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Network adapter disables itself

6K views 12 replies 5 participants last post by  steve 123 
#1 ·
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!!
 
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#3 ·
First, thank you, thank you, thank you, Steve. :)

I tried to respond sooner but got booted offline, again, and it took two reboots to get me back online this time.

I did download and install the chipset files. Task 1 down.

I already have Live Update so that's the easiest job on your to-do list. Whoo. LOL! It came with the OEM. (That's something I forgot to mention when I listed out everything I could remember trying. I did Live Update before I started messing with the drivers myself but it said everything was up to date.) I am happy to redo anything if that's what it takes to stop this nonsense, of course.

Task 2 down.

I am stuck at "Task 3"...Trashing those old files to get a clean install is an excellent idea!! But, I hunted around a bit in Windows Explorer and I have no clue where to begin to look for the driver files to bin them after uninstalling the driver.

There should be two sets of driver files to find; one that was Win7 OEM and the second that I downloaded and installed from the Intel website, for the Centrino n 1030.

I tried viewing the files in the installer package from Intel, so that I could do a search for the file names but when I view the contents of that installer, all I see are file extensions. That was no help.

And I wouldn't have any clue on how to get a hint on the file names for the OEM driver.

How do I find them? Do you have any ideas?
 
#4 ·
I have an Acer with the same wireless card and mine just disappears completely from time to time. I found out after hours of trying everything that resetting the battery works to get it back. Not sure on your model but mine has a battery reset button on the bottom. You may have to power down, remove the power cord, then the battery and press the power button for ten seconds or so. Replace the battery and ac cord and boot it up. Hope it works for yours as it does for mine.
 
#6 ·
This is not just an Asus problem. I have a Dell and an HP Dv6 which exhibit the same exact problems and have been for years now. I don't think the battery reset has anything to do with fixing the problem. It's the reboot that restarts the adapters. On the HP all network adapters will disappear from hardware manager and just shows an empty folder until a reboot. I tried to find a solution for many months a coupla years ago to no avail so I will follow this thread.
 
#8 ·
To remove all drivers, control panel, device manager, network adapters, find yours right click then unistall, then unistall all wan miniport. reboot the laptop. after doing so wait for windows to find the drivers.

start, run, command prompt, when the window opens type in the following one by one then hit enter after typing in.

ipconfig /releasel
ipconfig /all
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /renew

netsh int ip set dns
netsh winsock reset

or copy and paste each one into the command prompt then hit enter. this will reset all settings. after close the command prompt restart the laptop, also power off your modem wait 5 mins then reboot the modem.

https://www.malwarebytes.com/

download and install malwarebytes run a scan.

System Mechanic Pro Download

install system mechanic, you get 30 day free trial after installing run and click the black arrow pointing down then select the perform deep analysis.

after a few minutes it will find any problems the click repair all when it has finished.
 
#13 · (Edited by Moderator)
ipconfig /releasel
ipconfig /all
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /renew

netsh int ip set dns
netsh winsock reset


Researching a similar problem and found this topic.
Had an intermittent problem with ethernet not connecting on boot, rebooting usually cured this until it stopped working completely.
Troubleshooter identified this as 'ethernet dosen't have a valid IP configuration' issue.
Running these commands fixed the issue, thanks Steve!
 
#9 ·
Gawwhhhhd...it got worse. LOL!

The first time I got dropped offline today and had to reboot, I did pull the battery to try that reset idea. Apparently, that didn't do the trick because not 20 minutes later, I got dropped offline again. (It was worth a try, Amd! Too bad a simple harmless "fix" wasn't it. But, thanks again!!)

After that second time, I went through Device Manager again and noticed the fine print under the "uninstall" tab that said to tick the box if you want to remove the software during the uninstall. Then, I felt like an idiot for not noticing that before I asked about how to do that part. Ha.

However, it got stuck on that process. For an hour I waited for the uninstall and remove to complete. I finally gave up and forced it to shut down.

Once I rebooted, the system told me it tried to install the drivers for found hardware but it did not installed properly. Meanwhile, in Device Manager, I had it scan for hardware 3 times and it couldn't find any wireless hardware at all.

I uninstalled the driver and tried again. Same thing. "It didn't install properly" and didn't recognize the hardware.

I dug out a wire and was able to get online...on the off-chance reinstalling the driver for the Intel Centrino n 1030 would help it recognize the hardware, I grabbed a fresh download from the Intel website and installed it again. Nada. Still it says I have no wireless adapter at all. (I had also tried to let Live Update find it, but as usual, it told my everything was up to date.)

At this point, I think my only option left is to take my old laptop (with a good NIC in it) and my "new" replacement over to a local hardware guy to swap it out.

Of course, this model requires a full dismantle to get to the NIC, buried under the keyboard and probably another layer of stuff. Hopefully, I will have good news in a day or three.



And Bill, you are sooo right. I made countless searches online looking for a fix, one I hadn't tried yet, and noticed that everyone had a different computer. It seems to be a windows issue with laptops all across the board. It's a Windows bug, I guess.
 
#10 ·
I have not been able to use Intels drivers Because both computers are using manufacturers specific drivers. Had to reinstall from their websites the old and outdated drivers since they haven't produced any updated drivers. It seems as time goes by that the frequency of the dropouts decreases. It only happens about every three to four months now.
Bill
 
#11 ·
I booted this morning and my wireless is gone again so hardwired for now. I tried everything I know to fix it to no avail. Sometimes it won't disappear for months and other times days. My wireless isn't even listed in device manager when it happens so when I get some free time I will look further into it and if I find a solution that permanently works I will report back.
 
#12 ·
Here's the update. :)

On Thursday, I got my computer back from the tech who swapped out the wifi card for me. (The nice thing about replacing a dead laptop with the same unit is having an almost complete set of spare parts on hand, including a wifi card that I KNOW works. Ha.)

When the machine was rebooted, Windows found the hardware and installed a driver but that driver wasn't right. That was replaced with one from ASUS. (I didn't even bother with Intel this time.) Then, everything was good to go. So far, my internet connection has not dropped once...not once in four days. Wow.

The tech suggested that the hardware might have been fine but it didn't speak correctly with the router. BUT both computers had the same hardware, the Intel Centrino n 1030. One card works with my router. The other doesn't stay connected. Weird. So, I'm thinking the wifi adapter hardware in the refurbished unit was indeed failing.


Thank you all that offered help. I appreciate your efforts immensely!
 
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