Solved WiFi card sometimes no more recognized "No adapter found"

[Maxiride]

I own an Asus N53SV which is shipped with an Atheros AR9002WB-1NG Wireless Network adapter, its current driver version is 9.2.0.458 (no updates are available through the built-in Windows 7 Driver Update).

Sometimes when moving the laptop around the office the WiFi adapter stops working and the icon in the system tray shows that not connection are available:

I suspect a non fatal hardware issue, maybe the very very low bending that happens when moving the laptop cause the issue.

Running the troubleshooter doesn't recover the WiFi, nor does flipping the physical switch on the side of the laptop. The WiFi adapter acts like it is turned off.

The only way I've found so far to recover the use of WiFi is to reboot the computer.

It is interesting to note that knowing about this issue, if I standby the laptop when carrying it around and then turn it back on the WiFi keeps working fine. So the adapter goes in trouble only when the PC is ON. I asked my local shop for an estimate of the repair but he said that only opening the laptop and searching for the issue would cost me 50€. Since the WiFi adapter 100% recovers from a reboot I'm fine with this solution for now.

I would like to investigate the issue more and maybe find a way to "reboot the adapter without rebooting the PC", there must be something during boot that re-establish connection with the adapter and I bet there is a way to mimic it via command line without rebooting the whole pc.

 

[Acova]

The only way I've found so far to recover the use of WiFi is to reboot the computer.

Device manager allows you to disable component within the system's workflow.
It means you can disable WiFi card via Device Manager and re-enable it there once more.
This works pretty much as if you made a reboot for the card there.

Also, the loss of WiFi can be caused by many other connections available locally, so these zones clash with each other and create noise.

You may like to try some software which can help you describe more data of your WiFi, things like, what channel it takes and strength of signal. At present I don't remember which one I used before myself but thanks to it I was able to determine the situation about surrounding WiFi spots.

When I had problems with WiFi disconnecting frequently, I did update my driver which basically worked for me.

....I would like to investigate the issue more and maybe find a way to "reboot the adapter without rebooting the PC", there must be something during boot that re-establish connection with the adapter and I bet there is a way to mimic it via command line without rebooting the whole pc.

So... yes, try disabling and enabling your WiFi adapter via Device Manager.
I believe it should be of a satisfactory to you for the moment.

(It should be located in "Network adapters")
If unsure, you can screenshot that window with Network adapters section collapsed, then upload it to here, I or someone else will take a look and help you out more.

Also, in Device Manager you shouldn't be disabling other crucial components such as CPU and etc. for any test. I haven't done that myself but I think I imagine what happens if that's done. x)

Regarding drivers:

1) https://www.qualcomm.com/drivers -> N53SV Driver & Tools| Laptops | ASUS Global


After trying to find Wireless driver, I did come across the same version as you mentioned: 9.2.0.458
So you are up-to-date there. Can you tell, if you've got lots of WiFi spots in range with your laptop there?

You can try going outdoors to some other place and test your WiFi connectivity in places with less WiFi spots (means that you would have to find one free for an access, like, McDonald's one at least ;D )

Something tells me it's about noise in your area, that makes you lose your WiFi connectivity.

By the way, do you happen to know your BIOS's version?
I may be wrong but BIOS might improve the inter-workflow among your components, thus possibly improving performance of WiFi card too (unsure about this statement). However, about BIOS update, you should always be careful because wrongly updated BIOS can put your machine out of service, or so they say. If unsure, better leave it alone and don't touch.

 

[DMHolt57]

Perhaps the adapter is going to sleep, check the power management tab in the adapter properties, uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.

 

[Acova]

Perhaps the adapter is going to sleep, check the power management tab in the adapter properties, uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.

Sounds very familiar. I think I remember going through this part too back when I had WiFi connectivity issues. But if I don't mistake, the default setting to be found there is set to work as we would prefer it to - so it should be fine there, unless customized otherwise earlier.

Anyways, it's worth doing a check for this one.
I just wanted to express that I fully support this suggestion/checkup step.

 

[Maxiride]

After several days of testing, I can confirm that disabling and re-enabling the wifi adapter in the devices manager temporarily solve the issue in the sense that the WiFi still go nuts when moving the laptop around but that's something hardware.