WiFi Connection Drops: GRRRRRR!!!1!! HEELLLP!

Hi. Lately, I have been getting plenty of connection drops on wiFi. No drops on a LAN cable (obviously), but wiFi is a pain....

I have 5 bars with a signal that is "excellent".
My card is the Intel R WiFi 5300 AGN....


Please help!!!
I have tried many suggestions from other websites and google, but none seem to permanently stop this.
I got the laptop back in August. This issue started to rise about mid-February, and I just decided to use a LAN ever since, but I still want to fix this issue....

 

happens always or only when you are on battery power?

I've had wifi drops when on battery power, but since I am plugged most of the time I didn't care much...

 

it seemed to stop earlier now... but i don't think it take long to drop again.....

I'm always plugged in.... so happens always.

I turned off the tick for turning off device blah blah to save battery.... blah blah

 

This may sound stupid, but make sure you don't accidentaly turn off the Wlan when adjusting the volume, the buttons are pretty close together.

 

if it drops again, try to check if the wifi icon in the touchstrip dims.

It dims when its off, and its a bit brighter when its on. That way you know if its a software/bios issue, or a physical issue at the touchstrip

 

Hi,

I too had this problem with the Intel WiFi 5300 until I discovered the "secret" compatibility mode hidden in my router. I had a DLINK router, and it seems that DLINK knows that there is a compatibilty issue with Intel WiFi cards, as they have a setting called "Intel Compatibility Mode." Check out this link to my previous post as this solved my connection problems

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/461505-intel-wifi-link-5300agn-m15x-help.html

Later!

Rich S.

 

the strip isn't my problem.. I am well aware of it. It has always been on.

@LinkRS, my router is by verizon.... this...

Actiontec Support MI424WR Wireless Broadband Router Revision E

 

I don't really know if there are any fixes for this problem... Will updating the router firmware help?

 

it might if its a router issue.

Have you tried same computer different router, or different computer same router?

 

Are you using WEP, WPA or WPA2? Did you try by changing that security setting?
On the router, of course.

 

As far as I know, there are no firmware updates for these cards. I have one too. You may be getting interference from something else in the 2.4GHz range. Bluetooth also uses this range as well as lots of other home devices like phones. Have you tried changing the channel on your router. Try channels 1 and 11. Btw, did you purchase the card with the laptop from Dell?

 

i think the dell drivers for the 5300 is 3.0.0 and on the intel web its 3.4 something like that....

 

I downloaded the latest intel drivers for the card.

I believe it is only occurring to my laptop but I have tried various card settings with no resolve....

The network is using WEP....
The card came with the laptop.

i'll try to change the channel and see if the connection stays.

 

I used to have that kind of a problem when I used to use p2p software. It was normal otherwise. I changed the router and the problem was gone. Now I can use p2p without any issues.

 

Try WPA2-Personal insted WEP.

 

I changed the router of the channel to 11 now, and there seems to be no drops currently... if it occurs again, I'll change it to WPA2-personal....

 

I've got problems with the connection slowing down & with drops every so often as well with the Intel card.

I'm thinking my card might having a physical issue though based on the flood of events it generates in the event logs when it starts acting up. The 5002 event in particular always seems to come up in threads where people had to replace their cards...

When you lose your connections do you get an absurd amount of events in the windows event logs for the drivers?

 

^ hmm.... i don't think i ever turned on the logging... I could do that...

 

probably channel interference. sounds like you got it worked out.

i change channels on my router for my devices every week. seems like they get clogged up all the time.

weird.

 

if you are using the intel software for connecting to APs its best to uninstall that and install it driver only. That solved some of my problems.

 

Hi everyone!

I, too, have been experiencing issues with my Intel WiFi Link 5300 card and it's been driving me crazy! I've completed pretty much every troubleshooting steps that can be done and I'm STILL having issues.

My Problem

My 5300 card will connect at 300Mbps immediately after rebooting my PC but it will then drop to 180, 240, 150, etc., etc., etc. It constantly changes but never returns to 300Mbps. Even though the speed constantly changes, it will usually max out at around 180Mbps after a few minutes. Signal strength is always 5 bars - 100% - since I'm only about 8-10 feet from my wireless router (D-Link DIR-655 Wireless N).

When returning from sleep mode, there are times when it will connect at much slower speeds and won't even reach 180Mbps. A restart is necessary to resolve this issue. However, the card returns to its "normal" operation mode from there - i.e. - see the paragraph above this one.

At face value, one might think the changing speeds (on the adapter's display screen) aren't that big of a deal. After all, I may be able to max out my connection regardless of the speed listed. While that is certainly true at times, I continue to experience - pretty much every day - drop-outs in my connection that dramatically reduce my overall speed.

For example, my "standard" (and ISP quoted) connection speed is 30Mbps DOWNLOAD and 3Mbps UPLOAD. I am able to easily max out my connection at those levels when doing speed tests through speedtest.net or through my local ISP's speed test site. Again, this is through a Wireless N connection (obviously). When I am experiencing problems, the adapter's speed and signal settings will show the "usual" 180 to 240Mbps speed and a full signal at 100%. However, my connection speed will max out at a mere 1-3Mbps DOWNLOAD and 3Mbps UPLOAD. Yes - that's right - only 1 to 3Mbps download speeds! That just plain sucks!

I run into this issue at some point in the day almost every day!

What I've Tried

Without going on and on, I've done the typical stuff one would expect someone to do - i.e. - check for, and install, all driver updates and/or firmware updates for the D-Link router. Everything is up to date.

I've also uninstalled and reinstalled the WiFi card through Device Manager (along with deleting the driver data). I installed the original Dell driver that came with my new M15x and I also updated to the latest driver from there. It still didn't help.

I've also reconfigured my router's settings several times over to see if something on that side was creating the problem. No deals! Regardless of what I do, I still experience the same problems. I've tried every channel, etc. and nothing worked any better.

The ISP's techs visited my home to check our local neighborhood "hub" (it's in my back yard) and also checked my lines and modem for issues. No problems there - I'm using one of the newest Docsys 3.0 modems (for those of you that may know what I'm talking about).

The bottom line is, I cannot figure out why I continue to experience connection/speed problems almost every day. I've looked into other possible causes for this problem (even though I didn't list them here) but haven't had any luck. I shouldn't have to restart my computer every afternoon just to reset the wireless adapter.

Lastly, I'm not sure if this is specific to D-Link routers or not since I've always used the same wireless router (DIR-655). With that said, I've done a lot of research about this problem and I read in several places that people need to make sure their routers are configured with the proper security settings in order to max out their connection speed at 300Mbps for Wireless N connections. They said that in order to achieve the best wireless performance, users must use WPA2 Only security mode with the AES cipher.

In addition, it's best to broadcast ONLY in Wireless N mode, if possible - i.e. - turn off the A, B and G signals unless you must use them for older technology. Even then, you should probably only use "N" and "G".

Again, this may not be applicable to all Wireless N routers. It makes sense, though.

Sorry for the long post - just wanted to give as much info as possible. Thanks for any help you guys can offer! I'd really appreciate it!

My Setup

* M15x with Windows 7 H.P. SP1 x64
* Intel WiFi Link 5300 - Roaming Aggressiveness & Transmit Power = Highest

 

Sorry, I can't find any comments about noise. Did you check the radio noise in your area?

For example, my DW1520 changes the Channel Width from 40 to 20 MHz. So the speed goes from 300 to 150 Mbps.

 

This issue happens outside my house as well... I've read that completely removing all the intel wifi card drivers and redownloading them.

 

Ok, here is my story.

I bought the ASUS RT-N56U router. And it ran like a dream with my 5300 AGN wireless card.

Until after a few months when i have had heavy traffic with uTorrent the connection dies and i have to reconnect to the router. I tried alot of things but nothing helped so i had to live with it.

Then i bought an LG NAS and started transfering files to it via wireless. And at random the connection would die in the middle of an transfer. I almost couldnt transfer anything at all. Big files would kill my connection.

So i was back to trying different things to see if i can get it working right. And TODAY i found the problem. It was the WPA2 that could drop the connection at heavy traffic or at random sometimes. I removed it and left my wireless connection totaly open. Instead i use the Mac filter on my router to authorize wireless clients.

And now everything works like a charm. I think the intel 5300 AGN card may have some difficulties with WPA,WPA2.

These problems was when using the 5ghz connection. It seems my 2.4ghz connection works with WPA security even when i tried to stress my connection with heavy traffic.

So, if your having problems with connection drops and are running 5ghz and a intel 5300 AGN. Try removing WPA security and setting it on open and see if that fixes it for you.

Hope i have been of help to anyone.

 

@MrValle: Another way is to reduce the number of connections uTorrent makes. Something less than 100 is good and 200 or more is bad

 

Nah, never had this problem before. Also my Asus RT-N56U router can handle 300.000 simultaneus datasessions.

 

Try not to use WPA. Is not that hard to crack.

Check:
Lifehacker, tips and downloads for getting things done
And
cracking_wpa [Aircrack-ng]

 

Yeah im not using any WPA. That is what i wrote in my previous posts.

 

I am still having this issue. It is quite annoying. And it happens on any router.

 

i had problems with mine. Specially with high traffic it just dropped connection. All i did was to disable the WEP totaly and just use MAC filter instead. And no drops for a year.

 

I am pretty sure it has something to do with the card. It drops on all the WiFi networks. Will reseating the WiFi card fix the issue?

Another thing is that any setting i change with the card fixes the internet connection but it will drop after a few minutes. It is rather quite annoying.

 

Do u have any spare wifi card??? Like another 5300 or 5100??? Reseating the card is also worth trying too but imo finding another card to check is the best thing to do. And make sure u power drained your laptop before reseating (and take out the coin battery while you're at that).
Oh and u might want to update the driver on Intel's website. It's newer if my memory's correct

 

I reseated the card. Still drops. Did anyone change their 5300 to another card and have no drops?

 

Do u have Dell's warranty ??? I think u should call them and report the faulty card. Or u can borrow a 5300 or 5100 Intel card from someone to test. I'm using a 5300 too but no drops for me. Or, as the final solution, call Dell and buy a new one from them :-<