My turn to pick your brain - Wireless shuts off at random (laptop, installed)

[Tek_Freek]

My wife has a laptop that originally came with Vista. We have since installed Windows 7 Pro.

After the Windows 7 install she is finding that her wireless shuts off at random. There is no time frame involved and it happens "whenever". No program is running every time it happens. We have gone through all the settings we can find involving allowing the computer to turn it off to save energy, etc.

It did not do this before.

Any further info you need? Have you ever seen this?

She's getting a bit upset and it would be nice to resolve this.

Thanks!!

[kazyn]

Driver update? Are you using Windows' stock wireless manager? What do you mean by "shuts off"? As in, it stops working, or you can't see it in the device manager anymore?

[plwhit]

I had a similar problem last year.

The wireless was crapping out for no apparent reason, turned out it was the Wii I got my daughter, she'd turn it on, my wireless would die (not a duplicate IP address).

When it stops working can you go to a command shell and ping 127.0.0.1?

Have you checked the system logs for errors?

When you guys bought the laptop was it pre-installed with Vista? NIC driver? Have you checked the OEM vendors support web site to see if the drivers installed are current?

[NJBest]

Can it stay connected to another network? Is this problem only at home?

[Tek_Freek]

Originally Posted by kazyn

Driver update? Are you using Windows' stock wireless manager? What do you mean by "shuts off"? As in, it stops working, or you can't see it in the device manager anymore?

Latest downloaded driver (supposedly)

I'll ask her to check if it's in Device Manager the next time it goes south.

Originally Posted by plwhit

I had a similar problem last year.

The wireless was crapping out for no apparent reason, turned out it was the Wii I got my daughter, she'd turn it on, my wireless would die (not a duplicate IP address).

When it stops working can you go to a command shell and ping 127.0.0.1?

Have you checked the system logs for errors?

When you guys bought the laptop was it pre-installed with Vista? NIC driver? Have you checked the OEM vendors support web site to see if the drivers installed are current?

Our Wii is on, but it has been for ages.
I'll have her ping the next time it goes south
I'll have to check the system log. I asked her to, but...
Pre installed.
Downloaded latest drivers when we installed W7, but I'll check again

Originally Posted by NJBest

Can it stay connected to another network? Is this problem only at home?

There's only one close and I can test it tomorrow, maybe. The problem is the damn thing will stay connected for hours then shoot craps fairly often for an hour or more, then connect okay again.

I'm connected during all this with no problem.

There is an indicator light on her laptop that goes out when the wireless stops.

It's driving us crazy!!!

Looks like I have a few tests to run and I'll check the version of the driver again.

Thanks everyone.

[plwhit]

Hey Tek, do you have NetStumbler?

NetStumbler is a tool for Windows that allows you to detect Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) using 802.11b, 802.11a and 802.11g. It has many uses:

• Verify that your network is set up the way you intended.
• Find locations with poor coverage in your WLAN.
• Detect other networks that may be causing interference on your network.
• Detect unauthorized "rogue" access points in your workplace.
• Help aim directional antennas for long-haul WLAN links.
• Use it recreationally for WarDriving.

Downloads | NetStumbler

One other thing, make sure in the Power Management profile change your Wireless Adapter Settings to Maximum Performance.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...wer-management

[Tek_Freek]

Netstumbler is a good idea, the problem is I sit right across the room from her (she's closer to the router) and mine is working fine.

I do have to laugh at myself a bit. After posting and being reminded I checked (again) and there was a newer driver on the Intel site. I checked a couple of weeks ago and it wasn't there...

I installed it this morning, and she's getting 250-300mbps (is that the right description?) and we've decide to run with it for a while and see if it's going to work.

If it doesn't I'll be back.

Thanks for all the suggestions!!

[Tek_Freek]

Kazyn, it won't let me rep you yet.

[harhar]

My wife's laptop was doing this as well, where the whole NIC would just go out randomly.

I didn't think to update drivers because it rarely did it.

Now the laptop is dead, because of a mobo/power issue, and I'll have to buy a new one anyway. lol.

[hoffdano]

Vista had an early bug related to power management with wireless adapters. In an effort to save battery power, it was idling the wireless adapter when no data was transmitted.

I think a Vista update changed/fixed the behavior. Perhaps the Win7 install removed this support and it may now be a control panel option for the wireless adapter.