dv9000t: wireless connection repeatedly drops

Hi all. Within the last two days I am having repeated wireless connection problems with my dv9000t, and am looking for suggestions.

The machine has a dual core T5500, 1gb of RAM and WinXP SP2 with all the latest windows updates & patches. However, the bios hasn't been updated since we purchased the machine (December 2006.) My router is a Zyxel X-550 with the latest firmware. The network cards is an Intel 3945ABG, and I just updated to the latest drivers (11.1.1.16) via HP's website.

Here's my problem: Every minute or two my connection stops working. I don't get any warning mesage, and I'm apparently still 'connected' to my router with excellent signal strength & 54mbps speed. If I turn off the radio button and then turn it back on, the connection isn't fixed. But if I run the 'Repair' routine in the wireless config, I get the connection back for another few minutes.

I have spent a few hours reading posts on other forums about problems where the radio turns itself off, but I can't see how this would be the same problem. The driver update did nothing, nor has any tweaking in the advanced tab. For good measure I did make the following changes:

- power management @ highest
- roaming management @ lowest
- throughout enhancement @ disabled (default?)
- transmit power @ highest
- wireless mode @ G only

I can't find any settings where I can disable any possible power management of the network card by the OS. There is nothing in the driver, nor any settings in the Power Management control panel.

Anyway, I would appreciate any/all suggestions. If this is a software issue, I'd like to think I can solve it. But if the card is actually failing, I'm still under warranty but not for long.

Thanks in advance,
TOM

 

Is there any other computers connected to that router thats having a drop out problem? This will help rule out that its not the router

 

There are two other machines, one wired and one wireless. Both have no connection problems, only the HP.

 

It can be the devil sometimes tracking down these wireless dropouts and stuff- drive you crazy. But since you have 2 wireless laptops, try using WirelessMon

It's a great program- you can see all available wifi networks and what I love is that it has a graph feature, where you can look t the wifi signal over time. So you can compare the signal being received by both wireless adapters and see if it's the router or adapter failure. You can download a trial version that's good for 30 days.

 

I know this won't be much help but my DV9207 did that with Vista and I did a clean install with XP now all peachy. I tried HP for help but they kept telling me it was my settings, even tough it would connect but not stay connected for more then a few minutes. I am using an older set of HP Intel/PRO wireless drivers 10.5.1.75 without HP wireless assistant. Only using XP for wireless connection.

 

What burns me is that the repair utility does SOMETHING that renews my connection for another few minutes. It seems that it's more likely a software problem, but then I hadn't done any updates or system changes prior to the wireless connection dropping.

Are there any specific tweaks that HP has made to the standard Intel driver? I considered installing it instead of the HP-modified version, I think the Intel driver has an obvious radio on-or-off button as well as a way to disable any power management.

Thanks,
TOM

 

maybe this will help:

uninstall the driver and go to Intel and download a new one for your w/l card and reinstall it. this normally solves the problems. maybe somehow the driver got corrupted.

 

you can also download a trial version of Network Magic. Use it as the default program to access/repair the connection. It might give you a better idea of what's going on. You can look at your network, see the router, the laptop's, speed, etc. D-Link sends it out with all their routers to help folks out. Did you see if WirelessMon showed anything?

And I agree- it could easily be the driver.

 

I had the w/l drop problem with a new laptop right out of the box..,went to intel downloaded new driver...NO DROP after that

btw the guy has other w/l pc's running without drops...so must be driver

 

Agreed must be a software conflict, sometimes driver, sometimes H/P wireless assistant or other firewall etc. Remember always try the basics first, you may be surprised


p.s. forgot to say when I had issues, I read to turn down power management, aggressiveness etc. on wireless card properties, didn't work for me but if you google H/P wireless problem you will find many others with issues ands maybe a solution!

 

Instead of reloading the driver it may be a better idea to go to the device manager and delete the network adapters and then reboot and reinstall the drivers and the hardware. I know I had some issues with the wireless connections at first and it took some tinkering to get it up and running properly. Anyway just an idea.

-Reby

 

I installed WirelessMon on both notebooks, then sat them side by side. Both connect to the router and maintain a reliable connection with no odd drop-outs. I'm a bit surprised I only get 60% signal strength when the router is only 15' away (albeit up a floor) and am interested to see how the signal changes depending on how and where I put the notebooks.

There are only a few minor differences in the program results from the two machines. I attribute them to how the program runs differently on the two OS's (WinXP on the dv9000t, vs Vista on the Vostro.) On the HP, in the general tab the router shows up properly but the correct 'supported rates' speed info is incorrect. It should be 54Mbps but only shows up as 11Mbps and slower. However, the IP tab shows the correct bandwidth.

In all, the monitoring shows me that the actual connection to the router is maintained throughout the drop-outs, so I think the problem has to be in ther driver. I will try uninstalling the wireless adapter via the device manager, let it be recognized again, then point to the standard Intel drivers for the reinstall.

Thanks for the assistance so far.

TOM

 

cool, glad you installed WirelessMon and that it helped you narrow the search.

as suspected by most, it does sound like a driver issue.

 

By the way, the Network Magic application was not helpful, nor can it be uninstalled. I did a full uninstall but there aretwo network protocols that can be disabled but not removed. Even after disabling the application via msconfig, searching and delete of all related files from the C drive as well as a search and clean-up of the registry, I STILL CANNOT get rid of Network Magic. Maybe the program worked for others, but it has now become an added layer of difficulty.

The worst part; after deleting and reinstalling all the network adapter drivers, I am still having the connection drops. I will likely need to contact HP tomorrow to see if they have suggestions other than reinstalling the OS.

Thanks,
TOM

 

RESOLUTION
To resolve this issue, configure your wireless network connection so that it does not use 802.1x authentication. To do this, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, point to Connect To, click Show all connections, and then double-click your wireless network adapter.
2. On the General tab, click Properties.
3. Click the Wireless Networks tab.
4. Under Preferred Networks, click your home network, and then click Properties.
5. Click Data encryption (WEP enabled).
6. Click the Association tab, and then click to clear the Network Authentication (Shared mode) check box and the The key is provided for me automatically check box, if they are selected.
7. Click the Authentication tab, and then click to clear the Enable IEEE 802.1x authentication for this network check box, if it is selected.
8. Click OK two times to accept the changes.

 

Hi, thanks for the suggestion. Once I'm at home I will work through the preferred network settings to see if I can drop the authentication portion. I did previously look to disable that option via the device driver, but the selection box was greyed out.

BTW, I'm using WPA2 for my encryption method since WEP is so insecure.

Thanks,
TOM

 

I had this exact problem about 6 months ago and I traced it back to a windows update containing "software distribution service 2.0". I found it listed under the windows restore point that was created around when the problem started occurring, restored it to before the update and it solved the problem. It started happening a couple months later and it was the same thing.

So if nothing else works, check at the recently added restore points and see if any contains software distribution service and try restoring to before the update.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately disabling the authentication didn't do anything. I then dug through the system restore and found a "software distribution service 3.0" from a few weeks ago. I restored to the day before but still have the same drop-outs. The plus side of the system is that Network Magic is no longer anywhere to be found, good riddance to its uninstallable network protocols.

I remain online for an average of 1:20 before the connection goes south. I can either do a repair of the connection, or a disable/enable, which buy me another 1:20.

Is there a possibility that two wireless clients (in this case my two notebooks) are conflicting with one-another? The other machine is pretty new, less than a week old, running Vista and having no connection problems. My wife swears that it is the cause of the HP's connection problems since they started shortly after the new machine was configured. Could one wireless adapter create enough interference (or whatever it might be) to affect the other machine's performance? I may try dialing down the transmit power on both machines a notch at a time on the off chance this will help.

I appreciate the different suggestions. I still haven't called HP yet but will need to soon if this can't be resolved. I do find it shocking that a solid wireless connection can suddenly go south and now be consistently on the fritz in exactly the same way...

Thanks,
TOM

 

FYI this issue hasn't gone away. I don't believe there is any conflict between my HP and my new notebook. I spent 45 minutes via chat with "Goldy" who had me do some basic settings changes via the command window, then directed me to update the BIOS. Amazingly my problem was not fixed.

I even went as far as disabling the Wireless Zero service, uninstalling the drivers and re-re-reinstalling the Intel drivers and PRO wirelss config tool. Even through that software I get the dropped connection every 1:20 or so.

My last step before setting up a repair shipment is to reinstall the OS. But I don't really want to go that route since this now seems like a hardware issue, despite the early indications.

Anyway, I appreciate the help.

TOM