Yes, it has finally happened. 6Ghz is finally working on the Framework 13″ Laptop with the 11th Gen Intel processor, running the latest drivers from Intel on Windows 11!
What was wrong? Turns out, it was the BIOS. That is the TL;DR. If you want working 6Ghz Wi-Fi on the Framework 13″ 11th Gen Intel laptop with an Intel AX210/AX211 Wi-Fi card, install BIOS version 3.20 from Framework’s website. You will also need a WPA3 secured network, and Windows 11 or recent versions of Linux.
The Story
For the past year and a half, I have been chasing an issue with the Framework 13″ Laptop equipped with Intel’s AX210 Wi-Fi Card. The Intel AX210 Wi-Fi card is a 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz, and 6Ghz Wi-Fi 6E radio. Framework sold the laptop with the AX210 as a Wi-Fi Card option in both the DIY and pre-assembled version, for those who didn’t chose to bring their own Wi-Fi card. I am an owner of two Framework 13″ 11th Gen laptops with identical specifications, sporting an Intel i5-1135G7, Intel AX210, a 512GB Western Digital SN770 SSD, 16GB of 3200Mhz RAM (2x8GB to be clear, dual channel or bust!). All was well when I initially purchased the laptops, and I didn’t notice the 6Ghz portion of the Wi-Fi was not working properly on the laptop, until after I had upgraded my entire Home Network to use WPA3, and Ubiqutii U6-Enterprise / U6-Enterprise-IW Access points.
Initially, my symptoms of the 6Ghz failures boiled down to the laptop refusing to connect to an SSID’s 6Ghz radio, while it was able to connect to the 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz radios of the same SSID. This later progressed to the laptop being unable to see a 6Ghz-only SSID following driver updates from Intel. With this being odd to me, given my cell phone was able to connect to the 6E Access points with 6Ghz, and an Apple M2 Pro equipped MacBook Pro happily connecting to the 6Ghz Wi-Fi radios on my APs, I started going down the path of troubleshooting. I made sure my network configuration in the UniFi controller was correct such as making sure 802.11d (Country Beacons) are enabled, tried various firmware version from Ubiquiti, made sure Windows 11 was up to date, and even tried various driver versions from Intel. None of this made a difference. Toggling the 6Ghz band off and on in the Device Manager, editing the driver properties in the Registry, and setting the 6Ghz band as the most preferred band, made no difference either. A netsh wlan show interface would show confirmation from Windows that it knew about the 6Ghz band being colocated and active on the access point it was connected to, but… it wouldn’t connect to or see the 6Ghz SSIDs at all.
Eventually I started hitting various Web forums, including Reddit, and Framework’s own community forums, full of people running Windows 11 and Linux experiencing issues with the 6Ghz portion of the AX210 (and AX211) radio. Some example threads are: HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE. The conclusion to these troubleshooting threads involved running Driver version 22.45.1.1 or older. While running VERY old driver versions allowed me to start to see a 6Ghz-only SSID, the Framework 13s still refused to use 6Ghz on a 2.4Ghz/5Ghz/6Ghz enabled SSID. Not to mention, this older driver was also having stability issues with throughput and latency. I eventually came across threads such as THIS which suggested another problem was at play, and is thanks to changes Intel made to make the Wi-Fi cards adhere to regulatory compliance at a firmware level with the newer drivers.
For 6Ghz Wi-Fi to work on an Intel AX210 or AX211, a few things have to be true:
- The network you are connecting to must support 802.11d, and be announcing that it is in the “US” regulatory domain (in my case), or in a regulatory domain which is approved for 6Ghz operation. My network has used 802.11d even back when I was using older Wi-Fi 5 hardware (UAP-AC-HD and UAP-IW-HD). Neighboring networks also cannot be announcing other regulatory domains, and was something I had to also confirm by sniffing Wi-Fi beacons from neighboring networks. This was so the card’s firmware would behave correctly as it performs Location Based Regulatory checks.
- The Network must be using WPA3. This is required per the 802.11 specification. My home network has a dedicated WPA3 SSID which broadcasts on the 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz, and 6Ghz bands. My WPA2-only network operates on 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz only.
- The PC requires entries in the ACPI Table of the BIOS to “Certify” or “Enable” the 6Ghz bands in the hardware. I could not find much detail on this on what needed to be in the ACPI Table, and ultimately had to take various forum posts’ word for this. This bit scared me, because unlike in the past, it means that you may be able to install an AX210 Wi-Fi card into a PC that was designed before 6Ghz Wi-Fi was possible, but the 6Ghz Wi-Fi will never actually work, especially if the PC is a desktop.
The restrictions on 6Ghz Wi-Fi are certainly understandable, since the 6Ghz spectrum in the US used to (and possibly still has) military and government applications it is being used for. I ended up giving up on finding a solution for this… until last week. Framework came out and announced a new BIOS for the Framework 13″ 11th Gen Intel. The BIOS version, v3.20, states the following:
Enhancements
- Add Wifi 6E support.
- Add support to power off retimers with HDMI/DP expansion cards running V3 firmware for additional power saving.
- Drivers: Add low power SD Expansion Card driver.
Turns out, this was the fix. After making sure the PCs were running the latest drivers from Intel’s website, and installing this BIOS to the Framework 13″ machines, BOTH of the Framework 13″ laptops now happily connect to the 6Ghz Wi-Fi band.
Amazing it took this long to fix the 6Ghz Wi-Fi problem. But with that said, my only complaint about the 13″ Framework laptops are now resolved. Thank you, Framework, for fixing this issue! Just wish it didn’t take so long, as I was starting to get a bit worried that my purchase of 6Ghz capable hardware wasn’t going to get me 6Ghz Wi-Fi access.
