Wifi Light

This is one of those little annoyances that drive me crazy.

After having my laptop on for awhile (around an hour or two), the Wifi light magically turns itself off. It doesn't affect my WiFi connection -- just annoying.

Is anyone else experiencing this problem? or does anyone have a theory as to why this is happening

SG

 

when i had built in wireless still in use the light would go off 10 seconds after turning it on. my intel 2200 card was defective or something so that could effect the length of time the light is on.

 

I've noticed the same problem .. though, because it didn't effect the wi-fi connection .. I didn't really think much of it .. though if you "repair" the wi-fi connection, it does come back on ..

Bilal

 

Yeah because that turns the card off then on again or "Resets" it.
Interesting probelm though, i would just contact the online support (lol you have talked to them enough haven't you?)

Might just be a defect in all the 9300 systems. but im curious to know what dell would say.

 

well I have a theory...i think it does it to conserve power. I've read about it on other laptops were the LED lights turn off to do the exact same thing. Yet this still doesn't make much sense since BT light never turns off.

and no, i'm not calling dell even if my life depended on it.

 

Hmm, mine always stays on. Though i've only had mine for about 2 weeks so it might need to break itself in some more.
In the 2 weeks i've had my 9300 its only been off when I transport it from work to home and vice versa, when its not in the backpack its on all the time. Guess only time will tell.

 

I've noticed the "problem" too but have an idea what might be causing it. I usually keep bluetooth switched off and only switch on when connecting my pda or mobile. Now I've noticed that the WiFi light will go off when the bluetooth connection is active, i.e. transferring data. I have the feeling that the Bluetooth and WiFi sometimes effect each others signal causing the WiFi to go crazy for a second and reset itself. In fact sometimes a pop up will come up telling me I'm connected to the LAN just after the light goes out.

This makes sense to me anyway cause if I'm not mistaken WiFi and BlueTooth use similar frequencies (2.5GHz if I'm not mistaken). Just a glitch in the software though cause as u guys said it doesn't effect connectivity.

 

hey SG, happens to me too. in fact, as i type this, the light is off. like you said, as long as my connection is up i (1) don't notice and (2) don't really care. i also wondered if it wasn't some sort of power saving feature.

 

LOL, okay glad to know its not my system.

Its just one of those annoyances that I just can't figure out. Its happened since I've gotten my laptop, but I normally don't lose connection. My BT is usually off, but I've determined that it has a mind of its own, and likes to turn itself on

I was googling this at 4am this morning since I couldn't sleep, and I think their is a HP model that does the same thing.

 

Have you tried the Intel application. I think I noticed that too but I don't notice it now that I used the intel application

 

yeah, i was using Intel up until this last reformat. It does it all the time.

 

Well I have the latest intel client now and I never see it. How long happen? With the latest drivers you need to hack them for the intel client.

 

The wi-fi light has turned off on 3 Dell laptops I owned: 700m, XPS G2 & my current one, 630m. Seems wierd, regardless of whether you use the Intel or Windows management feature, the wi-fi light turns off eventually.

 

My light is still on and has been for a couple of hours. I'll leave it on overnight. Would say 8 hours be a long time if it is still on?

I have the Intel 2915abg card and the driver from December. I also patched the install so that the intel client can be installed.

 

maybe that's where the problem is. I'm using 2200 b/g card.

 

I use the Intel 2915ABG and it still goes off after a few hours, though I still retain my internet connection

 

how does you turn off the bluetooth light? .. I thought I turned the driver off .. I don't really need bluetooth .. but the light's on all the time .. does this mean that the bluetooth is active? .. can someone tell me how to turn it off? .. I'm thinking if I don't need it, might as well save battery life! ..

Bilal

 

To turn off bluetooth (it will save the battery) turn off the radio.

I left my computer on all night and the ligt is still on. When I first got this computer the light did go off.

 

Update...

Ok now I noticed that my Wifi light has been going off when I am at home. When I am at work it is always on. Weird.
When i turn off wifi and then turn it back on it stays on.
Wifi is still connected even without the light as others have said but personally I dont care if the light is on or off, as long as it works.
I usually dont look at those lights anyways. I choose to look at my system tray and as long as I get all green on the wifi strenght that is all I care about

 

Mine Wifi light never turned off until I installed bluetooth this week. Now it goes off after a few minutes. Bluetooth light is always on.

 

Now i'm starting to get pissed...

I just notice this today, but i've been having problems lately staying connected. At least 3 times today, my wifi light has gone off and my internet has disconnected. If I do FN+F2, turn it off and back on, it works fine for a few hours. My bluetooth radio was off, but it keeps turning itself back on. I'm using the toshiba drivers, and I have msconfig set where none of the bluetooth should start. I've disabled it in device manager, yet it keeps coming on.

I have a feeling I shouldn't have created this thread I think I've cursed myself

 

This happens on my Latitude D810 (with the 2915 card) as well. I believe it is due to external radio (probably cordless phone) interference that very briefly disrupts the WiFi connection. Not long enough to notice a disruption in your service, but long enough for the WiFi card to shut off the WiFi light. It seems that when the connection returns though, the card does not turn the WiFi light back on. Toggling the Fn+F2 brings the light back on (until the next brief disruption). I find that using the 5 Ghz "A" channels over the 2.4GHz "G" channels I get a lot fewer disruptions (I have a Linksys ABG access point). I live in an apartment building and I imagine there are a lot of 2.4 GHz cordless phones in range.

 

I really doubt that considering that a little LED light like that wouldn't take up any noticable amount of power.

I think the wireless card just wasn't made that well, and is a defect common to most cards. I have seen this problem before.

But SouthernGirl that really sicks that it disconnects in the middle of using the internet, that could start to be a problem if it does it frequently or if your right in the middle of something important. I havn't had that problem.

 

That seems a decent theory to me... do you live/use your notebook in an area that may have a lot of interferance?

I use the Intel 2200 b/g wireless without bluetooth, and have not run into this problem. My WiFi is always on, and I use windows management.

 

I think I am going jump in on this. I to am having the same "light" issue. I have had my 9300 since about the 22nd of Dec. Is this or is this not a defect? Has anyone actually contacted Dell about this instead just having these "theories" ? Thanks.

 

So has anyone found anything out? This thread just kinda died.

 

i haven't called dell about it yet. I turned off all of my bluetooth software and disable it -- so far I haven't notice the light go out, but i haven't been as home as much either.

 

If you think it might be interference try shutting everything off unless you live in an appartment. I noticed that my wifi don't work when the microwave is on and probably other things. The MIS guy at work mentioned that some of the cordless phones are on this band and the channel they use also happens to correspond to the channel on the wifi so switch it on one or the other. Some phones search too I think so this may create additional problems. My house is an old electric heat house with the heat in the ceiling. Even though this is perminately off it tends to shield one floor from the other.

 

Well I figured out what was causing my signal to drop. Someone added WiFi near my house. My router/modem are at the back of the house, so i was getting alot of interference from the other network. I moved the router/modem to the front part, and haven't had any problems since then, but I just did this a few days ago.

SG

 

Same thing happens with me, WiFi light goes off after a few hours. I really don't mind but I'm concerned since this laptop is almost but not yet a month old.

 

I have an XPS Gen 2 and my WiFi light goes off by itself after a while too. Normally I don't notice it and when it does happen my connection is still there. Everything works so there's no point in wasting another couple of days or weeks of my life trying to get Dell to do something about it.

 

Someone at another forum posted this:

Try changing your adapter's power management to high. It comes at the expense of battery power but the overall effect is small. I have been using this setting since last September when the 2200BG on my 6000 was exhibiting same behaviours as described here, even under AC power. Someone else also posted similar suggestion in the Dell Community Forum a few weeks back regarding the 2915ABG adapter.



I changed the setting and will test it out to see if that fixes the light problem.

 

thats what i was thinking, but LEDs use such little power i doubt dell would bother! maybe its just designed to show that WiFi has just been enabled?

 

Mine (1150 internal b wireless) never went off or anything and worked great. I just put in an external 1350 G card and it works fine to (although I actually find the light annoying and distracting and hate the fact its not internal. It has gone off once since I bought it and had to be switched back on.

 

well mine hasn't gotten off in weeks. I've finally got my BT radio to be completely disable and stop turning back on. Since then I haven't notice the light going out.

 

I really don't know...but I assume it is something to do with the internal clock battery SG....just a guess. It might be defective and it's running low. Why don't you contact dell...maybe they will be able to help you out.

 

I don't see how that would effect the light.

Besides, I fixed the issue on mine. It is somehow related to the BT radio. It is either interferring with the wifi signal, causing the wifi to cut down but not turn completely off -- which would cause the light to go off but still have a minimal connection. I also had a wireless network that was interferring with mine connection.

Its not really an issue that i want to have to call dell about. Be my luck they would make me send it in.

 

lol it is a small and annoying problem SG. The reason why I suggested about the clock battery is beacuase I read in a computer mag that if the battery runs out, the PC can make odd beeps and things...I didn't mean to post something totally irrelavent...

 

It might be, but i highly doubt it. This has been one of things that has happened since i got my laptop.

Besides, it isn't having any other problems with the exception to the WiFi light.

Since I've turned off BT, i haven't had any problems with the light. Now i'm beginning to wonder if it wasn't another network interferring with mine. The more i think about it, I was getting d/c several times which is odd for living out in the sticks. Someone apparently has a stronger wireless router than I have and was interferring with mine.

 

Guess what... wifi light is out again.

Except i haven't lost my connection, but my BT light is on, and it won't go off. BT radio is disable in stack and device manager.

 

Maybe its a short. ;

 

I don't know. I can't figure out why my BT light won't go off -.-

Some days I wonder if my laptop doesn't have a mind of its own. The wifi light had stayed on this whole time, then I had to use BT, so turned it on,then disabled it again...and now the BT light is on, but the Wifi light went back off after several hours of being on.

Now they are both on... strange laptop.

 

Wow, does everything work correctly? I know LEDs can't burn out like normal lights. Do the keyboard lights [Num, Cab, Scroll] work right?

 

oh yeah, everything else works great.

Just this wifi light and BT light. I'm not sure why the BT light is still on (rebooted a few times in the middle of all of this). I've checked device manager, checked the stack software...everytime I use BT it seems like it takes awhile for the BT light to go off.

[edit]
<<<---IDIOT

Figured out the problem. I was disabling my device in the device manager before i was turning off the radio in Toshiba. I enabled both, and turned off the radio FIRST, then disabled the driver. Now everything works fine

 

I just experienced this problem but never before I installed bluetooth (Dell TM350) yesterday. The WiFi light is now turning off.

 

That's why I think it has to be related. I have my radio off, and the BT light is off, but my wifi light is still going off now though.

I thought i had to fix the problem, but apparently I haven't yet.

 

Has anyone figured this out yet? I just bought a Dell Inspiron 6000 with the Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG wifi adapter built in and there was no problem with the wifi light staying on. As soon as I installed the Dell Truemobile 350 Bluetooth card I noticed the problems described here where the wifi light goes off. Like SG I tried turning the BT radio off but the wifi light still goes out after a while, and sometimes the wifi net connection drops completely forcing me to FN+F2 just to cycle it on and off before it works again.

Andy

 

Well I will jump in here as this has been going on with my Dell for a few months now. My XPS M170 has had the following done -

new wireless card sent out.
computer sent to dell and another new card installed
computer sent to dell and they replaced the cover and hindge

Now it is still doing the same thing and when the light goes off the connection gets a little flakey from time to time. I notice it mostly when playing online games but it is not really noticable when just surfing the web. I can also see it when I am pinging a site as more packets get dropped.

I am now trying with the bluetooth card removed as it seems some people had luck with that. The last word from Dell was that it was normal and not supposed to be on. This was a shocker to me but then out of all the calls I have made this was the first time that I had heard that one.

Fingers are crossed that removing the bluetooth module and removing the drivers for it will fix the problem. I would like to have the bluetooth but I can live without it.

 

My update on the situation: I've completely disable BT, and lately haven't noticed any problems, but I haven't been checking it.

If your connection isn't affected by the light going off, then I probably wouldn't worry about it - since it seems like a never ending issue.

 

Interesting. Your fix was to remove the bluetooth card? That won't work in my case since I rely on BT for edge/gprs tethering... What about just disabling the device in Device Manager.. have you tried that instead of uninstalling the drivers and the card?

I'm considering the same machine you have and I'd like to know if this works. BT is a *must* for me.