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Disable Wi-Fi Power Saving to Fix Laggy Wireless

Turn off your wireless adapter's power saving with iw to reduce ping spikes and random disconnects on battery-powered laptops.

LinuxWi-FiiwtuningMedium risk
Run sudo iw dev wlan0 set power_save off to disable Wi-Fi power saving until the next reboot.

01Command

Command
$ sudo iw dev wlan0 set power_save off

02What it does

Wi-Fi power saving puts the radio to sleep between packets to save battery, which on some drivers shows up as 100–500 ms latency spikes, choppy calls, or periodic disconnects. iw dev set power_save off keeps the radio awake immediately, with no restart needed; check the current state with iw dev wlan0 get power_save. The setting resets on reboot, so for a permanent fix add a small systemd unit or a NetworkManager dispatcher script that runs it when the interface comes up.

03Risk

RiskMedium risk
Requirementsiw (usually preinstalled); find your interface name with ip link
!Warning: Disabling power saving measurably increases battery drain on laptops, so weigh stability against runtime — it matters most for gaming, calls, and streaming.

04Undo

Undo
$ sudo iw dev wlan0 set power_save on

05Sources

  • iw(8) — Ubuntu manual page
    Canonical · community · 2026-09-17
    Evidence: Documents iw dev <dev> set power_save <on|off> for controlling a wireless interface's power saving mode.
  • Arch Wiki — Disabling Wi-Fi power saving
    Arch Wiki · community · 2026-09-17
    Evidence: Explains that Wi-Fi power saving can cause latency spikes and shows how to disable it persistently.

Last verified: 2026-09-18 · Category: Network