# Laptop loses wifi particularly with heavy traffic



## aardvarkh2o (Mar 3, 2015)

I got a new laptop around the end of August, and everything's been great except for the wireless connection. It _appears_ to work fine everywhere except with my home router. As well, no other devices on my home network are having any trouble whatsoever.

What the problem amounts to is that I'll lose connection intermittently, sometimes once a half an hour for a minute, sometimes not for several hours, and then sometimes I'll lose it for 2 minutes for every minute I have it. Usually it's only when I am downloading lots of content that the latter case comes up, which makes it very difficult to download/play games or even stream videos.

I've tried a number of solutions to little avail. Often it'll look like it's fixed for about up to 6 hours before it reverts back to its normal tendencies. 

Things I've tried before:
- Updating the driver for the network adapter (Using the most recent one for my computer on the Acer website)
- Updating the firmware for the router
- Flushing the dns, and releasing/renewing the ip address (This appeared to work for a half a day after I first tried it)
- Setting a different static IP address (Didn't think this would do anything, but once again it made it seem like it worked for a little while)
- Unchecking the "Turn off to save power" option in power management for the driver

None of this is crippling, considering i've been dealing with it for about half a year, but it's quite a pain. I'd rather not replace the network card unless I needed to because the laptop's still under warranty, and it's voided if I do it myself. If I get them to do it themselves it'll be gone for a week and as a university student I can't afford to do that right now

Laptop: Acer Aspire V3-772G-9820 running Windows 8.1.
Wireless network adapter: Qualcomm Atheros AR5BWB222
Router: D-link DIR-826L
Modem: Motorolla Surfboard SB5102 Cable Modem
ISP: Shaw

*Ipconfig*
Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Jeremy-Laptop
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : 
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : cg.shawcable.net

Ethernet adapter Bluetooth Network Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : 
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network)
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 90-48-9A-08-34-00
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 4:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : 
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Hosted Network Virtual Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 52-48-9A-08-33-FF
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 3:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : 
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 12-48-9A-08-33-FF
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : cg.shawcable.net
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Qualcomm Atheros AR5BWB222 Wireless Network Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 90-48-9A-08-33-FF
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::9034:728f:aeb3:3079%8(Preferred) 
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.103(Preferred) 
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : March 1, 2015 11:59:42 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : March 3, 2015 5:28:27 PM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 294668442
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1B-08-3A-AE-20-25-64-D4-E1-34
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter Ethernet 2:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : 
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Technology Access TAP Driver (NDIS 6.30)
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-50-F2-8C-8E-8C
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : 
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetLink (TM) Gigabit Ethernet
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 20-25-64-D4-E1-34
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter isatap.cg.shawcable.net:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : cg.shawcable.net
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : 
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::2452:289:b9b7:7f8e%4(Preferred) 
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 436207616
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1B-08-3A-AE-20-25-64-D4-E1-34
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

--------------------------

Any help you can offer would be great, let me know if you need any more information


----------



## 2xg (Aug 5, 2009)

Welcome to TSF,

Your ipconfig /all output looks good and Xirrus snip doesn't. There seems to be a wireless coverage issue. How far is your laptop from the router? If you move your laptop closer to the router are you getting a good connection?


----------



## aardvarkh2o (Mar 3, 2015)

2xg said:


> Welcome to TSF,
> 
> Your ipconfig /all output looks good and Xirrus snip doesn't. There seems to be a wireless coverage issue. How far is your laptop from the router? If you move your laptop closer to the router are you getting a good connection?


I took the Xirrus snip when the connection dropped, when I have an internet connection it looks like the file I'm attaching here.

I've tried being right next to the router and it'll still drop just as frequently.


----------



## 2xg (Aug 5, 2009)

Are there any small appliance or elecronic devices nearby? Also, try disabling the bluetooth device from your computer.

You might want to compare the current driver of your Wi-Fi adapter with this one from Atheros site.


----------



## aardvarkh2o (Mar 3, 2015)

2xg said:


> Are there any small appliance or elecronic devices nearby? Also, try disabling the bluetooth device from your computer.
> 
> You might want to compare the current driver of your Wi-Fi adapter with this one from Atheros site.


I've tried disabling bluetooth before to no avail, but I haven't tried disabling bluetooth with the most recent firmware and network driver updates. Trying that out now. It just disconnected again, so I don't think that's it.

Unless you count a smartphone in my pocket, there generally aren't electronic devices nearby. I get this problem in every room of my house. I am using a wireless logitech mouse, could that be an issue?

I've used drivers from that site before, but stopped doing so when I found that I could get them from the Acer site. They have a more recent driver than the Acer website has, so I'll give that one a shot.

Just since I'm new to this site, is it good a practice or not to quote people when responding to them on help threads? Don't want to be flooding any inboxs unnecessarily if it isn't.


----------



## aardvarkh2o (Mar 3, 2015)

Odd thing that I'm noticing with the new driver. Using the Xirrus wifi inspector I'm getting a second copy of the network I'm on in the network list. This network isn't automatically selected, but it seems to be a lot stronger than the one that is. I'm attaching a screenshot of it


----------



## 2xg (Aug 5, 2009)

Your router is a dual-band that's why you are seeing 2 SSIDs which is normal. Your Wi-Fi adapter is more compatible to that band selection which was auto detected by your adapter. Connect to that stronger connection and monitor the connectivity.


----------



## aardvarkh2o (Mar 3, 2015)

2xg said:


> Your router is a dual-band that's why you are seeing 2 SSIDs which is normal. Your Wi-Fi adapter is more compatible to that band selection which was auto detected by your adapter. Connect to that stronger connection and monitor the connectivity.


It appears to have improved quality. The internet losses are less frequent, and it seems to be switching which of the bands it's on whenever one drops. It's definitely a substantial improvement, but I'm still getting internet drops once every hour or so for up to several minutes. During the lost of internet the signal is usually there and the signal strength is usually pretty high (By which I mean near to a full green bar)

EDIT: I should note that there are still no other devices are affected when I lose internet


----------

