I'm living in a dorm without a wired internet connection, so I brought along a PC I got from a friend and bought a TP-Link BE3600 USB Wi‑Fi adapter. The dorm network works normally on my Switch and other laptops. I installed the adapter's driver and it initially connected, although the speed was slow enough that I assumed the signal was the problem. After using it for a longer period, the entire computer became extremely sluggish and even the Settings app would not open. I had to restart the PC manually. Reinstalling the driver seemed to help briefly, but the same slowdown happened again. When I booted the computer without the adapter, Task Manager looked normal; plugging the adapter back in caused it to freeze and restart soon afterward. Is there a driver, USB, or compatibility issue I can troubleshoot, or should I return the adapter?
2 Answers
First, run the computer for a while with the adapter unplugged and watch Task Manager for CPU, memory, disk, or network usage spikes. If everything stays normal until the adapter is connected, that strongly points to the adapter, its driver, or the USB port rather than the dorm network itself.
Try a different USB port, preferably a USB 3 port directly on the back of the PC rather than a hub or front-panel extension. Then remove the current driver completely and install the newest driver from TP-Link’s support page. Also check whether Windows is installing a different driver automatically. If the crashes continue on multiple ports and another computer shows similar behavior, I’d return the adapter—it may be defective or incompatible with that system.
If the adapter gets unusually hot, disconnect it and stop testing it. A bad USB device can cause driver crashes or even affect the USB controller, so replacing it is usually safer than repeatedly reinstalling the same driver.
I tested that and Task Manager looked normal without the adapter. Once I plugged it in, the PC froze and restarted fairly quickly, although it seemed stable for a while afterward. This had happened once before, so I’m leaning toward the adapter or its driver.