Wireless Adapter Loosing Internet Connection

Hello yall!
This is my first post on Notebook Review Forums so here it goes,
My Samsung NP700Z5C-S01UB is having problems with the wireless loosing connection with the internet. The strength of the signal is fine but it seems that once I wake the system from sleep the internet will work fine for about a minute but then webpages will discontinue to load and the network indicator in my task-bar will throw up the dreaded yellow exclamation mark indicating that it does not detect an internet connection on the wireless network. I then disconnect and re-connect to the network and it works fine, and I have no idea what could be causing this. I am thinking about rolling back the driver for the wireless card and seeing if that will help but any other ideas will be greatly appreciated, Thanks!!

P.s. I am running Windows 8

 

Are you seeing this problem with several routers or just one? If the latter then the router settings might be the cause.

Recommended settings for the WiFi adapter are here.

John

 

@Frank: I have an older Series 7 Sandy Bridge (NP700Z3A) with Intel 6230 Wi-Fi adapter, and differently from many Ivy Bridge owners with Intel 6235 (like you) I have had pretty good Wi-Fi -- not great, but about as good as my friend's Macbook Pro.

I upgraded from Win7 to Win8 recently and found my Wi-Fi to be at least as good or even better.

BUT just yesterday I experienced almost exactly what you describe while at a meeting: Good connection, but constant inexplicable dropouts. And this was at a location where I go every month and never had problems in Win7.

What I am trying to say is, it seems to me Win8 must be having a problem that wasn't there in Win7 with the same hardware. Probably a driver issue or related to power savings. I should add that I use the 5GHz band at home and my Wi-Fi flies.

I'll obviously investigate further and post my findings. The first thing I'll do is check Intel Download Center and make sure I have their latest Driver Only Wireless package for my adapter and OS. I recommend you do the same (see screendump below). Uninstall the PROset drivers first before installing this one.

 

I updated my drivers and still does it, kinda frustrating because I thought it was fixed and it naturally crapped out while I was taking an online test

 

Sorry to hear that. But there may be some relief for you finally: Intel released another update again just this week, numbered 15.6.1. You can download it from Intel download center.

You should check the discussion over at the Series 7 NP700Z5C lovers thread (not at my PC or I would give you a link). Member gonzagnr, who had reported terrible wifi, alerted us to this new update and reports significant improvements.

Let us know how that works for you

 

I downloaded the new driver and it seems to be working alright, Samsung SW Update doesn't seem to like it though it keeps telling me to install a different driver 15.0.0.75. I have not tried installing this one yet if I continue to run into problems i will have to try that.

 

Samsung's driver is older - it usually takes a few months (if ever) for the newer drivers to work through the Samsung update system.

You can disable nagging messages from Samsung's SW Update by customizing the notification area to hide notifications for S Agent. I run SW Update manually every week or so to check if there is anything new that is worth installing.

John

 

Yeah, as John said, that driver proposed by SW Update is older. SW Update doesn't see your current Driver Only driver because it wants to install the full Intel PROset driver. If you switch to list view in SW Update, it probably shows the Wi-Fi driver as Installable rather than an as an Update -- because it doesn't realize that you have Wi-Fi drivers installed at all. You can just disregard that.

Again as John said, you can disable those notifications in the tray icon.

 

The version in SW Update is newer than intel's for me. I've tried them both and still have issues. I wasn't really having trouble with the driver that came installed so I don't know why I felt the need to update but I wish I hadn't. In the process I seem to have lost the ability to rollback to the driver that worked best for me. Luckily I have a system backup that is only a few days old so it looks like I'm doing a restore.

 

@jimmiem: Yeah, that's annoying. Good thing you keep backups.

Most people seem to have had good results with the latest Intel Driver Only versions, but I guess it can depend on router and PC model.

Which model and Windows version? I'm away from my PC most of the day, but I'd like to check when I get back.

 

I have the 2013 Series 7 with 8770 graphics and Win8. I can never memories the model numbers

 

That's still quite a few different models: 15inch or 17inch, touch screen or no-touch, submodels and country codes? Anyways, I assume it's NP780Z5E or NP770Z5E which would be the 15 inch touch or no-touch Series 7 Chronos.

Looking up NP780Z5E-S01UB (US Best Buy model) the latest Wireless LAN Driver offered by SW Update is 15.5.6.48.



Whereas the latest Driver Only package on intel.com is still 15.6.1 (for both 6230/6235 and Win7/Win8):



So I would have expected the Intel-provided driver to work best, assuming no other funny problems going on. Indeed, others have found that Intel's 15.6.1 driver improved where earlier versions had problems.

But in the end, if an earlier version works and ain't broken, there is definitely a case to be made that you stick with it!