ASUS M5N and Intel 2200BG Wireless issue - solved

On my Asus M5N with Intel 2200BG miniPC wireless card I was regularly getting disconnected from my wireless notebook whilst in battery mode, but connection was stable in AC mode.
Pings to Access Point device (Minitar MN54GR4) were 1ms in AC mode but 16 ms in battery mode.

Went into Intel Proset/Adapter/Configure and changed power management from Auto to manual and now pings are 1ms and connection is now stable.

Seems the default (auto) power management mode for the wireless card in the centrino platform throttles the wireless card performance.

Connection with a PCMCIA Dlink GWL-G650 card is stable and pings to AP are 1ms whether in AC or battery mode.

Have fiddled with POwerGear4 and still poor pings and conection in battery mode with Intel 2200BG

Have checked ASUS download and have the latest BIOS and drivers for the Intel 2200BG

Contacted Asus support and as expected reply was not helpful.

Can others check that this is a bug in the power management centrino platform when Intel 2200BG is set to "auto" when M5N is in battery mode.

Please ping to your Access Point in AC mode , then in Battery mode and post results. Then change Intel 2200BG power management from "auto" (default) to manual via Intel Proset software-/Adapter/Configure.

 

I dont think it is a bug, im pretty sure that that is supposed to happen. Wireless cards can eat up a lot of battery and I think they throttle on purpose to increase battery life. Thus there isn't a "fix", if you don't like it do as you did and switch to manual mode in the proset config utility.
a


ASUS M6Ne 15.4" WSXGA 1.7 PM ATI9700 80Gb HDD 512Mb RAM

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>

Originally posted by Underpantman

I dont think it is a bug, im pretty sure that that is supposed to happen. Wireless cards can eat up a lot of battery and I think they throttle on purpose to increase battery life. Thus there isn't a "fix", if you don't like it do as you did and switch to manual mode in the proset config utility.
a


ASUS M6Ne 15.4" WSXGA 1.7 PM ATI9700 80Gb HDD 512Mb RAM
<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

I am aware that the purpose of "auto" power management mode is to reduce power usage ( with some performance compromise) of the wireless card.

If this problem is reproducible on all M5N notebooks then I argue that it is a "bug" that needs to be at least documented as users are not going to be able to get a stable wireless connection in battery mode.

Surely Intel/Asus didn't intend to deliver a notebook that has a wireless card that has such a feature that decreases performance to such an extent. Despite the decreased ping times and wireless connection dropout in battery mode (even at 1m from Access Point)the Intel Proset software reports the signal strength and quality as excellent(but the wireless connection drops out after a few minutes and browsing has page time outs).

I have other notebooks with Intel 2100BG card and with its power management set to "auto" its performance does not jeopardise the wireless connection stability. (though ping times are reduced from 2ms to 5ms going from AC to battery mode)

Can I ask other M5N owners to check ping times to their access point in AC mode and then in battery mode when in "auto" wireless power management mode and then check in "manual" mode and comment on wireless connection stability.

 

ok sorry I did quite understand your problem, my bad.
I did have a kind of similar problem with my wifes M2N, and my M6Ne, ie it would say its connected in the proset utility but no internet etc. My problem i think was due to my router & modem set up. I had it set to timeout after 5min idle for some reason, i think that was the defult setting. Once i set that to never time out, I had no more connection problems and the network was stable. Not sure if this is the same problem that your having though.
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ASUS M6Ne 15.4" WSXGA 1.7 PM ATI9700 80Gb HDD 512Mb RAM

 

I agree that intel proset software is not always correct when it says the connection exists.

UPM, I would be interested in your Intel wireless ping times to your access point in battery then AC mode, with wireless card power management set to "auto" then set to "manual". I realise this will not be in a M5N - but will will help me explore this issue.

I am keen for other M5N owners to report their ping times and observations.

 

Ping times are betw 3-10ms on both manual and auto.
hope this helps.
I'm using a netgear FWG114P ap,firewall,print server.
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ASUS M6Ne 15.4" WSXGA 1.7 PM ATI9700 80Gb HDD 512Mb RAM

 

Thanks for that info - Presumably M6Ne has the Intel 2200BG.

Is there any difference in ping times in auto between AC mode and battery mode?

Hey UPM, I just noticed your a BrisVegas Boy, I am a Coorparoo Kid. Small world!

 

Im a kedron boy.
yeah mine is a 2200bg card. Interestingly my wifes is a 2100b card, it suffered the dropouts much worse then mine, so orginally I thourght the problem was with her card. Until I plugged into the router and still had problems. I guess thats what happens when a complete novice (ie me) sets up the network.
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ASUS M6Ne 15.4" WSXGA 1.7 PM ATI9700 80Gb HDD 512Mb RAM

 

Underpantsman my friend with a compac has the exact same problems with her laptop. Its not your network, its the computer itself.

 

The reason the drops out occur is due to that fact that PSP (Power save Polling) is not handled properly by by AP device - Minitar MN54GR4, Intel says that is due to the AP device not being truly compliant.

Intel Factsheet has documented the issue.

http://support.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/pro2200bg/sb/CS-006205-prd1637.htm

Option is to leave 2200BG power setting in manual mode or try and get firmware upgrade for AP device.

 

Since I fixed the network, I have not had any problems with connection dropout, so I think in my case most of the problems were at the other end, the notebook/s seems fine.
a


ASUS M6Ne 15.4" WSXGA 1.7 PM ATI9700 80Gb HDD 512Mb RAM