Atheros AR9285, confusing me....

Hello! I just wanted to ask, does any of you have any information about the Atheros AR9285? I use one at the moment, but there is one thing which is confusing me, next to the laptop with the AR9285, I have my ThinkPad with Intel 4965AG, my ThinkPad has 5 bars of signals, while the laptop with AR9285 only has 3. I have done some SpeedTest.net test, and my ThinkPad seems to have about 0,5MB better results.
I have also read that (on a Norwegian forum) that the AR9285 loses connection randomly, and you must manually connect to a network again.

- Has anyone used this card before?

I've can easly swap it out with the Intel 4965AG or even a Intel 5100..

Can I get any suggestions?

 

I've personally never had any issues whatsoever with Atheros cards. My Vaio CW has an Atheros AR9285 and I can't say I've ever seen anything like that.

What kind of network are you on?

 

54G-Auto

I've also have TurboMode enabled to 125 High-Speed mode

I'm on a Belkin router...

 

TurboMode 125 is Broadcom proprietary technology so it will work only paired with a Wi-Fi card based on Broadcom chipset. You'd be better off disabling it as it surely doesn't work but may cause compatibility problems.
As for AR9285 I've seen so many complaints about this card that I won't even act surprized- this card was designed for a sole reason of increasing my post-count in this forum
Disable TurboMode, update drivers, disable power-saving for Wi-Fi in Windows, check if antennas are properly connected- if nothing of the above helps go to plan B- buy a new card.

 

Actually, I laught at your post downloads And as I said, I've also read diffrent things and views about this... The thing is, I my 5100 is not in use, and I know it works. So I do not need to buy anything.. And I can just change this Atheros with Intel in my ThinkPad, both laptops are mine, but it is not that important if my ThinkPad loses connection, I've only do schoolwork and stuff like that, but if the laptop which the Atheros card is in now does, I'll have a huge problem..

EDIT:
Well, I've just found this therad and I read every post carefully;
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/519723-atheros-wifi-sucks.html
It simply looks like I'm not the only one,
now the new question is
Which is better, Intel 4965AG or a Intel Intel 5100 AGN?
I have both, and I know both works fine, so it will be a-free-upgrade for me..

And here comes a really noob question for me 2k posts; is there any way of testing if my card spikes or not? Like a site as Speedtest.net or something?

 

Really? I've not been around here for a while, but I've never had any issues with this card, and that's with Vaio's, Acer's, and several other models. Maybe it's just picky about networks and router chipsets?

 

I've also just read in Samsung section that a combination of latest nVidia grapichs and this card goes in conflict.. Don't know how true it is tou..

 

I have no idea really but it's one of the cards that cause a lot of problems regardless of drivers, system etc. It tends to kinda-work for 802.11b/g in most cases (not tuηay's though) but if set to 802.11n it doesn't connect at all or achieves 56K modem-like speeds.

@ tuηay

Intel 5100 is another card that causes a lot of problems although it's less picky than the Atheros. Intel 4965AG N is quite good but it used to have problems with hidden SSIDs on certain routers/AP- it would connect only once and then you'd have to delete the connection and type in all the settings once again. I'm not sure if 4965AG is the same thing though (too lazy to look for certification papers of 4965AG)
I'd recommend testing both from several locations around the house with inSSIDer enabled- you can see the signal quality and consistency.

 

I have heard that sometimes these cards are assembled with the antenaes reversed, and switching them will help.

Mine sucks. I have a acer laptop with a different atheros card and it has about the same difference in wifi strength as your intel does.


my atheros gets regular internet drops causing the need to repair connection.

The acer with the different card does not. The reason I cant switch the cards is that the good card is a half mini and the 9285 is a full card.
Actually the truth is it doesnt get 5 bars and the router is 12 feet away.

 

Okey, Thanks for the tips guys. I'll install the 5100, as I know it does not have any problems. Maybe I'll buy a 5300 later, if the 5100 casues for some reason problems with this system...

UPDATE:
The Atheros looks very diffrent from the Intel, however, I'll try it. I'm creating recovery dics atm. so have to wait before I can shut down my system.

UPDATE:
I've just booted up with the 5100 AGN, I'll install the driver now.

UPDATE:
My OS cannot detect the card. It shows in device manager but with a '!'. However, I'm doing a clean install now, I'll look how it turns out... While this happends, any ideas?

 

See my reply in your other thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/net...-atheros-intel-does-not-work.html#post7005223

or simply download this latest modded driver: http://files.laptopvideo2go.com/wlan/atheros_v9.2.0.105_v1.31.exe