# [SOLVED] Asus X54C - wireless adapter causing freeze / major slowdown



## MegaZX30 (Oct 27, 2008)

Hello,
today i have an issue with an
Asus X54C running windows 7 home premium 64 bit
using the Atheros AR9285 wireless adaptor.

The laptop has been working fine until recently.
The exact symtom occurs like this:
Start up, everything loads and works fine. But if you go into wireless connections and connect to one the entire laptop enviroment starts to slow to a crawl and your lucky to get anything to load or anything to happen really...

On a side note, safe mode w networking connects to the internet fine. im not really sure if i have a problem with the adapter or driver / software... seems like some sort of software / driver problem but im kinda clueless at the moment...


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## Learn2day (Feb 16, 2012)

*Re: Asus X54C - wireless adapter causing freeze / major slowdown*

Update driver. 
Scan for virus and spyware.
Check TCP/IP connections (netstat -a).


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## MegaZX30 (Oct 27, 2008)

*Re: Asus X54C - wireless adapter causing freeze / major slowdown*

Alright so i tryed updating the driver, i tried uninstalling it and reinstaling it.
Neither worked.
Upon further inspection both wireless and a direct wired connection cause the same lock up...
Without the driver being installed and i assume using the generic Networking drivers, a direct wired connection still fails to produce positive results...
I've also scanned the computer for both spyware/ adware and viruses. Nothing showed up.
Virus Scanner: Microsoft Security Essentials
Ad/Spyware Scanner: SuperAntiSpyware( a personal fav always worked good for me in the past)

I have not tried checking the TCP/IP connections yet... based on the command, do i do this in Command Prompt and would i need to be connected to the network for this command to give me proper details? I'm curious because as i said the computer practically comes to a crawl and i can barly get anything to load if im lucky.

Though as i mentioned internet connection works fine under safe mode for some reason just not under normal operations.


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## Learn2day (Feb 16, 2012)

*Re: Asus X54C - wireless adapter causing freeze / major slowdown*

It's a third party software that's causing this, acting upon internet connection.
Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc), go to processes tab and arrange by CPU load. After this connect to the internet and check which process/program is overloading the CPU and kill it. 
In alternative you can kill one by one before connecting until problem's solved, but I'd only do this if the 1st don't work, it's harder to filter what's conflicting this way.


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## MegaZX30 (Oct 27, 2008)

*Re: Asus X54C - wireless adapter causing freeze / major slowdown*

Hmm... this is strange... well this is my mother's laptop by the way, she took it back the one day, tried calling the laptop's tech support or maybe wherever she got it from. I don't exactly know she said she was on the phone with tech for about 2 hours...
they sapposedly determined the problem was a Verizon application was missing or not installed...
Now i'm not a rocket scientist but i dont think the problem has anything to do with any Verizon products not being installed unless they somehow programed there computers to just screw up if you try unistalling one of there products... (suggestions or proof otherwise... anyone???)

Now then I've been playing with the laptop tonight... either the problem has gotten worse or it just seemed quincedental(sp...) that the laptop started to act up apon accessing a connection... as it seems worse now and just locks up from being on. Still boots in safe mode fine though.
I've tried goin through and killing proccesses, i've killed a fair few that didnt seem important to the system functioning properly at any rate, im not a pro on proccesses so if there were others i could have safely turned off i'm not sure which ones. none of them are actually eating up CPU usage though i see 00% and ocasionally 01% usage.


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## Learn2day (Feb 16, 2012)

*Re: Asus X54C - wireless adapter causing freeze / major slowdown*

Strange.. Did you actually arranged processes by CPU load (clicking on CPU), to see first the one who's using more load? 
I wouldn't trust much on SP helpdesk support lines, i still remember when i told a client to clean his phone wall plug with a toothbrush, just to make the call connection drop along with his DSL line (Yes, i was a bad bad man.. lol). Most of them "choke" if the issue is not scripted. Verizon has nothing to do with it.

One thing you can try is connecting it without any app open, and see how it handles. If it keeps freezing, close all apps in tray and try again, this will rule out most software, and if persists, i wouldn't further diagnose it much more.. Clean install from recovery partition and problem solved.


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## MegaZX30 (Oct 27, 2008)

*Re: Asus X54C - wireless adapter causing freeze / major slowdown*

Haha thats funny, but yes i agree i don't like Phone tech support... You seem to get one of two people on the other end of the line.
1. The one's that follow a scripted guide line.
2. Off chance you actually get connected to someone who actually knows something, not necessarly fixes your problem but at least puts you in a better direction then the other person.

But i think im going to have to do a Recovery, but i'll try turning off as many open apps as i can to see if the issue clears up at all. I made a Recovery Disk because the laptop kept recommending it, i'm pretty sure but that would be the same as the Recovery Partition that is usually found on the D drive correct?


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## Learn2day (Feb 16, 2012)

*Re: Asus X54C - wireless adapter causing freeze / major slowdown*

Recovery partition is usually hidden. You access it by pressing F8 or F10 or some other F (don't remember, check manual or google) during the same boot splash screen you access BIOS from. I'd go with recovery partition (factory settings) instead.

Tell us how it went.


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## MegaZX30 (Oct 27, 2008)

*Re: Asus X54C - wireless adapter causing freeze / major slowdown*

So, I'm not sure if the laptop is home now or not, but once again the laptop had swapted hands from me to my mom. I didn't have a chance to tell her maybe a system Recovery would fix the issue. I also didn't just want to do the System Recovery as i didn't know if there were any important files she had. But, she must have took it in somewhere, she's telling me they said the modem went bad and it's $200 to get it fixed/replaced.


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## Learn2day (Feb 16, 2012)

*Re: Asus X54C - wireless adapter causing freeze / major slowdown*

Sounds sketchy to me.. $200 for a new modem? I'm in the wrong business..


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## MegaZX30 (Oct 27, 2008)

*Re: Asus X54C - wireless adapter causing freeze / major slowdown*

Haha I know right... well u know when it comes to businesses depending on the place... they like to make a killing on manual labor especially since most people don't know how to work on a laptop and they know it... but then theres more honest people if you can find them who will do the work for much better prices.

--
On a second note, she was also asking me to look into buying a new laptop... guess she might just want to replace it... it's not really that old though. But in any case if this is the route taking do you know any good places to buy decent laptops? Online or store wise?
I think it'd be a general use laptop, haha this is me personally speaking i would like something that could handle abit more then general use, i dont like having a possible underpowered unit... but then i also don't know what kind of price range im looking for...


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## Learn2day (Feb 16, 2012)

*Re: Asus X54C - wireless adapter causing freeze / major slowdown*

Wrong guy to ask, considering I live in Portugal.. But I'm sure someone else here will help you.

Btw, I'm one of those honest repair technician you talk about, plus, i try to help everyone here without a dime in sight.


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## MegaZX30 (Oct 27, 2008)

*Re: Asus X54C - wireless adapter causing freeze / major slowdown*

Well... sorry i haven't posted back but a day after she asked me, they ended up buying some laptop from best-buy not even checking with me about it first... think they went w one of the cheaper laptops available... seems to run alright. Not quite as good in my personal opinion as the other laptop before it messed up... but eh what you gonna do haha i have slightly impatient parents at times.

Ya, i do my best to help people on computers as i can the only thing i ask is they pay for the parts if there is replacements needed... i may do my work for free but i'm so not made of money lol, im still learning though and need some help at times and there are many freindly people here to at least point me in the right direction.


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## Learn2day (Feb 16, 2012)

*Re: Asus X54C - wireless adapter causing freeze / major slowdown*

You're welcome. Seems to me if you fix the laptop you got yourself a new laptop. lol 
Your mom won't be needing it no more, with a new one in hand..


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## MegaZX30 (Oct 27, 2008)

*Re: Asus X54C - wireless adapter causing freeze / major slowdown*

Haha, ya that would be a good idea, I'm not sure if she got that original laptop through verizon since it had Verizon products installed on it but i think she may have taking it back... I wouldn't mind having a laptop for on the go on the other hand if i could have fixed it myself eventually.
I'm not sure what i would consider this case comming to i guess an end, not solved but ended lol.

Hmm I should probably make a new thread for this but if it's okay. Can i ask ur opinion on another laptop my freind has.
It's a budget laptop (aspire 5517), it has an AMD tf-20 proccessor in it.
Now i found an online guide(pdf file) for it the other night... can't seem to find it at the moment it listed some different proccessors.
I can't find the list but there were either 3 or 4 different single core proccessors it said it supported including the TF-20 (1.6Ghz) being the weakest one.
And it listed that it also supports the TK-42 model which is a dual core rated at 1.6Ghz.
This was just something i looked up nothing that i have any concrete plans on actually doing cause it requires tearing the laptop apart and then putting it back together im not sure if im ready to do something like that lol.

But even for being a budget laptop would there be any significant gain from upgrading to one of the faster proccessors or the dual core model?

Edit: Might if it's any importance I add they really like there Sims 3 game... Im somewhat surprised it runs on the laptop... very... laggy though.


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## Learn2day (Feb 16, 2012)

*Re: Asus X54C - wireless adapter causing freeze / major slowdown*

IMO that laptop is not worth to upgrade, period. But i doubt the dual core will use the same socket than the single core, which means a different board.


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## MegaZX30 (Oct 27, 2008)

*Re: Asus X54C - wireless adapter causing freeze / major slowdown*

I assumed as much, i saw the documentation and this though, so i thought there might be a chance. they both say socket s1g1
AMD Athlon 64 TF-20 - AMGTF20HAX4DN

AMD Athlon 64 X2 TK-42 - AMETK42HAX5DM
and the proccessor wasnt to expensive at least saw decent deals on ebay.
I like to explore but figured this budget laptop wouldnt be worth it lol.


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## Learn2day (Feb 16, 2012)

*Re: Asus X54C - wireless adapter causing freeze / major slowdown*

You should research a bit further..


> It depends if the notebook maker used a cooling system that can prevent overheat with 35W processors (the TF-20 is only 15W of power).


CPU-World.com forums :: View topic - Need help with Upgrade CPU for Emachines e627


> I've determined it's definitely a power issue. My question: How do I get more power supplied to the unit?


CPU Upgrade Failed (mostly): TK-42 in LT3103u

You might have problems different a simple upgrade.. There's a lack of power issue, a heatsink issue, etc.. You need to find out if your laptop *complete *model number supports that upgrade, but i didn't found a service manual for this, or any other info regarding cpu upgrade, so might difficult to proceed with assurances it will work.

Good luck.


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## MegaZX30 (Oct 27, 2008)

*Re: Asus X54C - wireless adapter causing freeze / major slowdown*

well i managed to find the service manual for aspire 5517. I was actually looking at this manual the other day when i posted i couldn't find it... was not fully focused lol.
http://tim.id.au/laptops/acer/aspire 5517.pdf
Um I assume this is some of the important info but if you want to check out the manual feel free.

```
Item Specification
CPU
• AMD Athlon64 Dual-Core Process, Cache 1MB, TK42
• AMD Athlon64 Process, 2.2GHz, Cache 256KB, TF38
• AMD Athlon64 Process, 2.0GHz, Cache 256KB, TF36
• AMD Athlon64 Process, 1.6GHz, Cache 512KB, TF20

Type AMD Athlon64 Dual-Core Mobile CPU

Core Logic
• AMDRS780MN
• AMDSB710
• Integrated VGA solution

CPU Package Micro uPGA-638 Package
Power 45W

On-die Cache Up to 1MB L2 cache

Front Side Bus 667/800/1066MHz
```
If it's possible are those the only configs that would work i know there are faster dual proccessors in that class that don't exceed the 45w. didnt look up pricing as i didnt think at the time it was possible, i dont like to assume but i relize it says configurations which might just be different defaults it comes available in.

Edit: also almost forgot... i never thought of looking at the specific model #... anyways it's KAWG0


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## Learn2day (Feb 16, 2012)

*Re: Asus X54C - wireless adapter causing freeze / major slowdown*

Well, based on my lack of knowledge of Gateway laptops (not sold in Portugal), to make a safe upgrade, i think you should try and contact them to check if there are any different parts like mobo or heatsink over the CPU.. I'm not saying the CPU won't fit or work, just consider that other issues like power or heat should be considered.


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## MegaZX30 (Oct 27, 2008)

*Re: Asus X54C - wireless adapter causing freeze / major slowdown*

Ah alright hmm i may look into it, lol i think it'd help the laptop out but weither it's worth it or not i'm not sure...
Well back to the original case of this topic, if i didn't state this before i found out the laptop was taking to 'Geek Squad' I think they just like to over charge things I knew someone else who took there laptop there and paid a fair amount for it to be fixed and if im correct it either wasn't fixed or as soon as they got it back something else was wrong but the pricing was still much more then it probably should be...

It was actually the hard-drive that went bad.
Thinking about it if i had known or been able to figure this out, it does make some sense, loading it up normally loaded everything thus more likely to load from a bad sector of the hard-drive and that will obviously cause problems. When loaded in safe mode most the applications were not loaded except the essentials so there was less chance if of a bad sector being loaded.


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## Learn2day (Feb 16, 2012)

*Re: Asus X54C - wireless adapter causing freeze / major slowdown*

Yeah it makes some sense, but the symptoms never actually pointed there, i always thought it was software.. We're always learning! Sorry if i couldn't be of more help.

Please mark thread as solved in thread tools above if you're done with this.
Regards.


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## MegaZX30 (Oct 27, 2008)

Hey it's cool yep yep theres something new to learn all the time. My last question if, would a scandisk or something simular to it have revilled bad sectors of the harddrive had i tried one?


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## Learn2day (Feb 16, 2012)

50-50 on that one.. Apparently it didn't affected boot sector, so that's good, now it all depended on the amount of damage in the whole disk, scratches across are the most damaging ones, as the hdd will report errors in each circle it reads..


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## MegaZX30 (Oct 27, 2008)

Oh i see, well theres not much else for this case really then lol, well thank you for taking some time to at least try an help solve the problem, the effort is always apreciated!


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## Learn2day (Feb 16, 2012)

You're welcome, anytime!


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