Vengeance 2000 Wireless interference, network drops

[kzin]

I just purchased a pair of Vengeance 2000 headphones and I'm running onto some problems with wireless interference.

 

My "primary" router is a Juniper SSG5. Channel is on auto for "G" networks. Use of this device is non-negotiable unfortunately (work VPN, no N-wifi version available).

 

Windows 7 PC is connected to the Juniper via a Buffalo or Asus USB b/g/n USB adapter.

 

When I pair my Vengeance 2000 with the dongle either on it's extender or directly plugged into the machine USB ports, I start getting bad wifi behavior.

 

Initially believing it might be a chipset/driver conflict, I purchased the second (Asus) wireless USB running a different internal chipset and ran into the same problem.

 

If I allow the headphones to remain on/connected long enough, the wireless will go from intermittent to non-functional after a number of blips in and out. At this point both the Vengeance 2000 USB dongle and the wireless internet USB driver must be disabled and re-enabled from the device manager to regain proper communications.

 

By running a ping from pc->router, I can see the symptoms in the following order:

1. Normal ping (headset not paired)

2. Small spikes in latency (headset paired)

3. Large spikes in latency, possibly when there is frequency-hopping occurring

4. Complete loss of network communication (request timed out) - audio interruptions/clips also occur during these losses but not 100% of the time) or huge latency (3000-27000ms) between pc and router.

5. Destination host unreachable messages and audio loss.

6. General failure message from ping (indicates failure of network devices)

 

Note: Communication loss is seen on both the PC which has the Vengeance 2000 paired and on a laptop ~3 feet from the other two wifi points which is connecting via the same 2 networks (one wired, one wireless).

 

If the primary wifi network is essentially unused (no traffic), the failures seem to occur much less frequently. They also decrease in frequency the longer the headset is paired, but when gaming online being kicked off for a solid 1-6 minutes at a time is a big problem. This reduced impact may be partially thanks to various devices figuring out minimum interference.

 

This issue occurs whether the Vengeance 2000 dongle is connected to the PC directly or the extender cord. When the Asus wifi USb and Vengeance 2000 dongle are separated as far physically as the length of the cable will allow, the connectivity problems still occur. The problems do only occur when the headset is paired - when the headset is not paired, no problems occur.

 

Unfortunately I have not been able to find any exposed management interface or logging for the wireless component of the headset/dongle which would allow me to dig further into the issue by forcing the headset/dongle not to frequency hop (to see if this is the actual case of the drop-outs) or attempt fixes such as (if available on the chipset) using 802.11a wifi on this connection/etc - since there would generally be less 5ghz interference. My only other option is to run hardwire ethernet for everything and switch manually from network to network as needed, which will induce spousal rage regarding exposed wires.

 

PS: I do want to say I appreciate Corsair making a non-leather covered head set, which alongside wireless functionality (which I did not see many reported problems with) was key to my buying decision when adding this to my M60 and K90 setup.

[DePingus]

Rise from your grave!

 

Uh hi. By chance did you ever find a solution to this issue?

 

I'm having the same problem. This headset is wreaking havoc with my wifi connection. I'm using Tomato Shibby on my router and I tried changing channels, widths, and side bands but no luck. As soon as I power up the headset my download speed plummets; only to recover when I shut it off.

 

On the bright side, I found a good channel that gets me super fast speeds (so long as the headset is off, of course).

 

Sadly, I never noticed this issue when I first bought the headset because I wasn't using the wifi back then. But now I am. And this a real problem.