Ultranote IV - Wireless card (Intel 9260) Failing

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chaplic

Member
Bit of background, I work in End User Computing and also look after my sons small Primary school for their IT. We have purchased a few Ultranote IVs and am very happy with them in general.

One particular machine has been problematic. The wireless card fails, after a period windows notices it, resets the card and boom, we are working again. The issue happens intermittently, perhaps once a day or perhaps 5 times. End user experiences no network connection, maybe for 20 minutes. Each time it's recorded in the event log.
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Windows 10 v1803 and also latest intel WifI Driver (20.70.0.5). Build from fresh (and remember, we have a few of these laptops, it's just this one playing up)
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it's happen since new, so I got in touch with PC Specialist who were very good and they sent me a replacement WiFi card. Fitted before the end of school term, thought was ok but same issue happened. Rebuilt machine, crossed fingers... but no, same issue persists.

I have

  • Modified the WiFi power saving settings
  • Modified the Machine power saving settings including turning off quick boot
  • Trawled through event logs to see any correlation with anything else
  • Used the older drivers on the PCspecialist site as well as the newest intel
  • Googled it to death - a couple of posts in the intel forums but little of use and mainly boilerplate text from intel then saying 'go away, it's not supported by us'
  • Ran it on a different WiFi network (issue presented itself earlier today whilst it was otherwise doing nothing at my house)
  • Ran it on a differnet power supply ( can you tell I'm clutching at straws now)

I don't have any other compatible WiFi cards that are that particular interface type so I can't compare like for like, but given we've a few of these machines which are flawless and unless the replacement card from PC specialist has the same fault as the first, I can only conclude the motherboard itself is faulty in some mulder-and-scully type way.

I'll get back in touch with Pc specialist support, just posting here to see if anyone else has this or any bright ideas!
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
It does rather sound like a hardware issue doesn't it? If you have several of these laptops, could you not try swapping the wifi card with another one, to see whether the issue follows the card or not?

Are these laptops identical in terms of software? Is it possible there's some software (or a configuration option) on this one that's not on the others?

If you're using IPv4 then try disabling IPv6, it's possible it's some IPv6 feature causing the problem.
 
C

chaplic

Member
ubuysa said:
It does rather sound like a hardware issue doesn't it? If you have several of these laptops, could you not try swapping the wifi card with another one, to see whether the issue follows the card or not?

Are these laptops identical in terms of software? Is it possible there's some software (or a configuration option) on this one that's not on the others?

If you're using IPv4 then try disabling IPv6, it's possible it's some IPv6 feature causing the problem.
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I'm Mr unpopular as it is, so asking someone to make their laptop available so I can possibly installed a broken card seems a big ask, especially as the card has already been replaced, surely two cannot present the same fault?

In theory IPv6 should make no odds as that would be at a higher level in the stack, but it's an interesting thought. Though moot here as we're looking at directaccess which needs IPv6 on the client.

I am very confident the machines are all the same; they are built via an automated MDT script, configured via group policy and users don't have admin rights. I've just been through the event logs of the other machines, there are no occurrences of the issue on them. Just to get the user running they are currently using a USB WiFi stick which so far is flawless, but hardly an acceptable solution.
 
T

Tony1044

Prolific Poster
chaplic said:
I'm Mr unpopular as it is, so asking someone to make their laptop available so I can possibly installed a broken card seems a big ask, especially as the card has already been replaced, surely two cannot present the same fault?

In theory IPv6 should make no odds as that would be at a higher level in the stack, but it's an interesting thought. Though moot here as we're looking at directaccess which needs IPv6 on the client.

I am very confident the machines are all the same; they are built via an automated MDT script, configured via group policy and users don't have admin rights. I've just been through the event logs of the other machines, there are no occurrences of the issue on them. Just to get the user running they are currently using a USB WiFi stick which so far is flawless, but hardly an acceptable solution.
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Don't use DirectAccess. It's deprecated. Use AlwaysON VPN.

It doesn't require IPv6
It doesn't require a Network Location Server (so no single point of failure)
it's more reliable and robust
Possibly the most important thing - it is simpler to set up compared to DirectAccess
Your clients need to be on Anniversary Edition at least (no support for Windows 8.x to my knowledge)

Save yourself some hassle and use a public cert even if you have a working PKI. I found several issues with CRL with internal certificates.

DirectAccess required Windows 10 Enterprise. Not sure if that is still true of AlwaysOn VPN as we only have Enterprise here.
 
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Tony1044

Prolific Poster
Oh in terms of the initial issue - I have had huge issues with newer Intel drivers over the last couple of years.

I don't have my PCS laptop with me, but I'd suggest looking at older drivers as well.
 
C

chaplic

Member
Tony1044 said:
Don't use DirectAccess. It's deprecated. Use AlwaysON VPN.

It doesn't require IPv6
It doesn't require a Network Location Server (so no single point of failure)
it's more reliable and robust
Possibly the most important thing - it is simpler to set up compared to DirectAccess
Your clients need to be on Anniversary Edition at least (no support for Windows 8.x to my knowledge)

Save yourself some hassle and use a public cert even if you have a working PKI. I found several issues with CRL with internal certificates.

DirectAccess required Windows 10 Enterprise. Not sure if that is still true of AlwaysOn VPN as we only have Enterprise here.
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Thanks for the advise - it would be a tactical implementation till we upgrade to server 2019 or go serverless and 100% cloud. But either way, my point was precluding emerging technology on a brand new device cannot be acceptable.
 
T

Tony1044

Prolific Poster
chaplic said:
Thanks for the advise - it would be a tactical implementation till we upgrade to server 2019 or go serverless and 100% cloud. But either way, my point was precluding emerging technology on a brand new device cannot be acceptable.
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Well I don't think you can fairly call IPv6 "emerging". It was ratified in 1998 but NAT and latterly CG-NAT removed the desperate need for implementing it.

That's not an excuse or an argument either - it annoys me intensely that so few ISP's natively support it. MS have never encouraged disabling IPv6 and yet it's still commonly done. In the same way they (MS) say you should never disable the Windows Firewall by disabling the service and yet it still happens everywhere...even in places where I've shown it can break Windows Update Services.

Rolling out DA or AO VPN for such a short time seems a bit redundant. It's a lot of effort to ditch. Why not just implement a simple VPN?
 
C

chaplic

Member
No one popping up with a fix, nor anyone saying 'I've got this' so got in touch with support. Will report back on progress..
 
T

Tony1044

Prolific Poster
chaplic said:
No one popping up with a fix, nor anyone saying 'I've got this' so got in touch with support. Will report back on progress..
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Well I did suggest trying older versions of the Intel driver as I have personally had huge issues with newer ones. I had the exact same issue amongst others - just dropping the signal etc. whilst the card remained detected; card disappearing (though usually until a reboot, though not always).

It could also be a motherboard/mini PCIe connector issue.
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
chaplic said:
No one popping up with a fix, nor anyone saying 'I've got this' so got in touch with support. Will report back on progress..
Click to expand...

It just doesn't sound like a software or config issue to me, and if you're running the same driver on the other laptops then it's not likely to be a driver issue.

That nobody has come back reporting the same problem suggests that it's unique to you, that means it's either a hardware problem on that laptop or it's environmental.

Is it likely that something local to where that laptop is being used could be responsible? That should be easy to test; take the failing laptop to a location where you know a similar laptop works ok and see how things go. WiFi can be problematic in some locations; microwave ovens, mobile landline phones, even fluorescent light tubes, are all known to cause interference. I once isolated a WiFi issue to a faulty light switch (the arcing was causing radio interference).

If you've eliminated environmental causes then I'd bet this is a hardware issue and you should ask PCS to RMA it. Given the random nature of the failure however I'd expect it will be with PCS for quite some time...
 
C

chaplic

Member
Thanks all, for your input, it is appreciated - even if it just confirms i've not missed anything obvious. I have tried an older version of the driver (link on PCS website) with no success

The issue also happened when I brought the laptop home, on my home wifi

I await a response from support.
 
T

Tony1044

Prolific Poster
chaplic said:
Thanks all, for your input, it is appreciated - even if it just confirms i've not missed anything obvious. I have tried an older version of the driver (link on PCS website) with no success

The issue also happened when I brought the laptop home, on my home wifi

I await a response from support.
Click to expand...

Definitely sounds like a motherboard issue to me now - the connector etc.
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
chaplic said:
Thanks all, for your input, it is appreciated - even if it just confirms i've not missed anything obvious. I have tried an older version of the driver (link on PCS website) with no success

The issue also happened when I brought the laptop home, on my home wifi

I await a response from support.
Click to expand...

It's not environmental then. I agree with Tony1044, everything points to a hardware issue.
 
C

chaplic

Member
SpyderTracks said:
Touch wood! Worth thoroughly testing it when you get it (I'm sure you will anyway). Keep us posted.
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Encouraged by the fact the fault diagnosis agree with my view and that of many here, I was pleased to get it back.

In the bios, I have to disable TPM and enabled PXE boot as the first boot option... Having ordered a few Ultranote IVs I know this is not the default config. I was therefore surprised to find my laptop with freshly replaced motherboard having PXE and TPM set as I left it...

Anyway, I pressed on and deployed my automated build to it.. left it doing nothing and within 30 hours it had the same issue again, multiple times.

I then grabbed a windows 10 1709 ISO, all the drivers on the pc specialist website and the oldest driver I could find (just the driver, not the full proset) and let it be. Survived most of friday but in the evening... back to square one...

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I may have budget to replace a couple more laptops, but clearly don't want to give business to pcspecialist till this is resolved.
 
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