Very weak Wireless & Bluetooth

Framework Desktop Linux
1

I bought the AI Max 395 motherboard kit and have not been able to get a reliable WiFi or Bluetooth connection on it without using an external USB interface. Basically I get extremely high DBI and ~5kbs throughput for Wifi with a connection that won’t stay established longer than a couple seconds. Bluetooth connections to my keyboard are even worse constantly connecting and disconnecting in a completely unusable manner.

I knew there were issues with Intel chips on the AMD systems so I first was bought a QCNCM865 Wifi 7 card. When that had issues I bought the AMD RZ717 from Framework but that did not improve the issue.

Has anyone else had this issue and solved it without external USB adapters? Should I try something without Wifi 7 until driver support catches up?

Which Linux distro are you using? CachyOS

Which release version? 24.12

Which kernel are you using? 6.18.1-2-cachyos

Which BIOS version are you using? 03.03 (3.3)

Which Framework Desktop model are you using? (AMD Ryzen™ AI Max 300 Series) 128GB RAM

2

What are you using for antennas? If bt & wifi are both poor, it may be an antenna issue or a bad antenna connection to the module.

1 Like
3

What case & antenna are you using? Is the case made of aluminum, is the antenna in or outside the case?

Because putting the antenna inside a case made in aluminum would be like making a wifi connection while inside a faraday cage!

1 Like
4

I’ve got external antennas on the back of the case. I guess that’s something I could swap out to see if I got bad ones. Any recommendations?

5

As @RobG and @Maddious have said, an antenna is required. I have a two wire antenna, one inside and one outside my case

2 Likes
6

For a wifi 7 module, I have AMD RZ717, you want wifi 6e or 7 rated tri-band antenna set, which should come with 2 colour coded antennas.

The Framework antennas work well, but the wires are quite short, so won’t work with all setups.

Depending on where you live, you may find these Tenmory wifi 6e antennas on Amazon. @FW4TeePee has a set, as do I, although I havent swapped out the FW antennas yet.

1 Like
7

While we’re talking about antenna’s. I got question about the connectors to wifi-module as I believe that AMD RZ717 has 2, MHF4 connectors. But framework store description for their antenna is saying it’s U.FL connectors, thus MHF1. Are they backwards compatible connectors?

Or should I only be looking for MHF4 to RP-SMA connectors for external antenna setups? If some of you got some more tips/options let us.

8

Not a micro coax expert, but U.FL includes MHF1 & MHF4 according to some sites, but not others, so some labelling ambiguity.

The Framework antennas are MHF4 though and MHF4 seems to be the standard for modern M2 MGFF wifi modules and MHF1 for older mini pcie modules.

Edit:
MHF1 & MHF4 are not interchangeable as the connectors are different diameters

61tzmsVrOiL.AC_SL1500
61tzmsVrOiL.AC_SL15001211×927 60.2 KB

1 Like
9

I’ll doublecheck this but pretty sure I had the MHF4.

Does bluetooth also go through the antennas or does the card have that antenna built in?

10

Bluetooth uses the 2.4 antenna. It could be that the antennas aren’t clicked in properly, I have big hands and found it a bit of a struggle to get them properly attached to the module.

1 Like