Asus N56VZ Wi-Fi Issues

Hello there everybody, I've been having some annoying Wi-Fi issues with my Asus N56VZ-XS71. At completely random times (Doesn't matter if it's charging, on battery, full battery, low battery etc.) my wi-fi connection will go out, forcing me to use the troubleshooter to connect. However, the troubleshooter tells me that an unresolved issue is "A network cable is unplugged or may be broken." Now, I have been having this problem since the very day I received the laptop, and have sent it to Asus three times to get it repaired, believing it to be a hardware issue, each time the repair report stating that they switched out the wireless card with a new one. However, after a completely fresh install of Windows 8 with the problem still occurring, I had doubts. Furthermore, The Intel Manual Diagnostics Wi-Fi tool fails the hardware test, stating that the "Wireless Hardware is not bound to transport driver." I've updated and reinstalled all the necessary drivers, and made sure Windows doesn't turn off the network card to save power, but to no avail. I have no idea what else to do. Any help would be immensely appreciated!

 

What Wi-Fi card is it?

You've done your troubleshooting properly so I'm wondering if they have always replaced a Wi-Fi card with an identical one or not?

 

It's the Qualcomm AR9485

 

It's crap to be honest. One of those cards that are known to cause problems.
If you can spare a $20 buy an Intel 6200 which will most likely solve all your problems.

 

That so? What a shame, spent an arm and a leg for this machine and I can't get working wi-fi -__- , very much appreciate the help though!

 

Careful. Intel's wifi drivers have been having lots of problems for the last year or so. Random disconnects, failures to connect after reboot or resuming from sleep, device disabling itself, etc. After almost a year of this Intel has still not fixed the driver. Seems to affect most of Intel's 802.11n-enabled wireless chips... even those from the prior generation (e.g. the 5300).

 

There's also a common issue with these laptops and windows 8 where windows decides to save power by powering down the card, and it won't power back up even if you change power plans. You have to go into the Control Panel -> Device Manager -> Network Adapters -> Qualcome Atheros ARxxxx -> Power Management and deselect the option to allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.