I guess if I was you I would start by checking signal strength, and you might try using the dongle in another machine. I would say check the drivers but since you said you did that already, I'm not really sure, now from personal experience I've seen one usb wifi adapter I had just not work that well even with the latest drivers it got much less signal strength then other machines and adapters. Its trial and error when it comes to wifi. Sorry I couldn't help more