HEL80 Gigabyte wireless disconnection upon upload

I have an HEL80 with a gigabyte wireless card in it. My BIOS is 119b. I am running windows vista home premium. The problem I have is that whenever I upload for more than a few minutes (webcam conversations or uploading large files to an FTP, torrents, stuff like that) I will first lose internet connectivity, then my wireless connection will disconnect from the access point. It will eventually reconnect to the access point, but will not give me internet access. I discovered that when this disconnection happens if I flick the wireless switch off (the switch on the front, not the software one) and then back on, i regain my internet connectivity upon reconnection to the access point.

I tried new drivers and old drivers. drivers from atheros and from gigabyte.
I have tried changing my MTU from 1500 to 1492 as suggested by a nerdy co-worker
I have tried my TCP Return to something near 118000 as suggested by the tweak guide on broadband reports.
I have physically popped the wireless card out, and disconnected and reconnected the antenna to it
I have replaced my access point with a different access point of a different brand
my wife's laptop (a dell inspiron 1501) does not suffer from the same issues.

I have not yet updated the bios to 121b. anyone have any idea if that may help?

Anyway, I'm at a loss. I really don't want to have to send the machine to compal for repair because it will take forever. I don't mind buying a new wireless card for it if that turns out to be the problem, but I wanted to see if you guys here have any suggestions before I go down that road.

Thanks

 

What you've tried seems pretty thorough. Maybe a reinstall of windows? trying it on another laptop/ access point? Personally I would try those before spending some dough on another card, just to be sure the one I have is a junker. But I'm a penny pincher. I don't spend money on anything more than 500$ unless I've researched it thoroughly first.

 

reinstalling windows didn't help

also, I can't figure out how to get to the wireless card in my wife's inspiron 1501. I was going to try this card in there to see if the same thing happens, but I can't find any instructions on disassembling it. I'm probably going to end up buying an intel 3945 on ebay.

 

Its should be under the keyboard.

Service Manual

 

OK, I tried her card in mine, didn't even show up in my devices (probably because my HEL80 doesn't have a dell bios.) My gigabyte card did NOT exhibit the same behavior in her dell. I guess the problem lies elsewhere, perhaps a problem with the mini-pci-e slot or the bus or something.

Anyway, I've decided I'll just get a wireless card for my card slot. Hopefully it will not exhibit the same issues.

 

Hope you can return it if it IS the pci slot. That would be a shame. (I'll buy your card if you cant return it )

 

I am not really concerned with returning it. using a card in the cardbus slot makes no difference to me. I will flash my bios now, and if it doesn't fix the problem I'll sell you the card

 

What gigabyte card do you have exactly? I have a gigabyte card with the Atheros chipset, 108Mbps at tops. It wouldn't light the led up on the laptop during usage and the wireless kill switch didn't work except for making a scancode (just like with fn+f2).

I popped in my IPW3945 and it works like a charm. Even better than the atheros. Well, similar at least I think the atheros drivers/hardware also lies a bit about signal quality. Either that or really I do get a lot better quality with this intel card, but it would seem irrelevant. Both work fine (Linux here).

Have you tried some other OS? Perhaphs linux with madwifi, just for tests?

I think your card is orait, it's just that, shamefully, this laptop works best with the ipw3945. At least that's how I see it Can't complain really Both cards costed me about 25$ in total including the shipping/ so no biggie

 

It's the Gigabyte GN-WI01GT

I was thinking of either getting a cardbus card, or that intel card. I think I will try the intel card because I really don't like the idea of something sticking out of my computer.

The BIOS flash did nothing for me