The very problematic intel centrino advanced n 6235

kruppsy

Master
I'm having some very annoying and sadly consistent woes with this wireless card. As it stands I certainly can't recommend it. It seems no matter what driver, settings or router I use, I experience drop outs. This basically involves getting the yellow symbol with exclamation over the wireless bars in the bottom right hand corner of the windows screen and losing internet connection. Sometimes it comes back, sometimes I have to restart either the card or the laptop to get it going again.

Doesn't look like I'm the only one

http://communities.intel.com/thread/31090

I intend to buy homeplugs for when I'm in my office but if I'm streaming videos from anywhere else in the house I'll still be stuffed.

Ideally id like a different card, can PCS do this, id pay the difference if needed? I will be contacting them directly as well.

I can only describe it as inherently faulty.

But any suggestions welcome.

Cheers
 
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ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
I've been having dropouts on my new Centrino N-135 card (in an Optimus IV) recently. I've stopped it (well, it's only been three days now but so far no more dropouts) by removing completely the Intel ProSet wireless tools. To do that you have to uninstall the whole ProSet product which also removes the wireless card driver, but in my case the driver install allowed me to select just the driver and not the ProSet tools and it's been fine since.

FWIW Over the years I've seen countless PCs and laptops with wifi issues and all have been caused by third-party connection and management tools (like ProSet). IMO Windows does an excellent job of connecting to and managing wireless hotspots and no other tool is needed.
 

kruppsy

Master
Uninstalled all the Proset features but crazy busy today so will have to report back, not even checked if the drivers are still there. One of the earlier drivers worked solidly for a few weeks before developing the same problem so it's definitely one I'll have to monitor for a while.
 

kruppsy

Master
Had a comm from PCS just now...sending me a new card....awesome service as always :)

Fingers crossed it fares a bit better.
 

Gazzafaegreenock

Bronze Level Poster
Had a comm from PCS just now...sending me a new card....awesome service as always :)

Fingers crossed it fares a bit better.

Can you update the thread when you've fitted it, I'm having issues with mine causing ping spikes when on wifi at various locations on different wifi.
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Had a comm from PCS just now...sending me a new card....awesome service as always :)

Fingers crossed it fares a bit better.

Sounds like a result! One other thing, make sure that in the Device Manager option for you wifi card, on the Power Management tab, you uncheck the box that allows Windows to turn off the device to save power. That's another known cause of wifi problems.....
 

kruppsy

Master
Sounds like a result! One other thing, make sure that in the Device Manager option for you wifi card, on the Power Management tab, you uncheck the box that allows Windows to turn off the device to save power. That's another known cause of wifi problems.....

Yeah I tried that one, didn't make a difference. Get the feeling I just got a bad 'un. I'll keep posting here with updates but I'm hoping the new card will be the answer.
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
I thought I'd post here even though I have my own thread about dropouts on the Intel Centrino 135 in case this helps you when you get your new card and the problem still remains....

I've done a lot of research around the errors I see in the Intel Wireless Event Viewer at the times I get the dropouts and reconnections, they all seem to be authentication related, some samples are below (I've replaced my MAC address with all zeros):

17 ZCfgSvc 05/07/2013 16:04:34 Information Security SYSTEM Authenticating Wireless Profile: ubuysa
18 S24EvMon 05/07/2013 16:04:34 Information Driver SYSTEM ATC 00:00:00:00:00:00 ubuysa 8 RSSI=-45
19 S24EvMon 05/07/2013 16:04:34 Information Driver SYSTEM AddToExclude 00:00:00:00:00:00 ubuysa 8 WEV_EXCLUDE_LIST_REASON_802_11_AUTH_FAILURE
20 S24EvMon 05/07/2013 16:04:34 Error Driver SYSTEM RxDisAssoc 00:00:00:00:00:00 REASON_PRIOR_AUTH_INVALID
21 S24EvMon 05/07/2013 16:04:30 Success Driver SYSTEM RxAssocResp 00:00:00:00:00:00 8 -44
22 S24EvMon 05/07/2013 16:04:30 Success Driver SYSTEM RxAuthSuccess 00:00:00:00:00:00 8
23 S24EvMon 05/07/2013 16:04:30 Information Driver SYSTEM ATC 00:00:00:00:00:00 ubuysa 8 RSSI=-44
24 S24EvMon 05/07/2013 16:04:30 Information Driver SYSTEM AddToExclude 00:00:00:00:00:00 ubuysa 8 WEV_EXCLUDE_LIST_REASON_802_11_ASSOC_FAILURE
25 S24EvMon 05/07/2013 16:04:30 Error Driver SYSTEM RxDisAssoc 00:00:00:00:00:00
26 S24EvMon 05/07/2013 16:04:30 Information Driver SYSTEM ATC 00:00:00:00:00:00 ubuysa 8 RSSI=-44
27 ZCfgSvc 05/07/2013 16:04:30 Information Security SYSTEM Authenticating Wireless Profile: ubuysa
28 S24EvMon 05/07/2013 16:04:30 Information Driver SYSTEM AddToExclude 00:00:00:00:00:00 ubuysa 8 WEV_EXCLUDE_LIST_REASON_802_11_AUTH_FAILURE
29 S24EvMon 05/07/2013 16:04:25 Success Driver SYSTEM RxAssocResp 00:00:00:00:00:00 8 -44
30 S24EvMon 05/07/2013 16:04:25 Success Driver SYSTEM RxAuthSuccess 00:00:00:00:00:00 8
31 ZCfgSvc 05/07/2013 16:04:25 Information Security SYSTEM Authenticating Wireless Profile: ubuysa

After a few days it's beginning to look like an issue with WPA2-PSK and AES encryption. A Google search will show that dropouts with WPA2/AES are common across many different adapters and on many different systems. Currently I'm running with WPA/TKIP in my MiFi and so far (a couple of days) there have been no dropouts. WPA/TKIP is of course a little less secure that WPA2/AES but I can live with that, it's still way more secure that WEP.

I plan to run with this for a week before I add to my own thread though, I don't want to jump the gun again. :eek:
 

kruppsy

Master
Thanks for your input mate. Its something I had heard about but never really dabbled with, i didn't, and still don't, want to have to sacrifice security levels for it to work properly ideally. My ancient desktop's wireless card has no problems using WPA2/AES or PSK, which is why i didnt give it much credence, though Im not doubting it could be the cause...we'll see anyway...:)
 

kruppsy

Master
Ok, so i finally received the new card today, fitted it this evening without a hitch. Within 10mins i suffered a drop out again. I have now been looking again at settings and drivers and think I may have put something together that's stable but its a 'watch this space' thing. I'll report back with a run down of what settings Im using if i suffer no drop outs over the next week or so. For the record I have left the security as WPA2/AES for now, so it'll be interesting to see what happens, especially with ubuysa's as a comparative solution.
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Ok, so i finally received the new card today, fitted it this evening without a hitch. Within 10mins i suffered a drop out again. I have now been looking again at settings and drivers and think I may have put something together that's stable but its a 'watch this space' thing. I'll report back with a run down of what settings Im using if i suffer no drop outs over the next week or so. For the record I have left the security as WPA2/AES for now, so it'll be interesting to see what happens, especially with ubuysa's as a comparative solution.

Mine still drops out with WPA/TKIP so I think that may be a red herring. I'm working with PCS now to try and get my issue resolved.I'll watch this space though, just in case.... :)
 

kruppsy

Master
Mine still drops out with WPA/TKIP so I think that may be a red herring. I'm working with PCS now to try and get my issue resolved.I'll watch this space though, just in case.... :)

Well, it was a short lived victory for myself...dropped out again last night :( I actually did then change to /TKIP and for the remainder of the time it was on last night there were no funnies, so I was mildly optimistic! I'll see how I go with TKIP I suppose before getting back in contact with PCS...Let us know if you find anything out. It does seem like its more to do with settings/drivers (perhaps also at the router end?) than hardware, its just pinning it down...
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Well, it was a short lived victory for myself...dropped out again last night :( I actually did then change to /TKIP and for the remainder of the time it was on last night there were no funnies, so I was mildly optimistic! I'll see how I go with TKIP I suppose before getting back in contact with PCS...Let us know if you find anything out. It does seem like its more to do with settings/drivers (perhaps also at the router end?) than hardware, its just pinning it down...

Yes, I think you're right. I plan to do a clean re-install of Windows 8 this weekend, install the latest Intel wifi drivers and all the other Clevo drivers and see how it is then (ie. without any other software). If it will stay up for 24 hours like that I'll put all my third-party software back one at a time and see how it goes....
 

CEUOTC

Enthusiast
I have moved from the N 6235 to a N 6300 Ultimate to clear up this drop out.

£30(ish) quid from PCS.

Or an equivalent Killer N Wifi card.
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Since changing to TKIP, I have racked up about 9hrs without a dropout...promising...

I've had no luck at all with TKIP (or anything else) on my Intel Centrino Wireless-N 135 card. PCS have just agreed to send me a new one (they are a great company to deal with I must say). Over the weekend I did do a clean install of Win8 and all supplied drivers. Even with nothing else installed I was getting dropouts and AUTH errors every so often. Strangely it would run ok for several hours and then I'd get a string of dropouts. Yes, I did check that nothing was turning on at those times that might interfere. It's a puzzle....
 
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