Win7 WiFi keeps dropping the connection - any ideas?

Hi folks

A second thread concerning WiFi.

I'm pretty sure that the problem lies with my laptop rather than the router ...

One machine in my house keeps dropping the WiFi connection to the router. All other devices remain unaffected - leading me to conclude that it is something to do with the laptop's WiFi card or the WiFi software/driver.

I get a list of available networks to connect to and clicking on the 2.4GHz network and the 'Connect' button gets me connected. I have to do this manually - despite the 'Connect automatically when this network is in range' box ticked,

Any ideas?

I haven't (yet) ripped out the driver for the WiFi card from Device Manager.

BTW, the WiFi card is Intel(R) WiFi Link 5100 AGN.

Any suggestions gratefully accepted.

Cheers,

Zaph

EDIT.

Just 'forgot' the network it is usually connected to. Wouldn't reconnect and troubleshooter couldn't resolve the issue. This has been posted by activating the hotspot on my iPhone and connecting to that.

I'm getting 'Windows was unable to connect to VM1873010'

Clicking on 'troubleshoot problem' gives the suggestion to turn the router off for 10 sec and then back on again.

Followed by 'Windows cannot resolve your wireless connectivity issue'.

I have tried 'netsh int ipv4 reset'

which gave:

Resetting Global OK!
Resetting Interface OK!
Resetting Route, OK!
Restart the computer to complete this action

and

tracert 194.119.131.66 from a command prompt

which gave 3ms / 4ms / 3ms to 172.20.10.1 on line 1
and timeouts on every other line apart from line 12
which gave 36ms / 30ms / 33ms to cns1.uk.vianw.net

DNS Servers are set to Google's (i.e. 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4)

Again, any ideas?

Zaph

UPDATE:

Tried the time-honoured method of 'turning it off and turning it back on again' and after laptop had rebooted, it connected to the usual WiFi network without a problem, then, after I'd re-loaded my Google pages in Chrome, it crapped out again and I had to manually connect again.

There is no error message in Device Manager for the Network Adapters but I have a yellow exclamation mark against 'Base System Device' under 'Other Devices'.

'Properties' informs me that the driver for the device (whatever it is) is not installed (Code 28).

Unsurprisingly, windows can't find a driver for the device!

(just crapped out on me again)

Is it likely to be the driver, the WiFi card or the router??

Zaph

Hi Roy,

Thanks for the reply.

I live in a 3-storey detatched house made out of engineering brick (why?) with the router on the top floor. The 5G network has trouble reaching all parts of the house and after discussion with VM, I disabled the 5G network.

I'm tending to think that the problem lies with the laptop's WiFi card (the afore-mentioned Intel WiFi Link 5100 AGN) as I have just fired the laptop up to check this thread and the WiFi crapped out on me within seconds. It wouldn't re-connect to the VM hub and nor (today) would it connect to my iPhone's WiFi hotspot (which it did yesterday without a problem).

Either the card is going flaky or there is some corruption with the card's software/driver.

Next step, I guess, is to download the driver from M$oft or Intel (I'm guessing it won't be on Sony's support pages) in case of problems and rip the driver out of Device manager.

I'll do that now and see how it goes.

Lots of stuff on the Intel site which you have to wade through.
(and the network just crapped out AGAIN).

Zaph

torchwood said:

use this intel link

Support for Intel(R) WiFi Link 5100

should be v 14 3 2 1

further info

Homeplug and Powerline wi-fi extenders – Which Computing Helpdesk

Roy

Hi again Roy,

Sadly the Intel link (highlighted in bold) only takes you to a page which says that the 5100 is 'discontinued'.
The middle column of the table is for the latest available driver and the third column lists the date that 'Self Service Support' (whatever that means) begins, which, for the 5100 adapter is given as 1st June 2016.

My current version for the driver is 12.4.1.14

Looking at the SONY Support site, the latest Wireless LAN driver is dated 22 Oct 2009.

So the intel site is a bust (no download link for the driver) and the SONY site has a link - but not for the latest driver - indeed the .zip filename suggests that the version on offer is 12.4.1.11 which isn't as up-to-date as the driver I already have.

Any other suggestions? I don't really want to use 3rd Party driver sites (ie sites other than Intel, SONY or Micro$oft).

Regarding homeplugs, I have a couple of TP-link homeplug adapters - specifically the TL-WPA4220 kit (AV600).

Thanks in anticipation.

Zaph

torchwood said:

part answer,

The driver is actually in the W7 driver data base,
so you should be able to update there,

if not use snappy driver - note it checks all your drivers - be selective in what you pick


Roy

Hi Roy,

Meaning that when I go to Control Panel > Device Manager > Network Adapters > Intel WiFi Link 5100 AGN
and then 'Properties' > Driver Tab > 'Update Driver' it should fetch & install the latest driver?

Only it doesn't. I get 'Windows has determined the driver software for this device is up to date' - yet it is version 12.4.1.4 from 2009 and so clearly isn't the latest driver.

Snappy Driver - not heard of that.

EDIT: D/loaded Snappy Driver and it identified that the Base System Device had a missing driver.

It also spotted that 16 other drivers could be updated.

I managed to figure out the interface for Snappy Driver (very clunky and hardly intuitive IMHO) and it should now be downloading and installing the v 14.3.2.1 driver for the Intel 5100 WiFi Card

Zaph

Success.

The Intel WiFi Link 5100 AGN network adapter now has driver version 14.3.2.1 installed.

Still getting sporadic drop-outs though.

This suggests (a) the card itself is going flaky (the laptop it is in is a month over 10 years old) or (b) the router is flaky.

I've piggy backed an ASUS AC68U modem router oto the VM Hub and can successfully connect to the internet.

If this connection remains stable, that suggests the router is at fault, if not then its the network adapter card.

Still like to get the Base System Device driver sorted.

Zaph