8943G Wireless disconnect

Just a quick update after having this card running for a couple of days. All my wireless issues have now disappeared and the connection has stayed rock solid.

I urge anyone who doesn't want to wait for Acer to come up with a solution to grab one of these wireless cards; installation couldn't be easier and the machine works like it should have from the beginning.

While it does suck that I had to pay extra to fix something Acer should have had running properly from the get go, the $27 or so I had to shell out (after shipping) won't put me in the poorhouse and is worth it to me to not be required to have my machine tied to an ethernet cable to maintain a good connection.

 

I agree, In my opinion paying the $27 for a simple fix is better than shipping your laptop across the country to be repaired etc...

James

 

Mine is coming FedEx tomorrow...am really looking forward to it! I was traveling last week and used an old Trendnet USB wireless network adapter I had. It is a beast sticking outside of the machine, but it worked well. Will be really nice to put the Intel card inside. Still no word on the 2nd HDD cover - still trying!

 

I have a couple of quick questions I hope you folks can help me with...

1. Text size in browsers seems small. I have it set at 1920 and have messed with some Firefox plugins to zoom in on text, etc but I find it frustrating that this is even happening. I have a full HD monitor on my other PC and I do not seem to struggle with this. Do any of you have this issue?

2. I flashed the BIOS with the above mentioned link (trying to fix the wireless card) and since then the 8943G has seemed really sluggish and just does not have the hustle I would expect for a machine with these specs. Is there a way to recover Windows7 to do a format and reinstall? Can I go back to the old BIOS setting?

Overall I am pretty frustrated with this machine. For $1600 it just should not have be a slug, have a bunk wireless card, or should we have to deal with the lack of support from Acer. Its pretty sad when my $330 COMPAQ is much more easier to use and I have not had to touch a thing on it (other then deleting of some crapware).

I applaud Jim on the wireless card fix. I ordered mine and hope to fix it this week. I have been using a Linksys USB wireless and it has worked good (but awkward as heck).

I ordered this laptop with the intention to do some pretty heavy lifting (video editing, etc) so I hope I can get these issues worked out and gain some confidence in its hardware soon.

 

hi all, I live in Vietnam. I've bought a Acer ethos 18,4" and have a same problem like you
after read all of the above comment. I find that i must buy an Intel Wifi Link 6200. But in my country, all shops don't sell it . I only find some shop sell Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG (link: http://www.vatgia.com/1000laptop&module=product&view=detail&record_id=578419) or intel 4965 AGN (link : http://www.oto-hui.com/diendan/363-cho-laptop-and-pc/26300-hcm-can-ban-ban-card-wifi-intel-4965-agn-chuan-n.html)I don't know whether it works for wifi problem like Intel Wifi Link 6200 Anyone know whether that wifi card works for Acer ethos or not, plz let me now. I'll appreciate that

 

Deleted double post.

 

They will not work. Both cards are larger than the intel 6200.
You need a card that is available in the "half mini card form factor" like the intel 6200.

Try Ebay.vn Vietnam

http://ebay.chodientu.vn/?portal=cb...0&keyword=intel 6200&level=&maxSubcategories=


James

 

Text is small. Thats normal.
In Firefox hold down CRTL and press + to increase size of text.
In Firefox hold down CRTL and press - to decrease size of text.

I prefer using the browser Opera for this reason. You can click on lower right-hand corner of browser to increase/decrease size of text. I usually increase most web pages to 150% using Opera.


Also to make your desktop icons and text easier to view, go to:
Control Panel>Appearance and Personalization>Display>Medium>Apply

James

 

Thanks James
I have another question. How can I restore the original OS, when i tried to fix the wifi problem, i've installed a new Window 7 64bit, now i want to restore the original OS. Can you show me the detail guide. Thanks in advance.

 

Well, up and going with my Intel card for a few days now and it has been rock solid - really nice to not worry about that one anymore. Thanks again James for leading the charge and finding this fix for us!

Since I put the Intel card in, the little light over the wireless on/off button is acting like a network traffic indicator. When I am downloading something or just surfing, it flashes on and off. It is no big deal and the button itself works as it should. Anyone else have that happening?

 

Yes, it flashes when content is being uploaded or downloaded.

It did not do this before with the other card. I believe it is now working the way it should.

 

Mine does the same thing. Since I had been using it with an ethernet cable plugged in prior to getting the new card, and it stayed solid at that time, I noticed it right away once I went back to the wireless connection.

As James said though, I believe this is normal and probably how it should have been working from the outset.

 

I have the same issues with my 8943G - and ordered my Intel Wifi card today.

While I am waiting for the card to arrive: The Intel card is capable of using 2,4 GhZ and 5 GhZ bands, while the original card that came with the laptop supports 2,4 GhZ only.

I am highly interested in using 5 GhZ when the Intel card arrives.

Did anybody try whether this works? Do the antennas of the 8943G support 5 GhZ ?

 

James,

YOU ARE THE MAN! I put in my Intel card today (I purchased on Amazon) and it works like a gem.

I did a fresh format and reinstall with Win7 Premium and it works awesome. I made backup discs for drivers and such from the Acer system and just used the drivers disc after the fresh install. For some reason I do not have the text size issue with any browser.

I totally dig this laptop now and have been doing some pretty heavy video editing. Looking back these issues were small and I am so glad I did not send it back in.

I will say that Acer does needs to get the wireless card fixed for future units or offer a refund for replacement cards.

Barry

 

Jim

Thanks for being helpful and giving us all good advice and assistance! Nice to have someone on plantet earth with some damn answers!
I bought my 8943g a week ago and the wireless causes my machine to blue screen or just freeze up, forcing me to do a hard boot. I will order one of these cards tonight and hopefully i can get everything fixed up, well, get the wireless fixed anyhow. I had no idea you could just pull that part out. Most everything is usually soldered onto the motherboard and isn't upgradable. For now, i will go get a USB adapter.

Thanks again.
Matthew

 

Following my post above from aug. 14 - I did receive my card and it works like a dream. @James, also from me a big THANK YOU ! Now this notebook is fun.

For everybody who is interested to know this: 5 GhZ Wifi connections work as well, so the Acer antennas do support it. Another good news.

All good now.

 

The intel 6300 wireless card is also an option. It accepts 3 antennae
but can be used with only 2 as the 8943 has only 2 antenna leads.

If you are willing to route a 3rd antenna around the display, you could benefit from even greater bandwith per specs below. Extra antenna leads can be purchased from Ebay.

Personally this is something I did not want to do as the 6200 is very fast as it is, and was the quickest fix.


http://download.intel.com/network/connectivity/products/prodbrf/323017.pdf

 

You're welcome. This laptop was everything I wanted except for the wireless problem ruining everything. I am as happy as everyone else that a relatively easy/inexpensive solution was found.


James

 

Hi everybody and thanks JIM for all information,do you know If bluetooth stay active ,with intel 6200 wireless card? and anybody knows why acer crystal claer webcam (controls) not working?!! THANKS

 

Thank you all for helping me do what Acer couldn't or wouldn't. That is to solve the maddening defective wireless card issue with the 8943G. I have been going back and forth with acer support for six days. They are playing dumb. They must know they have a problem. If they don't, well shame on them.
The following is my last support reply. I urge the rest of the 8943G owners to do the same: I am very disappointed with the manner in which my service request has been handled. I first contacted you 6 days ago regarding unexplained wireless dropout on my aspire 8943G. First I'm told I haven't registered, then it's serial # problems, then system restore, then pay for support. You know what's wrong with my computer. you are shipping them with bad wireless cards. A simple Google shearch will put anyone in a forum of lots of unhappy Acer customers talking and fixing their computers themselves. They are as upset and confused as I am. How can you give valuable customers, who have paid $1500 or more on a top-of-the-line computer, the runaround and act like you weren't aware there was a probelm? Like many others, I just purchased a replacement Intel wireless card for $37 and plan to fix the defect myself. Shame on you Acer. Your guarantee to your customers is worthless. But I'll guarantee you something, I'm taking my support responses and info to the Florida Dept. Of Consumer Protection and issueing a complaint. And, I guarantee I will never buy another Acer,Gateway,Packard Bell product again. Whoever recieves this reply, please bring it to your supervisors attention.

- Show quoted text -

 

i just bougt a ethos 8943g-72161.28TWn an this config doesnt use the broadcom wifi chip. it uses an etheros. does this have the same issue odr is it broadcom based?
the TWnss config has an addiotional Blutooth 3.0 adapter and the tv-tuner. but which wlan card is build in in this?

anyone of you switched the CPU and made some pics?
does anyone know if the GPU is an MXM modul or if it is directly on the mainboard?

 

Hi everybody !

There is another problem with the 8943G. The hard drive Western Digital Scorpio Blue have a very bad config with the AAM and the APM. I noticed that very often, when i'm playing a game (for example : Starcraft 2) i have a lot of freezes due to the HDD, when i get a freeze, the led of the HDD stays ON and the problem occurs during apx 2 seconds. It seems that this is the head which is parking in order to save energy and to protect the hard drive. I downloaded Hdpram, crystaldisk info and other progs but the problem still occurs...

There is a solution, we need to download a prog on the WD website, run it in DOS on boot, and spam a command in order to put the AAM and APM off.. I don't try it yet. Is anybody else have this problem ? Do you have freeze (i dont mean lag but freeze) ?

(sorry for my english.. I'm french ^^ )

 

Had this problem myself with the hard drives, you could hear the hard drive making noise if the room was really quiet as well. According to HWINFO32 the load/unload cycle was already at 93000 in 2 months for the first hard drive where C: is located.

The program QuietHDD helped for me althougn only for one of the drives, on the second it did not work (I am guessing that AHCI is the problem here).

The DOS utility for Western digital called WDIDLE3 had the same result as QuietHDD, I ran it and used the WDIDLE3 /D command (although I had to change the SATA mode temporarily in the BIOS to IDE instead of AHCI otherwise it would not see the second drive) to disable the parking and it works on one of the drives for me but the second drive where the D: partition is located still has the parking issue. Every time I access the D: partition there is a small freeze for a a second or two before I can use it and on that drive I still hear it spinning up and parking the entire time.

Now although the second drive still has the problem at least the first drive where the C: partition is located it does not have the problem anymore and in 2 weeks the load/unload has only had a very small increase and the laptop is quieter.

 

New Bios release on the Acer website :

1.05 AA

Fixes BT/WLAN devices status incorrect when system plug out power and resume from system hibernation.

http://global-download.acer.com/GDF...ep3=Aspire 8943G&OS=721&LC=en&BC=Acer&SC=PA_6

I don't know if it fixes Wifi loss issue

 

I have installed the new BIOS, i wil give some feedback if my problems with the wifi-cards stops or not.

 

It still droping wifi, now im just waiting for the intel card.

 

I installed the broadcom driver linked to the first page of this thread and it has as far as I can tell solved my problems. According to windows I have now been connected for one day and 9 hours. Hope everyone gets this worked out and thanks a ton!

 

I had problems with the wireless as well in the beginning. The Atheros AR5B93 that is in my laptop had the same problems as many had here but for me going to 9.1.0.100 had solved it.

 

Ok so I suppose I jinxed things with my last post after the wifi remained connected for a day and a half it finally went ahead and dropped and now the problem doesn't seem any better than before... Anyone found a definitive fix yet?

 

Your best bet is to just go ahead and buy the new card like the rest of us. It solves the issue and is only around $20 plus shipping and 5 minutes of your time to swap it in.

 

I just got my 8943G this morning,i'll try not to make this too long story,i was looking for a new laptop about a week ago,i had gotten a new macbook pro 2 mos ago the 13" 2.66ghz core 2 duo,but the integrated graphics just wasn't doing it for me for all i do on a laptop,so i started looking,saw this one but passed it by because of all the bad reviews because of the wireless and went for the hp envy 17-1011nr,i mean it was loaded W/8gb ram,same graphics as this but W/ddr5 ram instead of the ddr3 on this card,it also had the all edge to edge full 1080p screen,but i was hesitating of getting that too because on the forums here everyone said it had build problems like wobbling,gaps in the seams and extreme heat,the one i got had several gaps in the seams but no wobble but the heat was tremendous it was getting so hot that the keyboard was bowing upwards in the middle and i couldn't live with a premium $1500 notebook having such poor workmanship and hot enough to fry eggs on,it literally burnt me when i touched the upper left corner,so i got rid of it and went ahead for this one hoping i'd get lucky and have no issues,i ordered it yesterday and had it ups overnight it,i was on it for 5hrs this morning and it dropped the wireless,tried to troubleshoot but it froze up had to hard reset,2 hrs later it did it again this time i just closed the lid and waited a few secs,then awhile ago it did it once again,so i guess i am unlucky,i really don't want to replace it,A-it takes forever I'll be computerless,B-It seems from what everyone is saying each replacement they get has same problem,C-I really love this computer.It looks like everyone is putting in a new card? this has an atheros not a broadcom.I really want to keep this,there are limited models of computers like this w/the all high def glass screen and premium specs,so far i've only found the hp envy,the sager 18.4-over $2500 can't afford it,the macbook pro 17-to expensive only middle range graphic card and this one great build,high end graphic card,quad core,it really is a beautiful laptop doesn't have 8gb ram like the envy did only 4gb but could always upgrade later besides 8gb ram is really overkill as i don't game.But this wireless problem will drive me nuts.What card do i get and how do i change it? I am good at running a computer but have never taken one apart and i am disabled i have major health problems not to mention severe neuropothy in my hands,if someone could give me a little advice i'd greatly appreciate it,i really don't want to take it to a computer store to do it.last time i did that they scratched the top of the laptop all up,so i'd like to do it myself,are there any options besides changing the card?

 

I think the only true "solution" we've found is to change out the card. If you look back in this thread, you'll find the Intel card that some of us have put in. Since I put that card in, my wireless connection has been flawless!

It is a pretty easy install. You just take off the main cover on the bottom, take out one screw in the card itself. The only "fine detail" work is reconnecting the antenna wires - but honestly, they just click right on - you'll be able to feel that they are securely fastened.

Hope it works out for you!

 

CheetahJedi, have you had any luck sourcing a replacement cover yet for the second hard drive bay? Last I knew you were trying to get in contact with some of the overseas vendors.

 

Well, I have one one order from a supplier in Germany right now. I was waiting until I received it to post the info - I want to make sure it is the right one. The company I ordered from is here:

Notebook Reparatur Shop: Notebook Akku, Netzteil, Notebook Display, Mainboard, Bios, Ersatzteil

I hope to get it within the next couple of weeks. I'll post more info and a picture when it arrives. This is my primary computer for at least the next three years, so I really want to have that second hard drive covered correctly.

 

I hope it works out for you. I too would like to make sure the second hard drive has proper fitment as I was planning on running with two drives in the future as well (one SSD and one standard drive for media). I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you and looking forward to your report.

 

Yeah, I'm running a Patriot Inferno SSD as my boot drive and using the 500GB WD as a data drive. I've been really happy with the performance - never had a computer boot this fast! I've seen some other posts on some slight "pauses" that happen with the WD drive - I've experienced a little bit of that, so I'm experimenting with the QuietHDD utility.

 

It is very curious, but the "hdd pauses" happen even if another drive enters in "Idle mode". For example, i am watching a moving, using an external HDD (usb), then the Primary HDD enters in Idle mode and i have 2 seconds of freeze (the image don't move anymore) whereas i am not using this drive for watching the movie...

These two HDD make the freezes more and more present because one drive can make the computer freeze even if you are not using it...

Seems to be a Windows 7 problem ??

 

Dream07
which program are you using to watch movies? I had freezes when i used vlc but now i'm using media player classic and now all movies i watched so far ran without any freeze.

 

I am using Windows Media Player with Shark 007 codecs (i used to have Vlc and Satsuki pack but the video had playback problem in 1080p)

But as i said, when the HDD passes in standby mode (due to AAM & APM), and if i am playing a game, listening music or watching a video, there is a little Freeze (When i'm listening music, there is a sample of the music which is repeating during this time lapse) and the LED of the HDD is on.

It is probably a Windows 7 issue with the AAM and APM

 

has anyone of you opened the notebook for switching the cpu?

i dont get rid of the keyboard.

 

There is an updated Broadcom driver on Acer's site that should resolve this issue.

 

Hope they will do the same with the atheros driver :/

 

Nice, the same day I inserted the new Intel card.

Has someone tested the new drivers? I dont think i want do swap the intel card with the broadcom card just so that i can test the drivers.

I have been running for over 24 hours and no loss of wifi so

Thanks for tracking down a solution, James!

 

Since you have the intel card installed, I would just stay with it.

I also just purchased the Acer 5745G and the Atheros wireless card was working perfectly. I upgraded it to the Intel 6200 anyway for 5GHz compatibility as I have a 5GHz router.

James

 

I have installed this update yesterday and so far it's been great. Wireless connectivity has been solid. However, I am still wondering whether to keep this laptop or not due to the issue with adding a second hard drive.

 

Hi Jim,

I am based in the UK and I have recently purchased an 8943G (16k ram 1T HDD)

I am having wireless connections problems.

Do you know whether ACER have resolved the problem? and is your way still working with regards to changing the card???

I am not computer literate at all sorry. If you could show me step by step then I would be most grateful.

Thanking you in advance.

Neil

 

New drivers seem to work fine. I have been online stable since friday 03.09.2010 untill now.

 

New Bios update for 8943G from Acer support website :

1.06 :

1. Adds VGA temperature protect function.
2. Supports Atheros BT BU12

Download : http://global-download.acer.com/GDF...=Aspire 8943G&OS=721&LC=fr&BC=Acer&SC=EMEA_13

Support for the bluetooth ??!! OMG there are more important things to fix :/

 

Hey Guys,

I've got the 8943G i7 4GB Ram version and had wlan disconnection-problems, too. After I read about a new driver on the acer-homepage, I installed it immediately. Unfortunately it had no effect. Than I found a newer version of the driver here: Broadcom BCM4322NM WLan Driver 5.60.350.6 Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7(all 32/64-bit)
(12,5 MB) I just installed it this day and my wlan is running for 3 hours without problems ( under high and low/no traffic ). Hopefully it keeps working. I'll post again tomorrow !
If you don't want to use the link, you can look for the wlanadapter "BCM4322NM" and driver-version "5.60.350.6" on the internet.

best regards

 

what is not working in Acer aspire 8943G?!!
1. Wireless disconnect
2.crystal claer webcam (controls) not working
3. touchpad media controls, after some update stop working
4. second hard drive cover problem
5.when i right click windows media player "play all music" command, i am redirected to the system 32 folder .
6.acer update is just for decoration
7.Acer Service and Support = no respect to customer intelligence!!!!!