Intel Centrino 6150 network adapter issues

Sphoenix · 14 Jan 2013

Hi all,

I have an Asus U56E which has an Intel Centrino 6150 Wireless N + Wimax network adapter on it. This card ran fine the first few months I had it. Then I installed Ubuntu 12.04 with my windows install and ran it dual boot. The card worked fine on Windows but I had to make some configuration changes on Ubuntu for it to run. I did that and it worked fine still. Then, naively, I installed a registry cleaner (wise registry cleaner to be exact), and some time after installing it and running it regularly (usually 2-3 times a week) something went wrong and I started getting this issue with my card. What happens is the wireless will be functioning for some time, perfectly normal, and then it will just lose internet connection. I will have to disable and re-enable the adapter through device manager to get it to work but that only works sometimes, most of the time the device just won't start again and I will get the device can not start error in device manager. Also, when this happens I usually restart my computer and sometimes when I do that (or even when I just turn my laptop on or come back from putting it to sleep) the adapter is not recognized at all, doesn't even show up in device manager. What's most odd about that is that the Wimax still shows up on the list of network adapters but the wireless doesn't show up.

The steps I have taken to try and remedy this issue are, re-install the drivers (by uninstalling them first) from both the asus and intel websites, do a fresh install of Windows (didn't fix the problem but made it occur a little less) and open my laptop casing and unplug and replug the network adapter.

I'm not sure what to do from here, I'm assuming its the card itself at this point that is messed up and my speculations with the registry cleaner causing the issue were just a time coincidence. However, I want to be certain that is the case instead of going out and spending time and money getting a new network adapter when the problem lies elsewhere.

Sorry for the lengthy post. Any help would be much appreciated.

ICIT2LOL · 15 Jan 2013

Hello and welcome Sphoenix am no expert but one thing I don't ever do is us reg cleaners I use CCleaner to fix reg issues only. Having said that I find it hard to believe that any software would wreck the network card or any other hardware piece for that matter.

You say you have reinstalled 7 just how did you do that/ and have you still got Ubuntu on board? If not then why not make a bootable disk and use the try Ubuntu to see if you can access the net if you can perhaps there is something wrong with your 7 install.

You could also look through the reg for that registry cleaner entries as although unlikely maybe there are remnants left over. But it would be good to know how you re installed the Windows first.