Intel 5300 issues

I have an Intel 5300 ABGN wireless card in my laptop, and the past few days I've noticed it's dropping the connection quite a bit, and speeds are really erratic (really all over the place, spiking up to normal speeds but usually really slow). At first I thought it was just a range issue (the router was on the other end of the house), but I moved the router into the same room and it still has the same issues. I never had any problems before.

I updated to the latest driver and it didn't fix anything. I plugged in the USB adapter that we use with our desktop, and my speeds are back to normal and it's stopped dropping. So that's making me think it's the wireless card.

But I thought before calling Sager and getting a replacement (I have an extended warranty) or buying a new card myself (maybe a 6300 or something) I'd see if you guys could think of anything else I could try, or if you think it might not be an issue with the card.

 

Make sure that power-saving for the Wi-Fi is disabled.
Also check that all (two or three) antenna wires are connected and the card is properly seated.

 

Thanks, downloads. I'll pop open the computer in a bit and make sure everything's seated.

Where would I find the power-saving setting to make sure that's disabled?

 

Click on the battery icon in tray, choose more options, click on change settings near the power plan you're using and then click change advanced settings.
At this point you'll be presented with a list- somewhere on it is setting for Wi-Fi- it should be max performance.

Also make sure to change that setting for power-saving profile if you've had those issues while working on battery- each power plan has separate settings.

 

I just found it right before you posted that.
It's on Max Performance and still having problems. I ran SpeedTest and I'm getting speeds around the 1-1.5Mbps mark when I'm on the internal card, and 2.7-3Mbps on the USB adapter.

I'll open up the laptop this afternoon and see if everything's seated properly, but if that's not the problem, what direction should I start looking in?

EDIT: So I popped open the laptop, reseated the wireless adapter, and checked the wires, and everything is connected properly. It didn't fix it.

 

OK- let's cover the basics then- use inSSIDer to scan the neighborhood.
Maybe you'll sport something interesting (overlapping channels or so).

Do you have any other laptop to swap card and check Intel 5300 in it?
It's not like buying a new card is expensive but let's rule out settings as a possibility first.

BTW- what router do you have and what security settings do you use?
Also what's the Internet speed you're paying for?

 

I don't have any overlapping channels or other networks in the range - I've tried switching the channel as well and have the same issues.

I have an old laptop I could try swapping the wireless card into, so I may try that later.

My router is a Linksys WRT54G and I only use WEP since I don't really live in a heavily populated neighborhood. We have 3Mbps internet, and I've consistently gotten between 2.7-3.0 on SpeedTest before the past few days (and still do when I use the USB adapter).

 

Try WPA2- it doesn't put any more load on devices- it actually improves throughput more often than not.
Also check your drivers- maybe there was some kind of an automatic update during last few days?

As of now it starts looking like that card is to blame- it may be going- that happens from time to time.

As for an old laptop- if it's very old it uses mini-PCI rather then mini-PCI Express so you might not be able to swap them, but if you can do that just for the sakes of it.

 

Yeah, I just thought about that - it doesn't have a Mini PCI Express slot so it's a no go. I also have the latest Intel driver, and I tried rolling them back to an older Intel one as well as the one Sager supplies on their website, and neither gave me any improvement.

What are my options for replacing the card? Should I just contact Sager and get a replacement, or should I look for something maybe a little better?

 

It's hard to find anything better than Intel 5300- it's a very good card and several thing like power management make it even better than I6200/6300.

Your only options are 5300, 6200 or 6300- everything else has too many drawbacks. See what Sager can offer you.