Wifi Problems

[ShutterBug365]

Hi,

Can I enlist some help and ideas regarding the WiFi issues that I currently have. I have one of the older Vortex III laptops (i7-3610QM) from 2012 which is soldiering on.

The Wifi Card is an Intel Dual Band Wireless-Ac 7260, its not what the laptop came with the but was upgraded afterwards with the support of PCS advising what could be used. Have tried 3 different Ac 7260 cards and they all have this problem. OS = Windows 10 Pro.

The problem is I can be working away on the internet, or just locally on the home network and the WiFi will drop and whilst it says it is connected it looses all connectivity with everything and you have to disable and re-enable the WiFi card. It has gotten that bad that I have a batch file on my desktop that I can run that does it for me. It can happen upwards of a dozen times an evening or go for days without doing it - totally random.

A few times recently however after it has done it a couple of times it will lock up and not disable itself using the batch file. Turning off the laptop works so far, i.e. it comes out of Windows but never actually powers off no matter how long you leave it. When you get fed up and hard power off and back on the laptop is fine and re-enters Windows with the WiFi card disabled. So running the batch file quickly re-enables it and the connection is restored.

Timewise between the events could be as little as a a minute through to a couple of hours but as I say it can go for days without acting up and then when it gets in the mood to act up it really acts up.

Any ideas?

Have tried several cards from different vendors.
Reinstalled Windows on many occasions.
Reinstalled Drivers, updated and rolled back and tried different versions.
Have reseated the card and cleaned the contacts and the motherboard slot.

Am at a loss now.

Thanks for any thoughts

Paul

 

[ubuysa]

The obvious first thing to try is to uncheck the 'allow Windows to turn off this device to save power' in the power management tab of your wifi card in device manager.

The second thing to try is to set the roaming aggressiveness value in the advanced tab to lowest (to stop your adapter switching hotspots).

The third thing to try is to change the wifi channel in the router. If you get a site survey tool you can find out which channels are least used in your neighbourhood and switch the router to that.

See whether any of those help...

 

[ShutterBug365]

Thanks, the "allow windows to turn off this device" was already unticked.

I have set the roaming aggressiveness to 1, it was on 3. The laptop is a desktop replacement so never moves more than a few inches.

The channels are identical and free from interference. We are the only house using 5ghz and well away from neighbours Wi-Fi.

 

[ubuysa]

We are the only house using 5ghz and well away from neighbours Wi-Fi

In that case I'd give a 2.4GHz channel a try and see whether that works better......

 

[ShutterBug365]

Thanks for the thoughts, sadly no improvement it still wishes to throw a strop, did it three times last night. Have tried 2.5 & 5Ghz and both have the problem. This is the only Wi-Fi device in the house that has the problem.

 

[ubuysa]

I mote that all the cards you've tried have been the same model? Do you need 802.11ac? Any chance of trying an 802.11n card? Any chance of trying one of your 802.11ac cards in a different PC?

Yes, I am clutching at straws, but I think you need to isolate the problem more and find out whether it's the PC or that model of card.

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