Solution for USB Tethering stability and battery life

[d5aqoëp]

Has anyone noticed their Windows 8 or 10 freezing like crazy while USB tethered? It is because V5 RNDIS Driver. We need to force Windows to use V6 driver which is already present in Windows 8/10.

So a tutorial for Windows 8 and 10

1. Go to C:\Windows\INF folder
2. Find file wceisvista.inf (This is the V5 problematic driver which you don't want to use.)
3. Take ownership of that file and grant yourself permissions (Tutorial here)
   
4. Rename the file extension to anything but .inf (for me I used wceisvista.in_)
5. Open Device Manager (right click on Start Button and choose Device Manager)
6. Choose the problematic device in Network Adapters (for me it's called Remote NDIS based Internet Sharing Device)
7. Right click on it and choose Update Driver Software...
8. Click Browse my computer for driver software
9. Click Let me pick from a list of device drivers
10. Uncheck the box Show compatible hardware
11. For the manufacturer, choose Microsoft Corporation
12. Now you will choose this one from the options in the right pane: USB RNDIS6 Adapter
13. Ignore incompatibility warnings and force install.

Pros:

• No more windows hangs or freezing randomly.
  
• Faster usb tethering detection in Windows. You flick the usb tethering switch in your LYF phone and the network is ready within seconds.
• More power delivery to LYF phones while tethering. My Flame 1 used for 9 hrs for tethering and discharged 100%-92%. Much better than previous 100%-0% in 6 hrs.

Cons:

• None

For best battery life while tethering, you need to uninstall all JIO apps. MyJIO is the biggest battery drain culprit which messes up with wakelocks of Android OS.

 

[mgdelhi]

That's good info. Thanks.

I have a query.

My PC is connected to my home router through Wifi (which has Airtel Braodband).

Now I have connected my LYF/JIO mobile phone to my PC with USB Tethering.

How do I make sure that my PC gets internet from my LYF mobile phone and not through my home router.

I need to be on my home network for some other reasons (for example, to watch my IP Cam which is on wired network or to control my RPi/Volumio).

 

[d5aqoëp]

You have to google that. Windows is horrible in prioritizing which connection can be used for what.

 

[RedskyITM]

Don't know if this works yet as I just changed the driver on my Win7 machine.

This is the procedure for Win7:

1. Open Device Manager (right click on Start Button and choose Device Manager)
2. Expand Network Adapters and select the entry which is similar to Remote NDIS based Internet Sharing Device (there should be only one adapter like this)
   
3. Right click on it and choose Update Driver Software...
4. Click Browse my computer for driver software
5. Click Let me pick from a list of device drivers
6. Uncheck the box Show compatible hardware
7. For the manufacturer, choose Microsoft Corporation
8. Select Remote NDIS Compatible Device and then click next.
9. Done. To verify right click on Remote NDIS based Internet Sharing Device in Device Manager again and then click on properties->Driver->Driver Details. It should look like this:
   
   

 

[mgdelhi]

Thanks guys,

It worked itself without me doing anything.

I guess Wired networks are given preference by default for internet connections. And this Remote NDIS connection is considered as wired network in Windows 10 (and other versions maybe).

So, things are working the way I wanted.

 

[kRuSnIk]

^In case you face problem with the priority, just disable that adapter in "network and sharing center". When you want to use that network then just enable that and disable rndis adapter on pc. You need not disable tethering on phone.

 

---

[RedskyITM]

So my Flame 1 has only Jio Chat and NetVelocity Enterprise installed, but even with the driver change it still drains in the same amount of time (5 hours).

Maybe the Win7 driver isn't mature enough? Or is NetVelocity Enterprise to blame? I lose battery stats every time I tether till it dies so I would need someone else to help me here.

 

[d5aqoëp]

@RedskyITM
The USB RNDIS6 Adapter is available only from Windows 8.1 onwards up. Using it as Remote NDIS Compatible Device was not of much help.

Successfully tethered for 24 hrs continuously with battery at 100% at the end. When download speed touches 60 Mbps, the charging current cannot cope up with drain rate. So it does discharge slowly. But then as soon as downloading stops, it charges back back to 100%.

Also I make sure that no app is running in the background on the phone. Especially NetVelocity and MyJio which are known battery hogs. The charging current reaches 500 mAh on PC's USB port irrespective of it being USB 2 or USB 3. I am scared to try using USB 3.1 Type C port with adapter. It might even melt our phone's port if my USB 2 cable is not spec compliant. On 2.4 A charger, it briefly reaches 700 mAh

 

[RedskyITM]

RNDIS5 was XP era. RNDIS6 was included from Vista onwards as a test driver.

That's why I said maybe the RNDIS6 drivers included in Win7 are not mature enough. If you look at the screenshot from my tut it's clearly RNDIS6 drivers being used.


edit - NDIS 6.2 is included in Win7 by default. 8 has 6.3 and 8.1+ has 6.4.

 

[d5aqoëp]

That's why I said, try USB RNDIS6 named driver. Force install it. It might fundamentally be the same, but may have different power delivery specifications since it would be for USB. It would be expected to provide maximum power to USB device.