More info.
The speed shouldn't be changing with what you're describing and only on a handful of devices. Normally you'd see a drop in speed to the whole network not just a couple of devices.
The adapter thing seems more like a cabling issue?
Maybe the NIC is going into a power save mode and triggering a drop in speed due to a bad cable?
There are a lot of variables to consider from Layer 1 cabling / Layer 3 NIC / Layer 7 OS.. It could be a simple configuration issue on the select devices.
Are all of the effected devices on the same network segment?
If so are they on a dedicated switch or one of the routers?
What kind of router / switch are you using?
What kind of NIC are in the PCs?
Has anything else changed in the network recently? HW/SW
Are these using WIFI? What kind of APs are you using?