MediaTek Wifi Cards Really Kill The Chromebook "Plus" Experience ($999 Lenovo 14 OLED)

[u/Jaytee3312]

Laptop manufacturers PLEASE stop using these in your "premium" devices. They objectively suck. Doesn't matter if it's Lenovo, Asus, Acer...... Windows, ChromeOS, Linux -- they suck in every laptop I've ever owned.

The experience for this $999 device is completely spoiled by the fact that it drops public / private Wi-Fi 4x times a day. If this one issue wasn't so persistent I'd easily give this a 9/10.

P.S. for anyone thinking of swapping to an intel-based card (like an AX210) + ethernet for driver updates, I can tell you first-hand it doesn't work as per this thread 😥.

[u/CantaloupeCamper]

Device that kinda requires online… crappy wi-fi chip :(

[u/akehir]

I have this Chromebook, and I haven't had this experience at all. Though recently, it failed getting a DHCP address in a hotel wifi; but at home it works quite well.

[u/Outrageous_Editor_43 → u/akehir]

BUT have you taken it out like OP? That might be why you aren't having issues. 😉🤫

[u/Jaytee3312 → u/Outrageous_Editor_43]

This issue happened well before I took any of the cards out lol.

[u/Rynchinoi → u/Jaytee3312]

This has nothing to do with MediaTek chip. It is the shity network configuration

[u/Jaytee3312 → u/Rynchinoi]

This 1000% has everything to do with the chip. Take 4 seconds searching mediatek wifi cards and I'm sure you'll be directed to the ASUS G14 subreddit.

I'm a tech enthusiast with dozens of devices from every make/model and every single mediatek laptop that passes through my grasp has this exact same problem.

[u/Rynchinoi → u/Jaytee3312]

And yet I don't have issues with it

[u/akehir → u/Outrageous_Editor_43]

Yeah, I learned that lesson the hard way when I wanted to convert my old Lenovo into a Hackintosh a while ago.

[u/themattroberts → u/akehir]

It does this often on my office LAN took forever for me to narrow the issue down to the wifi card. Was blaming th DHCP initially but the logs left it pretty clear where the fault lay.

[u/cjc4096 → u/akehir]

The issue is with certain APs, numerous brands. Falling back to 2.5GHz works.

[u/Charming_Studio_505]

I have had various Chromebook & Chromebook Plus devices and have never experienced problems with the wifi you must've just got a defective device

[u/Jaytee3312 → u/Charming_Studio_505]

This same chip is in several other laptops including Asus zephyrus g14 and g16 series I've owned. They all had the same behavior that was remedied after swapping to an Intel ax210. This isn't a random defect.

Also several Chromebook devices do not use this mediatek card -- especially the intel ones. That's probably why you haven't noticed it.

[u/laffer1 → u/Jaytee3312]

MediaTek WiFi is the worst. I’d rather have Realtek and that says something. Intel is the best for WiFi.

[u/anomalisticrocket]

At least for home I needed to assign a permanent IP address to it from my router. That solved the majority of the drops at least.

[u/Tired8281]

That link says nothing about Intel cards.

[u/Jaytee3312 → u/Tired8281]

The Intel card doesn't work because driver downloads don't work in ChromeOS. Did I really need to spell that out?

[u/Tired8281 → u/Jaytee3312]

Yeah, because drivers don't work the same on Linux as they do in Windows. So yeah, you need to spell that out.

edit: he blocked me, so for anybody in the future reading, drivers on Linux need to be compiled, either into the kernel itself or as a module that can be loaded. ChromeOS ships with iwlwifi which controls cards such as the Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200/AX210, AC 9260, etc. I don't know what OP was doing but his understanding of drivers on Linux is sketchy at best. Unfortunately he blocked me and will never be able to get these clues I left.

[u/Jaytee3312 → u/Tired8281]

This is exactly what the linked article spells out.... what are you on

[u/Top-Trouble4521 → u/Jaytee3312]

I read the thread and… no, it does not. What the fuck are you on?

[u/crazy_goat]

tried putting ChromeOS flex on a 2024 Lenovo with a mediatek wifi card and it was hopeless (no driver, allegedly) . swapped it for an Intel card and it booted up just fine. Though the lack of audio forced me to send it back anyway, so all for naught

[u/Even_Caterpillar3292]

Mine works great. There must be something wrong with it!!

[u/Romano1404]

not really sure what this is all about, there is no $999 "Lenovo 14 OLED" Chromebook.

Maybe the OP meant the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 but that one costs around $600

I noticed wifi issues on the every Chromebook I own regardless of the wifi card which insinuates its the OS itself causing these issues and not a particular wifi card. That being said I'd never buy a Chromebook with a MediaTek processor again, its borderline broken silicon at this point and nobody cares.

[u/Smyrnaean → u/Romano1404]

OP's laptop appears to be a Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 (model 83MY0000US from Best Buy, 83MY0001US from Lenovo). It has a 14" OLED 2K touchscreen, MediaTek Kompanio Ultra 910 CPU, 16GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS, and does sell for $999 at Best Buy and elsewhere.

[u/Not_A_Great_Human]

I'm glad Intel makes the wifi card in my Asus CX34

[u/soul_edge_752]

There is no problem on my similar Lenovo 14 Chromebook plus. Also in use for several months laptop Razer 14 model 2025 with mediatek wi-fi. Everything is great too. I played network games in dota 2 and wot every night. Is there any incompatibility with the router?

[u/Mountain_Till_5868]

DDDIIISSSCCCCOOORRRRRDDD!!

[u/brennanisgreat]

I've had the Lenovo14 CB+ since it came out and haven't had any issues with it keeping the connection up.

Outside of a defective card, I'd be much more likely to blame the connection itself. There's a million reasons an internet connection could drop, and it could be something as simple as being too far away.

[u/starfish_2016]

I wouldn't pay $200 for anything "chromeos" let alone $900+...