next to usb-ports, why on earth they are placed next to the ports??
Click to expand...

The vide shows the guy testing the dongle with XPS 15 to see if the HDMI out is working properly, which was bugging in the Macbook Pro,
They did not test wifi on the XPS15 with the dongle plugged in, just the HDMI out

though that does raise the question, why was HDMI flickering with the Macbook Pro and not Dell XPS 15
 
at 36min the other guy is browsing web while the dongle is plugged to the laptop
(i assume they are using the same wifi.)

i quess someone is eagerly waiting to test where the issue lies...
 
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steve23094 said:
You don't get it. If you use poorly shielded USB3 devices they will knock out the WiFi no matter what, irrespective of what Apple does. The same is true of any laptop manufacturer.
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Location seems to make a world of difference. Some laptops are fine and some aren't. Placement means a lot it seems.
 
Hi All,

I've recently encounter the same problem. Thou I've been using my 15" Tmbp for few weeks now without problem with external hd. It just suddenly shown up with the wifi dropping when I connect to a 2.4hz wifi. The problem might exist long since I have it just I didn't notice until I use a 2.4ghz wifi.

I though the interference issue might be a hardware thing, so it's pretty much unfixable.


But, I boot into my windows 10 bootcamp. all my usb c port works fine with the exact same external hd, the same adapter. Everything works fine as normal.

So, would I say this is actually a software issue?
 
I had the same problem, very serious, on my 15" new MacBook Pro. When I connected to my external monitor, my wifi dropped to almost zero. When I changed the HDMI cable it helped a little.

But I completely solved the problem by switching adapters, from an AVOTCH multiport adapter to an Apple multiport adapter. Wifi speeds increase back to normal then.
 
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I had similar problem but after I switched to a different brand usb c adapter, there's no longer any wifi drop issue.
 
There's a simple solution exist. You need to wrap your adapter w/ aluminum foil.

Aluminum foil blocks all radio waves, so everything gonna work perfect.
82gGxwQg7zY.jpg
 
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Same issue for me, plugged in my external hard drive today - no wifi. Worked fine on my previous Asus Laptop. This is now issue #5 on my 15 inch 2016 MBP... Grrrrreat 3600€ machine. (the other issues being clicky keyboard when hot, shadow artifacts, constantly crashing activity monitor, scratchy fan) Ill return the MBP as soon as I can.
 
HansDiag said:
Same issue for me, plugged in my external hard drive today - no wifi. Worked fine on my previous Asus Laptop. This is now issue #5 on my 15 inch 2016 MBP... Grrrrreat 3600€ machine. (the other issues being clicky keyboard when hot, shadow artifacts, constantly crashing activity monitor, scratchy fan) Ill return the MBP as soon as I can.
Click to expand...


I had similar problem when using a cheap usb-c to usb-a adapter. Now I'm using these hyperdrive and Moshi brand adapter.
The issue is gone, no wifi drop.
 
HansDiag said:
Same issue for me, plugged in my external hard drive today - no wifi. Worked fine on my previous Asus Laptop. This is now issue #5 on my 15 inch 2016 MBP... Grrrrreat 3600€ machine. (the other issues being clicky keyboard when hot, shadow artifacts, constantly crashing activity monitor, scratchy fan) Ill return the MBP as soon as I can.
Click to expand...

I've had this issue on my retina MacBooks prior to 2016 and with a 2016. For whatever reason, I have observed that...
  • Certain computers suffer more than others, and there does seem to be some correlation between tightly packed in components and USB 3.1 wireless interference
  • Certain routers seem to do better than others in helping to reduce the severity of the interference with 2.4 GHz signals than others
  • Microwaves, satcom, power lines, clamshell mode, poorly shielded cables/devices, and monitors can sometimes exacerbate the issue
  • The issue seems more pronounced when there are many sources of 2.4 GHz signals around (wireless phones, Bluetooth signals, neighboring WiFi connections, etc.)
  • Unfavorable RSSI/Noise levels definitely make the issue worse
  • The issue seems more pronounced when the 2.4 GHz signal has to travel through multiple barriers
  • Switching to 5 GHz eliminates the issue entirely, but this isn't practical for people needing their WiFi to penetrate multiple walls/floors (2.4 does this much better than 5)
  • Changing the channels on WiFi router to one of the optimal channels sometimes reduces this (but the optimal Mac channels may not be optimal for other devices - for example, I have to use Channel 11, which seems to be very prone to this type of interference, where as Channel 1/2 may help to reduce it)
  • Wrapping devices/cables in aluminum foil seems to sometimes reduce the effect of the interference, but does not eliminate it (for example, when using a USB 3.0 hub, my WiFi speeds could go from around 200 Mbps to 10-50 Mbps - wrapping the cable and hub and devices in aluminum foil improved the speeds to around 75 Mbps. I also noticed that some devices were hotter when wrapped.)
  • USB-C --> USB-C cables still suffer from this issue
  • If other conditions are not favorable, this issue can still occur even well-shielded cables
  • This issue is more common (with most brands/models) than it may seem - however, someone may not realize it if the interference is only reducing their internet speed by 10%, 20%, or 30%, and, even if someone were to become aware, they probably would not care about a 20% decrease in internet speeds, especially if the interference wasn't bad enough to cause problems with reliably maintaining the (weakened) signal. They may also attribute such speed loss to other factors.
  • It seems Apple was smart enough to make the charging cable USB 2.0, possibly due to this problem, so that the power cable itself isn't a source of wireless interference
Some seem able to prevent and/or resolve this issue easier than others, depending on their situation. I eventually went to Thunderbolt 2, eSATA, FireWire 800, and USB 2.0, and abandoned 3.1 (minus a monitor adapter, which I rarely use). For me, that was the only practical resolution. It made me like eSATA much more than USB, despite its drawbacks.
 
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I am having the same problem with a My Passport external drive connected to a new MacBook Pro via a cheap USB adapter. 100% repeatable.

Macalway said:
Placement of the antenna maybe? Whatever it is, it's odd. Should be interesting figuring out the parameters of the interference

So maybe we need a list of offending thumdrives to avoid

But, that guy in the review also had issues with the USB microscope adapter, right? And wasn't that on a tether? (I may have this wrong, no way i'm going back there :D )
Click to expand...
 
If one has a 2016 MacBook Pro with 4 USB-c ports (instead of 2), you could try connecting via the right-side and see if that makes a difference.
 
Insane that the cheap adapters we all must now buy are causing new problems. I can only connect to wireless when I detach the drive - doesn't matter what side it is on.
 
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