Laptop keeps losing connection

TempestSabre

My laptop keeps losing the connection to my wireless router. For a while it was intermittent and I tried lots of things to try and diagnose it without success. It used to be that restarting the Laptop would let you reconect but now I can't. I disabled the internal wireless and tired a WLAN PC card from another machine and it works fine. The wireless router also has a PC wored directly to it on a ehternet port and that has no problems with the connection.

So I assuming my Laptop's internal WiFi cards is failing. Anything else it could be and how would I check?

Karoma

Turn off power saving.
Update drivers for card & firmware for router.
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TempestSabre

Karoma wrote:

Turn off power saving.
Update drivers for card & firmware for router.
This is a recorded message...This is a recorded message...

Logically. If there was a problem with powersaving and/or the router then the otherWLAN card would be similarly effected no? As for drivers, the Laptop has been in use for 3 yrs I don't see why the existing drivers would work ok for years, then start to not work. Besides I've done fresh install of OS and drivers numerous times trying to solve this. But perhaps you can give a logical reason for all three items rather than being condecending. :cool:

irlrobins

TempestSabre wrote:

If there was a problem with powersaving and/or the router then the otherWLAN card would be similarly effected no?

No. Different cards work better than others. Intel cards that are part of the centrino chipset suffer from power saving related performance problems. Switching off this, can help.

TempestSabre wrote:

As for drivers, the Laptop has been in use for 3 yrs I don't see why the existing drivers would work ok for years, then start to not work.

From what you have said it sounds like the problem was always there. Updating drivers is a valid solution and can often offer performance boosts. Same goes for firmware. I personally update all my drivers for every device that I can.

joePC

If you have WAP enabled be sure to setup the auth with the exact key instead of the paraphrase, this can cause issues like the one described.

TempestSabre

irlrobins wrote:

No. Different cards work better than others. Intel cards that are part of the centrino chipset suffer from power saving related performance problems. Switching off this, can help.

Ummm. Does that not still point to a problem with the wifi card? Its not a Centrino Laptop its a Sony HP896, the card is a "Lan-Express AS IEEE 802.11g miniPCI Adapter" and based on your info I found this info

http://hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/32330/

I'm testing this out, though my settings are a little different, but at a first glance it doesn't seem to be helping. I'll experiment with a few settings.

irlrobins wrote:

From what you have said it sounds like the problem was always there. Updating drivers is a valid solution and can often offer performance boosts. Same goes for firmware. I personally update all my drivers for every device that I can.

Actually is hasn't been always there its only started happening over the past year. Sony doesn't update these drivers very often, and I haven't had any success in solving the problem with any other drivers. But I'm open to suggestions.

TempestSabre

joePC wrote:

If you have WAP enabled be sure to setup the auth with the exact key instead of the paraphrase, this can cause issues like the one described.

I was using WPA but had to switch back WEP to get another machine on the network. I am using a an exact key now, though I was using a paraphrase with WPA. I'm having the same problem regarless of which method of security I use though.

irlrobins

TempestSabre wrote:

Ummm. Does that not still point to a problem with the wifi card?

By "power saving" I mean the power saving option of the wireless card. Not the general power saving option available under Control Panel.

TempestSabre

irlrobins wrote:

By "power saving" I mean the power saving option of the wireless card. Not the general power saving option available under Control Panel.

yup, via the hardware device properties etc. Like in the link I posted. Mine is set to powersaving off by default, so its always been like this AFAIK. Preamble' to "Long only" I'm trying now, but its still disconnecting. £"$"!$!£$"!£$£"$. Any thoughts on why or how a restrart fixes it temporarily? Renewing the IP doesn't help when I do that manually.

dub45

Just a long shot but have you tried changing the channel in the wireless router or checked netstumbler to see if there are any new networks around?

Have you tried your laptop with any other wireless connections to see if it stays connected?

Would you have messed up your g/b settings in the router when you connected the other laptop?

TempestSabre

dub45 wrote:

Just a long shot but have you tried changing the channel in the wireless router or checked netstumbler to see if there are any new networks around?

Have you tried your laptop with any other wireless connections to see if it stays connected?

Would you have messed up your g/b settings in the router when you connected the other laptop?

Theres a bunch of new networks around alright. Don't have easy access to another network to try it out. I could bring it into work and see what it picks up, as theres a few around there. Haven't changed any g/b settings, at least none that I'm aware of. What settings are you thinking of.

TempestSabre

That atheros client and the MS patch seem to have fixed it. Last time I searched for info on this I didn't find them. Lets hope it stays connected. Thanks for all your help and suggestions guys. Appreciated.