Random Wireless Drop-Outs

Ok so the past few days Ive been losing internet randomly. Now this is not due to the router or interference of any kind because other computers are not affected.

About two months ago I reformatted my computer, not using the Dell reformat partition since I erased that somehow, and installed the various drivers from Dells site.

I'm using a Dell Inspiron 9100 with a Dell Wireless 1350 WLAN mini pc card. Ive tried two different drivers and up to this point, i think neither solves this problem.

Now I'm mentioning drivers here because frankly, I dont know what else could be causing these drop outs other than the performance of the wireless card itself. Whether this is the cause of the hardware simply failing after all these years, or perhaps something malicious on my computer, i dont know.

Is there anything that you guys can suggest that would fix this issue?

 

I suggest you check the device manager, go into the properties of the wireless card, and go to Advanced. One of the settings in there will have something to do with power settings (I always set mine to max performance/power) or something along those lines. I bet its set to default (midrange) and low power can cause dropouts.

 

heck, might try these suggestions too: http://blogs.zdnet.com/soho-networking/?p=223

 

yeh there is not option for max power. i can simply disable the setting that turns off wireless to save power.

and bubba thanks, but i'm still using XP; many of those suggestions could be used with XP, but i've sort of tried them already.

 

so you have no options for transmit power, etc... ? I swear those 1305's had that as an option in the device manager.

 

Is the computer in the same room than the router?

 

no, different room. but my roommates have laptops scattered throughout the house and whenever my connection drops, theirs along with the main desktop still have a connection.

perhaps it was a bad driver install. usually my wireless would drop every 30 minutes, but after reinstalling the driver a few hours ago everything has been fine.

any suggestions are still welcome.

also chevy, as mentioned, there really are not options for power.

looks like this:

 

Show me the advanced tab please.

 

hmmm well yeh under advanced there is an option for minimum power consumption; it was enabled and ive disabled it.



there is also an option called power save mode; it is set at Fast right now. the other choices are enabled or disabled. dont know what to do with this one.

 

Ok, check in there in one of those options, the transmit power, and see what is the value.

 

there is no transmit power option.

there are only two choices with given values. one is the RTS Threshold which is at 2347 and the other is the channel # which is set at 11.

for some reason the IBSS mode is set at 802.11b. why is that when both the router and my wireless card are capable of G? are am i not understanding that correctly?

 

If your card is G then your IBSS should be set to G, do you have that option?

 

yup i do have the option for G. hell, maybe thats why ive been having drop outs, cause ive been stuck with that ****ty 801.11b standard.

 

So, enter the option G and see how it behaves and let me know.

 

Switching from "b" to "g" should do you a world of good. I've got two systems on my wireless network at home, a 2y.o. _HP with a b/g card, and a 5y.o. _Sony with a "b" only card. The _HP has almost never dropped signal (which is good since it's my wife's computer, and she has no patience whatsoever for misbehaving technology or husbands who like to tinker too much ). The _Sony, however, constantly drops signal, even after I upgraded the router from an old Belkin to a new Netgear - for example, this morning, it dropped signal about 10 times in the space of two hours.

 

well it went out today again for 10 minutes.

ive got no idea what is wrong at this point.

 

Do you have the same outage when you are connected using Ethernet?

 

um i wouldnt know because i dont connect via ethernet with this laptop.

the main desktop that is connected thru ethernet never loses its connection though and neither do other laptops that are connected wirelessly.

 

Try to connect the laptop using Ethernet and see if it keeps the connection. This way we can narrow the issue.

 

ah that would take a few days. right now i've been using wireless for a while and all has been good.

like mentioned, this is very sporadic. i would test thru ethernet but the main computer/router/modem is not in my room so i'm really not able to.

thanks for the help.

 

Ok, I understand. I just wondering about the location of your laptop in reference to the location of the router in the room, could it be that there is a blockage? In that case it would be just a way of moving the router in a better location.

The other laptops might have a better reception than yours.

 

yeh that may be the problem, but the router is in roughly the same place it has been for the past 3 years, and in that time i have never experienced a problem.

i actually moved the router out of the desk area near the modem and computer because i heard other electronics may cause interference. i also disconnected the house phone because that was in proximity of the router and it too may have caused interference.

despite all these changes the wireless still went out earlier today.

anyway, i'll stop with my complaints for a week and see how things run. if this problem persists i'll come back here and complain.

 

Don't worry, we like complains as they represent challenges for us and we love challenges

What you could do is for one day use your laptop in one place and see if things are better then is location related.

 

well i just reformatted my computer today and problem continues.

wirelessman, could you help me find the right driver for my laptop. ive been downloading the drivers provided on dells site for my inspiron 9100 but perhaps i'm using the wrong ones.

i've been connecting thru ethernet for bits of time and everything is good thru ethernet.

i think i have an internal dell 1350 wan mini pc card but perhaps i'm downloading drivers for this card and its not at all what i have.

i still havent updated the bios and perhaps the new drivers only work with the updated bios. i'll go and do that now...

 

Try this;

http://www.soft32.com/download_172864.html

 

thanks, that bios update didnt really help.

so that soft32 site mirros to this
http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/downloaddrivers.php

do i download the 4401 chipset drivers?

 

If that's your chipset, yes, download them.