Samsung Series 9 11" Wifi Problems

Just bought a Samsung Series 9 11" laptop and the wifi is horrible! It drops out, pings drop, lacency like crazy, etc. Has anyone experienced these issues with the 11" laptop? I love the laptop but the wifi problems are killing me!

Samsung is sending me a replacement machine but I am afraid that this is a problem across the entire line as I have seen other posts. Please let me know if anyone has an 11" and you are having the wifi problems I am experiencing.

Thanks!

 

Sorry, the case is made of Duralumin and it only has two antenna WiFi (just like the 13.3" model). So no good news on WiFi yet...

 

What do you mean by yet? Are they working on improving the wireless or it is always going to be this aweful? I have both the 13" and the 11" and the 13" wifi is fine. The 11" wifi is terrible.

 

Sorry, this is going to be repetition for a lot of forum users.

I assume that you are in the USA. Samsung is not selling the WiFi fixed models in the USA yet -- these have the Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3 antenna) with the 3rd antenna going up inside an updated LCD. Samsung USA will not officially admit the problem yet; some technicians know about it but there's nothing that they can do or say about it yet.

Series 9 models with this WiFi and new LCD are available is some Asian and European countries.

I'm not going to get into why you think your 13.3" model WiFi is fine. There are many posts where people have claimed that (initially).

 

Ok, so I have this $1200 laptop that doesn't work. Should I keep it and hope Samsung comes out with a fix for this wifi problem, have the vendor send me another one, or RMA it and give up on it?

I love this laptop minus the huge wifi issue. Do you think Samsung can and will fix this issue?

 

No one knows because Samsung is providing ZERO info on this issue.

All I can say is that I returned mine because I gave up hope that Samsung would be able to fix the current models. A new LCD is probably needed and I don't see Samsung doing a recall to replace every LCD for every Series 9 sold in the U.S. (although no one with the fixed model has posted pictures of the internals yet). So I guess there's a small chance that Samsung could repair.

Also, if Samsung had brought the fixed version to the USA by now, I would have bought it. I've been waiting for months though so I gave up.

 

I have one of the first Samsung Series 9 11.6" and the wifi has been perfect. Full bars, no drops. Which model do you have?

 

I have a samsung series 9 11 inch. I was having the standard wifi problems with the wifi dropping out, etc. When you ping the internal router as an example, you can see 1 of every 20-30 pings drop out.

The vendor sent me another samsung series 9 11" to see if its a hardware or software issue. I just got the new samsung and booted it up out of the box, went through the config, and started pinging the router.

Guess what? Same problem! Every 20-30 pings drop out. It is a fundimental design issue with the hardware. I have now tested two brand new samsung 11" laptops and got the exact same results.

Bottom line - Samsung needs to come up with a fix for this line.

 

Can anybody recommend a laptop with great wifi? I just bought a lenovo ideapad u400, and the wifi performance is far too poor for my use case, similar to what's said in this thread.

Posting here because it's a similar topic. Is there a Windows notebook with good performance and graphics, at most 14" and strong wifi antenna?

 

Lenovo T420s with nVidia graphics option and Intel 6300 Wifi? The Carbon fibre lid does not block the WiFi signal.

John

 

Lenovo 420 or 420s or x201. Rock solid machines - you cannot go wrong.

 

I called Samsung support regarding WIFI problems with my NP900X3A-A05US.

They said the card wasn't working as well as they'd hoped. The laptop was shipped to Ft. Worth, TX and "corrected." I haven't opened it up to see what was done, but I'm sort of thinking antenna since it's the same model of WIFI card as it had before I shipped it (Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230).

It does work better...but I'm not convinced it's completely fixed. That is, prior I was getting speeds of 2 Mbps where my other laptop was getting 25. Now it's in that range (20's) with other considerations (that I won't go into here).

UPDATE:

We have two of these in the house. The other is a 900X3A-A03 with slower CPU, less memory, and a Broadcom WIFI card.

Just did a side by side "Speedtest"... it got 39Mbps consistently. The one "repaired" gets 19Mbps consistently.

 

I returned the two Samsung 11 inch laptops and got an apple MacBook air 11 and blew away the mac os and loaded windows. Works perfectly and Better quality than the Samsung.

 

Does anybody know if the Series 7 has the same problem? I already had to return a 14" Ideapad u400 because the wifi reception was too poor, and was planning on waiting for the 14" series 7.

 

My S9 11.6" does not suffer from any wifi issues. For those of you with an Intel card and do suffer from wifi issues, it might just be compatiblity issues with your router and intel cards. Try upgrading your router firmware and if that does not work, disable th 802.11n mode in the device manager for that intel network card.

Cannot utilize N / slow / disconnects (Intel 6200, Intel WiFi Link 4965AGN, Linksys WRT150N)

 

i tried stuff like that on the lenovo u400 (which has a similar design). the fact is it worked perfectly in the bedroom and not at all in the living room; it's just a bad antenna due to the aluminum design.

 

I have a Series 9 A5 -- have zero real world WiFi issues. Definitely it is the N side that is weak. However in my initial tests where I thought it was a WiFi issue, I was running on battery. You might want to check your power saver settings and set the WiFi for performance.

I have been to 24 airports in the last 6 months and numerous hotels and have had zero issues connecting with decent speed

 

answer from samsung faq site:
Answers
A : I can't speak for the Broadcom WiFi card, but for the Intel card (and perhaps also for the Broadcom card), the issue is with the default power management settings. If the laptop works well when plugged in and using the "Samsung Optimized" power plan but works poorly when not plugged in, this is your issue. To fix it, go to Control Panel (View by: Small icons) *or* right click on the battery icon in the system tray area, then select Power Options. For the current plan, click Change plan settings, then click Change advanced power settings. Expand Wireless Adapter Settings, expand Power Saving Mode, then set Plugged in: to "Maximum Performance" (see screenshot). This is the only setting that works properly--I've tried all of them. Make this change for all of the power plans, or at least all of the ones you intend to use.

rhelmer(read all my Q&A)