Acer Aspire not staying connected to the net

Hi,

We have an Acer Aspire 5735, and a Advent Laptop, both sit about 60cm apart, I get a good connection, the Acer does not, even if we swap places.

We use Sky broadband on WiFi.

Device managers give the following info on what's under the hood/bonnet


Acer
Generic marvell ukon 88E8071 based ethernet controller
intel (R) WiFi link 5100AGN

Advent
Intel (R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection
Realtek PCLe FE Family Controller

We have tried re-booting both the Acer and the router, but nothing seems to make a difference.

I have limited funds and technical ability, but would appreciate any help or advice you could give.

Cheers Kev.

 

Make sure you use the most recent drivers available from Intel website and that power management for wireless card is disabled or set to max performance especially if you use Windows 7.

 

Thanks Download, I did go to the Intel site, but couldn't figure out which driver I needed, the Acer is Vista home basic 32 bit with service pack 2 installed, so I tried letting device manger find a updated driver, it just came back with latest driver installed already, so I left it alone.

Current driver file details window for the Acers intel (R) WiFi link 5100AGN has :-
NETw5v32.sys
NETw5c32.dll
NETw5r32.dll

All of which goes whoosh above my head.

 

What's the driver version shown in device manager?

 

You should be able to find the latestdrivers her:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Sea...+Link+5300+and+Intel®+WiFi+Link+5100+products

Click vista 32 then download the one on the top of the list.

 

Hi Downloads,

The Driver is Version 12.2.0.11 Driver date 17/11/08

 

So it's not the most recent one. The most recent one is 13.5.0 dated April 2011
Use the link Full-English provided.
Also make sure that you've checked that power management for Wi-Fi (in advanced settings of a Windows power profile) is set to max performance.

 

The latest driver on the link I posted on Intel's website is dated 3/4/2011 version 13.5.0, may be worth giving it a shot. I wouldn't go by what windows says when it says it has the latest driver, unfortunately windows doesn't have access to every updated driver out there, would be nice, maybe in an ideal world

Edit: Downloads got there before me!!

 

Thanks both!!!

Doesn't anyone have a real name on here.

I've installed the driver, but it's hectic here today so no chance to check it out fully, but it's gone back online, so OK so far.

Kev.

 

I can't find a "windows power profile" I've stopped it turning wifi off if power drops.

Kev

 

On the bottom right of your screen, you should see some small icons, there should be one with a battery symbol (or similar), click on it, then click more power options (or similar), then click change plan settings, then click change advanced power settings, in here you should see an option for wireless. Change this to max performance if it is not already selected.

Hope the above helps.

 

Ah I see, clue in the title

I've set it to max performance, so we'll see what happens.

I've just logged the Acer onto BBC Iplayer, currently listening to the Archers, hopefully a drop in connection will be noticeable, unless the buffer counteracts that plan.

Cheers Kev.

I thought I'd just check to see if the intel download had installed correctly.

I don't know why, but despite me using the one reccomended, the actual one in the driver details pane is:-

19/01/2011 version 13.5.0.6 so although it's much later than the one it replaced it's not the one I downloaded... I is mystified.

Kev

 

Driver version is OK - it should be 13.0.5.

 

My updated driver for my Vaio says 13.5.0.6 also. I would not worry about it.

 

Thanks For all the help, I'll report back if it manages to stay connected, we've got plasterers in all week so getting to use the laptops is infrequent.

Cheers Kev.

 

Well it's still dropping the line, I went over to Laptops Direct in Huddersfield today as I was in the area, I spoke to customer services, they asked me to ping the router, (Drop to DOS, CMD/ipconfiig/ping ***.***.*.*) which I did and it came back with 4 perfect results.

He said to keep doing it, so I press F3 but it comes back as bad command or similar, so I gave up on it.

I really don't know what to do next, but the constant groaning is getting a bit old now.

Any more ideas to fix it short of throwing it in a skip.

 

In the router itself, have you tried changing any of the settings, maybe a bit of a longshot, but maybe try changing the channel in the router, see if that makes a difference, in the past when I've had connection issues, changing the channel in the router has improved the connection, just an idea?

 

I've not tried that as I don't know how to, and the little manual has gone walk about, I'll look on Skys site to see if it has any info on it.

-----------------------
Sky info most helpful, I've changed from channel 1 to 6.

All the IP adresses are 1 through 5, do I need to change each of them to a different channel or will doing the default "1" be enough, I did try to log into the router using my .0.3 address, and the others, but it would only connect on .0.1, or have I just answered my own question

I still don't get why just one PC was delinquent the others were slow, but stayed online, hopefully I've not inadvertently shifted the problem to another one on the network