Wifi Disabling itself

[postal]

I've been having a strange problem for the past month or so, my PCI wifi adapter (TP-Link TL-WN951N) will very randomly disconnect and display that it is not connected and that there are no wifi networks around. As soon as I disable or re-enable it immediately finds my network and connects until this happens again. (handled by windows)

I've tried every power option in power settings, and also in device manager but with no luck. I've tried every driver file from TP-Link and they all do the same. (current driver 100505)

I tried returning the card but they tested it and all seemed fine on their system.
I know it isn't the router as my housemates laptop is always connected and never drops. I've even set static addresses for them in the router.

I've tried isolating interference from other electrical devices (even bought a power conditioner for the pc) changed the channel to 1,11,13,3,6,5 etc. Used InSSIDer to check the connection (sits at about -50db) changed the SSID. Uninstalled then reinstalled my PCI wifi card. Even ran Driver Genius and updated the Atheroes drivers.

What is there left to try? Short of a fresh windows install, Please if you have any suggestions, I'd appreciate it as I'm out of ideas.

 

[Corazon]

Does it have a detachable antenna? Maybe take it off and clean the contacts - then carefully screw it back in and see if the problem still persists.

 

[Darryl Licht]

Find or buy a different card to use for testing would be my suggestion.

Also, cordless phones, and many other wireless devices typically work within the same 2.4GHz spectrum and can cause interference.

You may also try changing the channel on your router to see if the problem persists on different channels.

Please let us know how it goes!

 

[Corazon]

One thing I'll say is that a complete reinstall of Windows probably won't solve this. I agree that simply replacing the wireless card would make more sense; they're pretty cheap after all.

 

[postal]

Thank you for your reply's.

Corazon
The router is a netgear DG-834GU v5, it only has 1 antenna and is not detachable.
The wifi card has 3 antennas and I checked and cleaned the contacts but no luck.
I used inSSIDer to find the best reception which was all the antennas facing one way.

Darryl Licht
I do have a cordless phone next to the router but I had a central filter put in the house. Also I changed the channel on the router but the PCI card has driver only.

I'm pretty sure my house has a 'dirty power' problem and regardless of this problem I've ordered a UPS to see if that can fix a few of the issues I'm having. Hopefully the card isn't faulty as I've already tried to return it and when they tested it all worked well.

 

[Darryl Licht]

Postal:

You change the channel only on routers, the PCI card will do this automatically when you do it on router. You may want to disconnect and then reconnect after this change. There are 8-16 channels on most routers, try several!

You may want to move that cordless phone as far away from the router as possible, or just unplug power for a while to test my theory!

Also make sure the router antenna is vertical! That filter you mention is probably for DSL Internet, and has nothing to do with the radio frequency of the cordless phone!

 

[rmrcoxa]

I'm facing the exactly same problem with the same network card. I think there is a problem in the drivers. This network card is pretty old.

I Didn't find a solution so far...

 

[postal]

rmrcoxa:
I ended up giving the wifi card to my cousin. It wasn't practical for me to be dropping connections.
Back on good old ethernet connection, never had a problem since.
I know that isn't a proper solution but I wasted too much time on that stupid thing.