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How do I change my wifi drive from 2.4 ghz to 5.0 ghz?

Anonymous
2025-06-26T20:33:35+00:00

I've tried to go into device manager, find the drive, properties, and everything I've seen said to find set preferred and it doesn't show that. I didn't build it, I bought it off a friend and can't reach him currently. When I am playing games the pc sometimes disconnects from the wifi and reboots back up. It came with a NETGEAR A7000 WiFi USB3.0 Adapter that has 5 ghz, but the wifi driver in the computer itself stays at 2.4 ghz.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-06-26T21:16:07+00:00

    Hi! Thanks for writing. I am Tin, and I am an independent advisor. I am so happy to offer you any needed assistance today. Please keep in mind that this user-to-user community forum is open to the public.

    There are two parts:

    (1) Your internal Wi-Fi card (mostly stuck to 2.4 GHz).

    (2) Your external one, namely, the Netgear A7000 USB Wi-Fi adapter, which properly supports 5 GHz and is better suited for gaming.

    Now, let us see how we can better select or prioritize the 5 GHz band on your Netgear A7000.

    1: Make sure you're using the Netgear A7000

    Your computer might be connecting to Wi-Fi through the internal adapter instead of the A7000, for that solution:

    Unplugging the Netgear A7000 and opening Device Manager → Network adapters.

    Observe which device disappears after unplugging it. That's the A7000.

    After plugging it back in, take note of the device name.

    Right-click on your internal adapter (the one that remains) → select Disable. This forces Windows to use the Netgear adapter.

    2: Connect to a 5 GHz network

    Click on the Wi-Fi icon in the system tray.

    If the router supports dual-band, there is usually two SSIDs (network names), such as:

    HomeNetwork (generally 2.4 GHz)

    HomeNetwork_5G or HomeNetwork-5G

    Manually select and connect to the 5 GHz version.

    In case you can't see the 5 GHz network:

    Getting closer towards the router — 5 GHz gets shorter range.

    The router might not broadcast 5 GHz, or it might be turned off within the router settings.

    Your adapter drivers could be outdated — see Step 4.

    3: Optional: Set Wi-Fi Band Preferences

    Sometimes, settings for setting band preferences might be available via the adapter settings:

    Device Manager → Network Adapters → Right-click on the Netgear A7000 → Properties.

    Now click on the advanced tab.

    There may be options like:

    Preferred Band

    Wireless Mode

    802.11a/b/g/n/ac

    Band or Frequency Band.

    If you see Preferred Band, set it to 5 GHz or Prefer 5 GHz.

    **Not all drivers expose this option, so it is OK when it is not there.

    4: Update Netgear A7000 Driver

    The default Windows driver won't expose all the features.

    Download from Netgear the original driver https://www.netgear.com/support/product/a7000

    To install the most recent driver for Windows.

    Then reboot.

    5: Fix Disconnect + Reboot Issue

    If Wi-Fi is disconnected from your PC and your PC restarts, that means

    A USB power issue

    A driver crash that restarts the system

    Do the following:

    Open Device Manager → USB Controllers

    Find any USB Root Hub or similar → Right-click → Properties → Power Management tab

    Uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"

    Also: Move the A7000 to another USB 3.0 port

    Use a USB extension cradle if available — this helps to improve the signal and avoids interference.

    Regards,

    Tin

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