This is doing my head in. Please help.
I have an Asus laptop. It's actually a refurbished replacement. I'm going to go into a little back-story on this because it may be the key piece of the puzzle.
I bought one new in 2010 and it had been the best laptop I had ever owned, hardy and problem free...until it fell and the case around the power port cracked. The power port had been reseated and soldered back in which gave me another 1.5 years of use but then the power port burned out last month. With the degree of case damage, replacing the power port would be pointless. It could no longer be stabilized and would just break again.
Instead of paying for another repair that I knew wouldn't last, I bought a refurbished replacement laptop, the same make and model, processor, everything. It's essentially the exact same system. Then, I gave it a "brain transplant" (moved my hard drive over) so I'd have the machine that I was so incredibly pleased with (and all my data).
I fully expected a hiccup or two with drivers because of possible minor hardware differences but it went surprisingly smooth. Everything works just like it always did, except for one thing. And, after repeatedly searching the internet for ideas to fix this and trying fiddly stuff for nearly two weeks, I'm at a loss.
The problem is that the internet connection drops, where the wifi adapter frequently disables itself. Then once disabled, the computer usually fails to recognize that the wifi adapter exists.
When I run the troubleshooter, it keeps giving me different "excuses." If I'm lucky, it tells me the wireless adapter has been turned off and the troubleshooter turns it back on. If I'm not lucky, it tells me the adapter is experiencing problems or that Windows is unable to identify a problem. A reboot always restores wifi function. But it doesn't last. It's a pain in the you-know-what to keep getting shoved offline and having to reboot my machine several times a day.
It seems to drop intermittently, for no apparent reason at all or, more commonly, when it power management features kick in; if it changes to battery power or after a period of being idle.
So far, I have fiddled with numerous things to try to stop it.
I have gone through all network adapter options and advanced settings (in Device Manager) and told everything on the list related to power NOT to turn off the device.
I have unsintalled the OEM driver, then rebooted so windows would discover the hardware and reinstall the driver.
I have replaced the OEM driver with the one that's supposed to be for the wifi adapter I have.
I have disabled the miniport adapters (in Device Manager) in case that feature was creating a conflict.
I have adjusted the power settings, from high performance to balanced and back to high performance again, meanwhile making sure that the power schemes are set to maximum power for wifi, whether on battery or plugged in.
I have changed the setting for 802.11n mode to disabled...I live in the country and my internet connection isn't really "high speed" anyway so I thought it was worth a try.
Nothing I have tried has stopped the system from shutting off the wifi adapter.
No other computers/devices in the household have any connectivity issues. It's just this newly acquired replacement computer that's doing this. It can't be a modem/router issue.
I am beginning to wonder if the wifi card in the refurbished laptop does have a hardware problem or got partially unseated in the mail. But before I take this computer in to have it totally taken apart to swap out that wifi card, I want to be absolutely sure it isn't just some obscure setting mucking it up.
Asus u56e
Windows 7, sp1
Intel Core i5-2430m CPU @2.4 Ghz
8GB ram - 64 bit
From Device Manager:
Network Adapters
Atheros AR8151 PCI-E gigabit ethernet controller (NDIS 6.20) #2
Intel Centrino Wireless N1030 #2
Microsoft virtual wifi miniport adapter #5
Microsoft virtual wifi miniport adapter #6
As I stated above, those two miniport adapters are currently "disabled."
I tried to be very detailed and clear so I didn't leave anything important out. I hope I explained everything well enough.
Help? Please and thank you!!
I have an Asus laptop. It's actually a refurbished replacement. I'm going to go into a little back-story on this because it may be the key piece of the puzzle.
I bought one new in 2010 and it had been the best laptop I had ever owned, hardy and problem free...until it fell and the case around the power port cracked. The power port had been reseated and soldered back in which gave me another 1.5 years of use but then the power port burned out last month. With the degree of case damage, replacing the power port would be pointless. It could no longer be stabilized and would just break again.
Instead of paying for another repair that I knew wouldn't last, I bought a refurbished replacement laptop, the same make and model, processor, everything. It's essentially the exact same system. Then, I gave it a "brain transplant" (moved my hard drive over) so I'd have the machine that I was so incredibly pleased with (and all my data).
I fully expected a hiccup or two with drivers because of possible minor hardware differences but it went surprisingly smooth. Everything works just like it always did, except for one thing. And, after repeatedly searching the internet for ideas to fix this and trying fiddly stuff for nearly two weeks, I'm at a loss.
The problem is that the internet connection drops, where the wifi adapter frequently disables itself. Then once disabled, the computer usually fails to recognize that the wifi adapter exists.
When I run the troubleshooter, it keeps giving me different "excuses." If I'm lucky, it tells me the wireless adapter has been turned off and the troubleshooter turns it back on. If I'm not lucky, it tells me the adapter is experiencing problems or that Windows is unable to identify a problem. A reboot always restores wifi function. But it doesn't last. It's a pain in the you-know-what to keep getting shoved offline and having to reboot my machine several times a day.
It seems to drop intermittently, for no apparent reason at all or, more commonly, when it power management features kick in; if it changes to battery power or after a period of being idle.
So far, I have fiddled with numerous things to try to stop it.
I have gone through all network adapter options and advanced settings (in Device Manager) and told everything on the list related to power NOT to turn off the device.
I have unsintalled the OEM driver, then rebooted so windows would discover the hardware and reinstall the driver.
I have replaced the OEM driver with the one that's supposed to be for the wifi adapter I have.
I have disabled the miniport adapters (in Device Manager) in case that feature was creating a conflict.
I have adjusted the power settings, from high performance to balanced and back to high performance again, meanwhile making sure that the power schemes are set to maximum power for wifi, whether on battery or plugged in.
I have changed the setting for 802.11n mode to disabled...I live in the country and my internet connection isn't really "high speed" anyway so I thought it was worth a try.
Nothing I have tried has stopped the system from shutting off the wifi adapter.
No other computers/devices in the household have any connectivity issues. It's just this newly acquired replacement computer that's doing this. It can't be a modem/router issue.
I am beginning to wonder if the wifi card in the refurbished laptop does have a hardware problem or got partially unseated in the mail. But before I take this computer in to have it totally taken apart to swap out that wifi card, I want to be absolutely sure it isn't just some obscure setting mucking it up.
Asus u56e
Windows 7, sp1
Intel Core i5-2430m CPU @2.4 Ghz
8GB ram - 64 bit
From Device Manager:
Network Adapters
Atheros AR8151 PCI-E gigabit ethernet controller (NDIS 6.20) #2
Intel Centrino Wireless N1030 #2
Microsoft virtual wifi miniport adapter #5
Microsoft virtual wifi miniport adapter #6
As I stated above, those two miniport adapters are currently "disabled."
I tried to be very detailed and clear so I didn't leave anything important out. I hope I explained everything well enough.
Help? Please and thank you!!