Intel centrino wireless-n 2230 keeps dropping connection.

[idata]

Hi I've been looking through some of the threads but i cant really find an answer to my issue.

I recently got my self a Dell Inspiron 17R SE and it comes with the Intel Centrino wireless-n 2230.

I cant really do much stuff on the internet or play online games as the internet keeps dropping out.

I have updated the driver and still nothing. I really don't know what else to do any help will be much appreciated.

Thanks.

some more information. I know its not the internet as my family can use there laptops/Games consoles without any internet issues.

OS: Windows 8.

[ASwan6]

I am experiencing all the same symptoms with the second brand new HP Envy I just bought in Best Buy.

I am confused why Joe is saying that the latest driver is 15.10.3.2 whereas https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3505&DwnldID=23044&ProductFamily=Wireless+Networking&ProductLine=Intel%C2%AE+Wi-Fi+Products&ProductProduct=Intel%C2%AE+Centrino%C2%AE+Wireless-N+2200&lang=eng this link provides downloads for 16.1.1 driver for centrino 2230?

Thanks,

Alec

[MBoon1]

Hey, after a few weeks, it still works great. I strongly recommend contacting tech support.

[ASwan6]

Thanks for the update, matthew114. I have an HP, so DELL support is not going to help me. It would be nice to know what they did to fix your problem.

I figured that 16.x is the version of ProSet Wireless Intel software, which installs 15.10.3.2 wireless driver. I also bought a lower-end HP with Qualcomm wireless card and that one doesn't have any problems.

What's the guidance from Intel here?

Thanks,

Alec

[MBoon1]

Sorry for the confusion, I did not mean just dell. I meant whoever made your laptop. From what I could tell, he did some stuff with settings or drivers. But he used a program that allowed him to take control of my laptop remotely, so I can't say for sure.

[aolda1]

Thing just keeps on dropping, perhaps it is my router, but am I gonna fork out on a new one when all my other devices work perfectly well with it? absolutely not. Put it this way, I won't be going through another year of this and will remove it as soon as possible and put it where it belongs; the bin.

[ASwan6]

I returned my second HP Envy and got a Lenovo with Intel N 7620 wireless card. Upgraded to Windows 8.1, installed http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-034535.htm driver upgrade from Intel and STILL connection dropped after an hour or so. Either Microsoft or Intel really screwed the pooch on this.

I reverted the upgrade I installed from 16.6.x back to 16.5.x, which came with Lenovo, and trying it out today. Really not much hope here.

[CCeni1]

Just Flip the wires connected to the WIFI inside the laptop, this is happening because the black wire is the one connected to the main, it should be the white one..

[SLesh]

I'd like to hear from Intel on this. The latest driver with its ability to reset the adapter is a big improvement in stability and each of use. But it still keeps disconnecting - so much so I am probably taking a hit on performance. The latest driver now reconnects most of the time. But sometimes it doesn't thus requiring the reset. I have a Toshiba P75-A7200 talking to an ActionTec C1000A DSL modem / router. No other computers or tablets have this disconnect problem that I can see. If we are indeed talking some kind of hardware problem, no future driver update is likely to fix it. If Toshiba and / or Intel are not going to issue a recall, it would seen there is no alternative to a little hands-on butchering.

Is there any way to log wireless activity that might show me what is causing the disconnect?

[RPuny]

Try uninstalling Intel PROset Wireless, it's not really necessary and it seemed to work for some other individuals. I also have a P75-A7200 and haven't had any problems.

[ASad]

I think best thing to do is just to put centrino 2230 into the bin and spend couple of bucks for decent Atheroes chip card as i did. Fantastic signal range and no problems at all. I spend too much time looking for solution of this problem which still is not solved.

[Jose_H_Intel1]

You may use the Intel® Wireless Troubleshooter and the Wireless Event Viewer in Intel® Proset Software (Tools, Intel® Wireless Troubleshooter).

http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-031157.htm Intel� Wi-Fi Products; User Guide: Intel� PROSet/Wireless WiFi v13.0 (PDF)

http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-032726.htm Intel� Wi-Fi Products; Driver wireless event viewer logging

http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-025807.htm Intel� Wi-Fi Products; Intel� Wireless Event Viewer

[PM5]

"Dear" Intel please read this forum too ! ->

/message/137884# 137884 Intel Wireless-N 1030 Horrible Wireless N Speeds When its BlueTooth is Enabled

I think this is the problem, I mean the Wifi+Bluetooth combo. When I disable the Bluetooth (everywhere in the Device manager, Win7) my internet speed working well on max speed, when I enable the Bluetooth the internet speed is very slow many times, turn off/on the Wifi solves the problem for a while and then it slow down again.

On every Centrino forum many people wrote this solution, disabled the BT fixed the problem, but this is only a temporary solution, because I need the Bluetooth.

Intel couldn't figure out this during one and a half years? :O

[AHegh]

Deactivating Bluetooth doesn't work for me. May be this is another problem.

[PM5]

It must be disabled everywhere.

/message/185688# 185688 Intel(R) Centrino(R) Wireless-N 2230 cant go over 30MBps

http://superuser.com/a/562395/203876 Wireless network speed is slower than the maximum in Windows 7 - Super User

1. Disable Bluetooth on the Centrino 2230.
2. And also set Bluetooth(R) AMP: Disabled.

[SLesh]

I just noticed under Windows 8.1 there are two places where you have to disable Bluetooth. That said, I suspect the problem may go beyond Bluetooth. Other suggestions like getting rid of the Intel drivers altogether SEEM to work - for a while. But the problem eventually resurfaces. (I promise to report if disabling both Bluetooth devices on my Toshiba P75-A7200 solves the problem longer than, say, two weeks.).

My list of suspects includes: overall level of network activity, wireless router / modem type. The Intel drivers seem to disconnect and reconnect more often than the generic Microsoft drivers. But I have no way of proving it. Can someone tell me how to set up driver logging so I can capture the relevant information? After giving the Bluetooth suggestion a fair trial, I would like to go back to the Intel drivers and see if I can capture the culprit with their logging capability. Is the same information available from Windows System logs?

[TStid]

I was having a similar issue when I had my 2230N and the default windows driver. It would suddenly start disconnecting a lot. Turns out Windows 8 will update the driver for you automatically! You have to turn off driver updates in the Windows update settings. Whenever it would start acting up again, when I looked at the wireless card properties it would be using a newer intel driver again so I would have to uninstall it back to the default Microsoft one a few times.

As for everyone else saying to disable bluetooth...that's a crap fix for the wifi. What's the point of having a combination card if you can only use one feature? I can tell you my atheros card has been rock steady since it was installed and I can use bluetooth and wifi at the same time. In fact, now I can actually use my smart phones GPS antenna through bluetooth on my laptop, which never worked with the intel card. Sorry Intel but you messed up this one somehow.

Seriously, anyone reading this thread, just do yourself a favor, go onto ebay and buy a different card for cheap (if you can, I know some HP's don't allow non HP cards, but you can find HP branded cards with different chipsets). As of Jan 25th, I don't even worry about my wifi working or not....because it always works now and always stays connected.

[AHegh]

Hello Patricia,

thank you for the advice! I deactivated both, but the problem still remains.

At the moment the exchange-the-wifi-card solution is getting more and more attracting to me ...

[AHegh]

Hello,

as I reported two weeks ago, deactivating bluetooth didn't solve the problem. In the mean time I visited two friends and tried the wifi stability within their network. There I had no problems, even with the same router. The difference was, that in their surrounding only a few other networks are (two or three) whereas there are up to twelve networks at my place. May be the N2230 doesn't like too much traffic around? (But as I said, all other devices like me smartphone or my other notebook doesn't have any problem, so it shouldn't be a problem.)

Now I bought a USB wifi adapter for my place to deal with the problem (and it works!) even though I don't like this solution. I'm asking myself if Intel is not competend enough to write a working driver or if this is a hardware problem.

Cheers,

vespear

[aolda1]

THE SOLUTION

Spent a couple of quid on a new qualcomm atheros card, have tested it by opening multiple tabs and downloading files at same time to trigger a drop like episode. Nothing. Just solid connection. I'm sorry to say that its definately the hardware and no amount of drivers will help. Had the n-2230 for over a year with consistent issus, tried a variety of options from some great contributions on this thread but this is the simplest and easiest and also the only way, so far, that has worked.

Keep searching for an answer, but I'm out of here.

Thanks!

[TStid]

I'm about to confirm AndyOldy's suggested solution. After battling this 2230 card in my Dell 17R for the past year I've really about had it. Many thanks to a lot of the posters on this thread with their suggestions. I have been able to tweak it to only drop once or twice a day (instead of every few minutes or hours). Using the Initial Microsoft driver definitely gives the best stability.

Anyway, I just order a Dell DW1703 wireless card off ebay for $10. It's an Atheros chipset as suggested, plus has Bluetooth (which I didn't want to lose). You can get the latest Win8 driver right from dell by looking up a Vostro 2521 laptop. I'll post back with results when I get everything installed.

[TStid]

My $10 eBay Dell DW1703 card has arrived. I uninstalled any Intel Pro wireless software, then went into device manager and uninstalled the wifi and bluetooth intel devices. Shutdown and swapped the cards out. Upon rebooting, Win8 had already installed a generic driver for the Dell DW1703 card. I ran the downloaded dell driver (from the Vostro 2521 support page) and rebooted. So far so good. I don't notice any speed difference copying files or surfing the web, but the amount of time it takes to connect to my wifi router is almost instantaneous (the 2230 took a few seconds to find, connect and be connected). Should only take a day to see if I drop any connections, so I'll post back tomorrow or Monday with results.