Z490 Aorus - Is it possible to *completely* turn of Wifi?

[Betterred]

Hello,

I recently received the Z490 Aorus Waterforce - it looks pretty amazing, though it was the inbuilt monoblock that caused me to switch from Asus (last 4 boards) to Gigabyte.

Thing is, I absolutely need to be able to totally switch off the wifi unit - so I wrote to Gigabyte support. They wrote back:

There is no customised BIOS. To turn the wifi off, disable in Device Manager and remove the antennae.

The above reply is from memory - strangely the answer is no longer visible. I had written an answer to them and they replied again - the first answer though, has disappeared?!?

The reason I will not have microwave transmitters in the house, is that I had 3 years of hell due to using a gaming mouse, close to my face. The (severe) sinus/eye pain did not come while using the device, rather in bed at night. I might never have found out about it, except luckily the mouse broke.

I do not really believe that disabling the device in Device Manager, will turn off power to the unit - I hope I am wrong. Certainly their answer does not fill me with confidence - if turning off in Device Manager works, why did they write that the antenna should be removed???  One possibility was mentioned in another thread - it referred to the Z390 Aorus, and they said the wifi card can be removed from the housing. I have not unpacked the motherboard, and have only looked at it through the plastic cover - it seems the wifi unit is enclosed in a shroud, so I'm not sure this is possible.

I am now leaning towards returning the board, and maybe regretting looking at other than Asus in the first place. Though I really hope someone can put my mind at rest about this - then I can keep the board

Thanks,

[shadowsports]

There does not appear to be a place to turn off the Wi-Fi Module in BIOS, so (as Gigabyte stated) you'll have to disable it in the OS.  If that is not satisfactory, buy a board without Wi-Fi.

Since all electronics emit some level of EMF, and the world is built around this technology I'm not sure you can live anywhere except for on a desert island where you won't be subjected to EMF.  Better ditch your cell phone too.

The symptoms, fatigue and pain you describe sounds like too much gaming without frequent rest periods or breaks. 

[dmdilks]

Sorry to hear about your problem. But the thing is if you are having problems with the microwave transmitters. Why would you buy a board WiFi the first place? Yes I know that the board supports water cooling.

Plus even if you disabled it in the device manager it might still be on. I think you only disabled the driver and the device. Plus if you decide to return it and get another board. If there was a seal on the box they might hit you with a 15% restocking fee too.

If you go with another board. Download the manual to see if you can disabled it in the bios first. More likely you can't. 

[Betterred]

There does not appear to be a place to turn off the Wi-Fi Module in BIOS, so (as Gigabyte stated) you'll have to disable it in the OS.  If that is not satisfactory, buy a board without Wi-Fi.

Since all electronics emit some level of EMF, and the world is built around this technology I'm not sure you can live anywhere except for on a desert island where you won't be subjected to EMF.  Better ditch your cell phone too.

The symptoms, fatigue and pain you describe sounds like too much gaming without frequent rest periods or breaks.

You are correct about the desert island, but it is possible to avoid the worst. I use a microwave meter, and only turn the phone on for calls using an 'air tube' headset. I also think that as the dangers become apparent, the power levels will have to be drastically reduced.

The symptom was a searing pain which started in the teeth/sinus, and spread to the back of the eye, meaning sleep was difficult. I even got a healthy tooth removed, thinking it might be the problem. That was nearly a decade ago, and since then nothing (the pain stopped on the very night, after the mouse broke) - even though I use the computer in the same way.

As stated, I never noticed anything whilst using the device, so I would urge anyone with unexplained pain to check they are not continuously close to a high-power transmitter, such as a high-powered mouse, or router etc. etc.