Wireless Network Dropout on 7 64

Hello folks, got a good problem for ya that noone else can seem to solve.

I have 5 machines in my house, two of them are running DWL-G520 wireless cards and the other two are running DWA-547, the 5th doesn't have a wireless card at all.

These systems all used to connected to a G network in my house supported by an access point and a router (house is big with lots of noise in between).

Now, i recently rebuilt several of my boxes, the ones with the G520 cards to run windows 7 64 instead of windows xp 64 which they'd been running for years quite well. At the same time, I bought 3 more DWA-547 wireless cards because i'm going N on the whole network.

Here's my problem now, the two machines that received DWA-547s over their DWL-G520s and the machine that didnt have a wireless card before, received these DWA cards. Installed, drivers worked, a few windows updates provided even more advanced drivers. But, here's the problem. Even with the closest access point (the G one) which received 100% signal strength and 54mbps from the older cards, at most is only detected at about 60% strength by the new DWA cards, and this access point is only 2 metres away!

Now, i thought, "hrm, odd" but powered ahead anyway, these DWAs can't see an N network on the other side of the house when the two laptops sitting next to them with intel 4865AGN cards can not only pick up the network but get 60% signal strength from that. Werid again, but i've seen that issue before, it's why we got this extra wap, the towers arent in as good as position as hte laptops for the wireless N connection.

Here's my amazing new problem, about 5 minutes into use on the network with the DWA cards, they lose connection to the wireless network. That was weird, so i try to reconnect, "This device cannot see any wireless networks in range", troubleshooting is microsoft's typically less then helpful "Is your router on?" garbage.

I reboot machine, cards work again for a while then loose network again and require a reboot. Spoke to dlink, they gave me the "beta" of the W7 drivers for the dlink cards in question, signal strength goes up to 100%, they see all the networks in range but still drop out after 5 minutes of use, less time if they're transferring data across the network.

The weirdest thing is, i didnt think twice about this issue before, one of the towers that's running W7 64 already installed the DWA card no hassels whatsoever, the other tower with the card already is running Vista 64, no problems on that front too. This problem is only for the 3 machines, the one that didnt have a card before and the two that had DWL cards in them.

I install the old DWL cards into another PCI slot for some testing, at the same time as the DWA is unable to find any wireless networks, the DWLs pick up all the networks in range, 100% strength, full speed and no dropoffs, it's only these new cards.

I'm really stumped as to what the problem is, it's certainly not my network setup, i used the "working" DWA tower on both networks, it saw no dropouts or transfer lag, worked perfectly fine, same with all the laptops, yet these two towers identical to the third in every way, are having these massive faults regarding their wireless connection.

Dlink is out of ideas, their best response after 2 days of trying and failing to help is "uh...we dont support windows 7" *Run and hide behind desk* "Is he gone yet? Can i spend his money now?"

i tried every iteration of atheos and dlink drivers i could for these devices, they still dont work, i am considering returning them and getting them exchanged or refunded, but if this happens with any other cards too, i need to know what the problem is and how to resolve it.

Network statistics:
Two devices, both on seperate channels with seperate SSIDs, neither have a firewall running, both devices are a different brand of tech to each other (Linksys and Belkin), DHCP on the main router that these both hang off, they literally just run in WAP. WPA-PSK (AES) key for all devices, both running channel bonding 20/40mhz.

As for the PCs, they're "fresh" windows 7 boxes with the built in windows 7 utility, the dlink utility wasn't installed after i tried it the first time and it accomplished nothing in terms of stability, the network died out all the same.

When i thought it was a driver conflict at first, i reinstalled windows 7 fresh again with only hte new wireless card installed, same problem.

I'm using a Windows 7 Ultimate retail edition for each of the boxes, it seemed to cheaper then trying to fork out for a volume license key for my home network, even though i have 12 PCs.

Help me 7forums, you're my only hope. *bzzt*
Help me 7forums, you're my only hope. *bzzt*

20 views and noone has a clue??

Come one guys, this was supposedly a problem in Vista too, doesnt anyone know the solution?

It's difficult to propose an answer when it looks like you've done everything that doesn't involve the kitchen sink. The only thing I would suggest, is perhaps quieting your network and troubleshoot with only your hardware and a single problematic machine. Just to determine if perhaps it's the nature of the traffic coming from a single device that may be generating an issue. Back in the token ring days we used to call it beaconing and I believe now they call it a broadcast storm which all means there is more noise or collisions taking place then the network can handle and perhaps the retry algorithm is not working properly. Probably not what's happening but a place perhaps to start.

patwhatsthat said:

It's difficult to propose an answer when it looks like you've done everything that doesn't involve the kitchen sink. The only thing I would suggest, is perhaps quieting your network and troubleshoot with only your hardware and a single problematic machine. Just to determine if perhaps it's the nature of the traffic coming from a single device that may be generating an issue. Back in the token ring days we used to call it beaconing and I believe now they call it a broadcast storm which all means there is more noise or collisions taking place then the network can handle and perhaps the retry algorithm is not working properly. Probably not what's happening but a place perhaps to start.

i'll try it, but as i said previously, this setup worked fine on the network in the past, why would changing hte model of network card now cause an issue? The speed hasnt even changed, they're still all G network speeds even though they're N capable cards :S

But I am thinking it HAS to be a windows 7 configuration issue or something, i dont know what exactly, but it has to be...

Tho, there is one thing i noticed.

When i swapped my wireless cards out the first time, I put the new card in the same PCI slot as the old one, the system froze mid-boot for windows until that device was disabled in safe mode (safe mode booted, detected te model card as correct anyway). But it did

The first time i rebuilt windows 7 on one of the boxes for troubleshooting, by the time it got to the "installing drivers and services" it froze again and windows bounced out of the installation, each time, when the wireless card was in the "working" PCI slot (as in the one the older card was in).

It may possibly be something wrong with the cards physically, but all 3 at once?