Losing my Wireless card

Hi,
I have had the following problem for a week now. After using my laptop for around a day, Vista loses the Wireless network it is connected to. After that it won't find any other wireless networks available. LAN works normally. Only rebooting enables the wireless function. Vista doesn't think I need to update my driver.

I tried to browse for it, found some others with same problems but no solutions. I can't even decide wheter it's a harware or software problem, so please help me.

The following set-up:
Dell M1330
Intel 3945 abg
Vista Home Premium

 

0- Monitor your battery life.
1- Download the latest wireless driver from Intel website.
2- Download the latest wireless driver from Dell website.
3- Uninstall any Dell Connection manager.
4- Uninstall your current wireless driver
5- Download/Install CCleaner (free), and perform a registry clean up.
6- Restart your computer, if Windows uses generic drivers for your wireless card or built-in drivers, that is fine. See if that helps, and see if your battery life is affected. If not, great! If so, then continue. Please note that you need to allow some time for the system to go true idle to have better accuracy on max battery life (also have the screen brightness to minimum, and be at "power saver" power profile)

7- Install Intel drivers (just the drivers), restart your computer, and see if it works better. If it is, your done, if not, continue:

8- Do step 4, 5, 6 and now try Dell release of the Intel drivers, and see if that helps. If it is, your done, if not, continue:

9- Turn off the system, unplug it, remove the battery, ground yourself (wash your hands (water conduct electricity and touches the ground.. unless the whole pipe of the city you are in is in plastic)). Get a soft cloth lay it out on a table nicely, flip the laptop close, over it (screem lid closed, on the cloth) Get a small Philips (+) screw driver, and open the wireless compartment panel, see here:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xpsM1330/en/sm/minicard.htm#wp1180236

And make sure that the antennas are well connected to the board. CAREFUL, it's fragile.. so don't hammer anything

10 - Close everything up, plug the system, put the battery in, turn on the system, and see if it helps. If not....

11-Wireless card is broken, have it changed. If you are out of warranty, what you can do is re-install Windows Vista just to be sure it's not a Windows problem before cashing out for a new wireless card.

 

Thanks for the reply! The problem is that the issue occurs only randomly, which makes monitoring and testing a bit tougher, as the connection always function after re-booting. I have downloaded the newest Intel drivers, but Vista thinks the driver is up-to-date. But I'll try to it in that order.

 

Goodbytes has some good advice, and intermittent problems are a pain. All you can do is keep trying until something works.

I will add two other things to check.
Try disabling as much as you can. Also, write down what you were doing and what was running when it shut down. You may have a program conflicting and keeping a log may help you find some commonalities. Keep track of how hard you were using it too. It may be overheating or be a heat related failure. What were you running, were you downloading a lot or pushing the laptop hard... Things of that nature. You might fond something you missed.

Also, pull the card out and re-seat it. It may have a pin not contacting well.

Unfortunately, I would give you about a 30% chance that the card is bad. It happens.

 

The OS is turning off the WLAN

Here is what you do. Go to the device in Device Manager, right-click and go to Properties and uncheck the OS managing turning on and off the device. Then your hardware switch should work, along with the Fn button as well.

 

Thanks, I switched that one. Hopefully this changes ends my misery.

 

Here's a screenshot of where the option is on my WLAN card.