Sporadic but recurring connection dropouts on an Intel 6235 wireless adapter

[idata]

Dear all,

I have the same issues of intermittent sudden connection dropouts as reported by others with the Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 Wifi adapter and the Intel Proset 15.x drivers!

My system is a brandnew desktop computer with an Intel i7 3770 Quad-Core CPU, an Intel Z77 chipset, an Asrock Z77E-ITX mainboard, 16 GB of RAM, and Windows 7 64-bit.

Previously, I already encountered the issue with this adapter's predecessor, the Intel Centrino 6230 and only managed to resolve it by going back to an older driver version. If my memory is correct, the Intel Proset 14.x version range worked flawlessly, but the 15.x drivers lead to the dropouts (I always use 64-bit drivers).

These can occur randomly after 5 or after 50 minutes. The adapter suddenly disconnects and won't reconnect to the wireless network unless it is reset. The wireless router itself is fine as there are over a dozen devices from all types of brands that connect regularly to it without any problem at all.

The fact that the problem occurs on two different cards (6230 and 6235) leads me to believe that there is a driver problem.

On the 6235, going back to a 14.x driver does not seem to be an option on the table, because the device seems to be only supported by 15.x versions. I already tried going back from the recent 15.2 version to the previous 15.1.1 (after uninstalling through the device manager), but the problem still persists. Now I just went back to 15.1.0 and it's been ok so far, but i'm not very optimistic.

I have tried different changes in the driver settings but with no success. The problem persists!

I'd be thankful for a solution.

Best regards,

Steve

Edited 9/5/2014 by John S. (Intel Customer Support).

The "/message/169514# 169514 Sporadic but recurring connection dropouts on an Intel 6235 wireless adapter" thread will be locked. This thread will remain on the forum for you to reference, but no new posts will be possible on this thread.

The 17.1.0 version of Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software and Drivers has fixes for connectivity related issues with the Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6235 wireless adapter. If you are still experiencing connectivity issues after installing the very latest software and drivers and you require further troubleshooting, please contact Intel Customer Support. If you prefer to ask questions, make comments, and/or receive answers on this support forum (Wireless Networking Support Community), please start a new thread or find an existing thread that matches your specific issue with your specific hardware/software.

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[MH7]

I've been battling with this issue for a while on a Samsung Series 5 550PC5 (with the infamous Advanced-N 6235) running Windows 8 64bit. It kept dropping the connection and had trouble reconnecting. I'm in the UK and use BT home hub 3 on Infinity. All other devices, iPhone 4s, Sony Xperia Ray, Nexus 7, Samsung Nc10 etc etc work flawlessly with my WiFi. So it was a huge disappointment that the device which supposedly had an "Advanced" wireless card gave the worst connection!

After trying the many suggestions on this forum and elsewhere it seemed the only thing that fixed it was to disable 802.11n mode. But whilst this stopped it dropping out it also cut my download speed from 60Mb+ to around 20Mb.

So I thought I'd try one more time and came across the suggestion of rolling back to the windows driver instead of the Intel one, so I gave it a go and voila! Everything now works as it should. I've now got 802.11n enabled and the connection is rock solid. Download speeds are back up to normal

If you wish to try this fix but are unsure how I'll try and detail the steps below:

Please note that by using the Windows Driver you will lose the WiDi functionality, so only do the following if you don't mind losing WiDi.

In windows 8 move the cursor to the top right of the screen then select search (magnifying glass)

Click on Settings

Then in the search box type "Device Manager" and then select "Device Manager" from the options that appear on the left.

In the list of devices, look for "Network Adapters" and expand it by clicking on the little white triangle

Double click on "Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N 6235"

Select the "Driver" tab

Check the Driver provider is Intel and not Microsoft. If the provider is Intel then you can uninstall the drivers back to the default Microsoft ones

If however your driver details look like this

Then you already have the Microsoft driver so STOP!!

Please note that if you follow the steps below you will lose your Wifi/Internet connection when you uninstall the driver and will have to reconnect once complete, so make sure you have your WiFi password to hand!!!

If your driver is an Intel one make a note of the driver version then click the "Uninstall" button

You will get a popup asking you to confirm. Tick the checkbox to "Delete the driver software for this device" and then click OK.

You should then end up back in the device manager list view.

Find "Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N 6235" again (if it's not in the list go to the Action menu and select "Scan for hardware changes") and double click the Intel 6235 again.

Go to the driver tab and see if your driver provider has switched to Microsoft. If so you are done

If not and it is still Intel, you should see that the driver version is now lower than it was. Click on "Uninstall" again and repeat the process until the provider is Microsoft, the version should be 14.8.8.75 as in the screenshot above.

Once finished you can then reconnect to your WiFi.

Good luck!!

PS I also had another issue with this laptop in that web pages were not loading correctly. I had to keep reloading them or clearing out the browser cache. Turned out to be Samsung bloatware that was screwing up the caching. If you have this problem then uninstall "Samsung Support Center".

Laptop now working as it SHOULD have been from the start.

[AYarr]

Thanks for posting these instructions.

I had posted earlier in this thread about how I got my wireless to stop dropping out on my ASUS UX32VD, which has the same issue with the Intel 6235 that everyone else is seeing.

Originally I had disabled Bluetooth which did fix the problem. However, I re-enabled it today, and followed your instructions. Like magic, everything works just fine now.

Thanks again!

AndyNYC

[BGoem]

Hi AndyNYC, what about CPU-usage? When I returned to MS-driver and let Bluetooth enabled, the laptop was slow due to high CPU-usage. Don't remember the CPU percentage of process, but it was definitely noticeable and due to the fact that bluetooth was enabled. Disabled bluetooth again and cpu went to normal level.

[JBrow30]

I can confirm that using the standard Microsoft driver with the Power Management settings resolved the connection issues with the Intel WiFi adapter.

This is tested now for +/- 6 weeks now without any problems. Yes!

[KAndr8]

Malcatron, I had high hopes that this was the solution for me. My ASUS Taichi 21 has suffered wireless dropouts and freezing since I purchased it 10 weeks ago. This coupled with slow speeds on wireless connection makes a very good (and expensive) ultrabook useless most of the time. Sadly after a promising start, the problem remains - wireless dropouts and freezing even when the machine is sitting next to the router or access point.

I have tried most of the fixes on the thread and have now resorted (finally) to communicating with Intel through Customer Support. I will continue to watch this thread, and await a reply from Intel.

[cmacd1]

I found that the rollback of drivers to windows version release did fix my wireless on some access points but not others and so some people might think the driver rollback IS the fix, but underneath there remains a problem. I replaced my Intel card with a Broadcom card for now and won't put the Intel card back in until Intel release a driver that's known to work and supports WiDi which the rollback does not offer. So come on Joe... tell your dudes to pull finger on this one and get the darn drivers sorted once and for all. It's not good enough to have a problem like this run so long. It's bad for Intel, it's bad for Samsung and the other OEMs and it's shocking for us in the community.

C-

[RTar]

Well this is not a solution at all.

If you use the built in W8 drivers you CANNOT use WI-DI. WI-DI requires the full installation of intel driver.

[MH7]

@Ro.Tar Well as far as I'm concerned it's a solution. I don't care about WiDi. I don't have any WiDi enabled devices and even if I did, I'd still prioritise my internet connection over WiDi as would I suspect most of the people looking for help here.

So until you can come up with a full solution don't be so negative about people's efforts to help others.

[BGoem]

Hi all,

We have 40 Acer laptops with Win8 Home Prepium 64-bit with Intel 6235 card, and 25 Fujitsu's with Intel 2230 card. Both of the series have the problem. Tried all sorts of drivers, from Microsoft-drivers till Intel 15.8.0.5. But no solution. Now, I have disabled power saving settings for the wifi-card on a few machines 3 days ago. Until now none of them have had the problem.Tomorrow, I 'll do all the Acers, and we will see in 1 week what happens.If anyone wants a script to apply the settings to a bunch of machines, send me a PM. For the settings: http://www.ppartyka.com/2012/12/tutorial-windows-8-laptop-keeps.html Systems Administration NYC: Tutorial: Windows 8 Laptop Keeps Disconnecting from WiFi Fix

I changed it in Power scheme AND in Device Manager. Good luck.

[LSpee]

Hi,

I have been having the same problem as everyone else with the Intel 6235 Wireless Card on a Dell XPS 12.

At my work place we have Cisco AP's which have been setup to broadcast 3 networks first one is a guest network which is set as unsecured the XPS has no difficulty connecting to this network.

The second one is the main Staff network the majority of devices are set to connect to this which is set up with

• Security Type - WPA-Enterprise
• Encryption Type - TKIP
• Authentication Method - Smart Card or other certificate

802.1X Settings

• Autheticaation Mode - Computer Authentication
• Single Sign On - Perform immediately before user logon

The Dell XPS 12 connects to this network for a short amount of time but normally when moving a large amount of data from a network share locally to the PC it will drop the connection and will not re connect till 1 or 2 reboots.

The other network is setup like so

• Security Type - WPA2-Personal
• Encryption Type - AES
• Advanced Settings - None Selected

I am able to get the Dell XPS on this network and it is fully functional 99% of the time, when it does drop off the network which is rare it will reconnect to the network.

I have also removed the Intel software controlling the Bluetooth and the wireless adaptor so Windows is controling the wireless with the microsoft driver have changed power settings to what was advised in this forum.

I hope Intel find this information useful in some way!

Thanks

Lee

[MBr]

I finally solved the problem on my Samsung 5 Ultra Series with Win8-64 and the advanced 6235 which always would loose connection to the Internet (not to the router) and tell me (after running problem-solution) that I was missing gateway. Ive been running crazy for almost two weeks now and my laptop was almost on its way back to amazon.

1) I deinstalled the WiFi-driver and let Windows reinstall it after booting again, (now Version 15.7.0.3)

2) Deactivated the Ethernet Controller (!!!)

3) Rebootet again... and voila!

No Drop outs ever since (its been 3 entire days).

So it seems like the two devices badly interfere with each other.

Hope this helps some people facing the same problem.

Cheers!

[KVita1]

I have a Samsung 9 Ultra Series, the version with 8gb, 500ssd, 15'' and the famous advanced centrino-n 6235.

I was having recurrent dropouts but couldn't send to Samsung for repair because i was using the computer on the university.

The first time i had i called them to come and fix or change the component, they used a partner and send me the laptop back with the same problem, in the first hour i lost the wifi connection twice.

Now i will have to send it back again

[Jose_H_Intel1]

Please note that the internet speed test is not the same as the (wireless) network speed.

We are still investigating this issue; in the meantime you may continue reporting through the https://supportmail.intel.com/scripts-emf/welcome.aspx?id=1783 e-mail form.

Thank you for understanding.

[MH7]

@Joe_Intel: I understand the difference between the internet speed and the wireless speed, I was merely illustrating that unlike the other solution of switching off 802.11n, rolling back to the Microsoft driver not only fixed the dropout issue (for me at least) but also enabled me to maximize my internet connection speed (i.e. my wireless connection was no longer the narrowest part of my "data pipe"). As I stated in my post, switching off 802.11n drastically cut my download speeds. So, as many people now have connections that actually exceed the limits of 802.11g (which has a theoretical maximum of 54Mbs) being able to carry on using 802.11n is highly desirable. On the other hand if your internet connection is only 2Mbs then simply turning off 802.11n may well be an adequate solution. (Although of course this would limit the speed of your home network for e.g. transferring files between devices)

@3KAA: Sorry to hear it's not working for you, I've been on the Microsoft driver for over a week now and it is still working fine. Hopefully Intel will actually sort this out with a robust and thoroughly tested solution, it really is quite disgraceful. The original post in this thread is a few weeks short of being a year old and they still have failed to fix the issue. One can only assume that they really couldn't care less about our problems.

@Crypth: Yes sorry I forgot to mention that WiDi wouldn't work. But if the choice is between having WiDi working or being able to access the internet I'm guessing most people would consider it worth sacrificing. Indeed I'm willing to bet most people have never used WiDi (myself included).

[GLeco]

Are you still working on that issue?

I just bought a Samsung Serie 7 Chronos laptop and I have the same unfixed issue (connection become very slow and unstable after 20-50 mins, intensive downloading or streaming may be the trigger), I've updated drivers + windows update.

I don't want to use the microsoft drivers because I want to use WIDI (one of the reasons I bought that laptop).

Can you update us on the progress? Would buying a N 6300 fix that issue?

Thanks in advance.

[DBaxt2]

I tried to roll back to the Microsoft driver but couldn't. The rollback button grayed out after two rolls, and no amount of rebooting would give me another. So, I de-installed the entire Intel Proset software suite and rebooted.

It didn't get me back to a Microsoft driver, but it did get me working. This is strange. I am now on this driver: Intel, date: 10/4/2012, version 15.5.6.48

I was there before, and through every iteration up to 15.6.1.20. But now it is working fine at 15.5.6.48. How very strange. Is there something wrong with the Proset suite? Of course, I am sure the WIDI is gone, but I just want to connect reliably to the Internet on my expensive Ultrabook.

Web pages seem to time out if they sit idle to long, but it is working. Which make me thing that Intel is not trying very hard to fix this.

[MH7]

@douglyfresh Don't use the rollback button, use the uninstall button. If you go to page 39 of this thread look for my post (582) it has a full description of what you need to do to get back to the Microsoft driver.

[RTar]

Dear JOE could you please let me know what should we do?

I sent the laptop back to Samsung. They kept it for 10 days. Back still with the wireless problem.

Can INTEL give me a solution? (not rolling back driver or remove N or other crappy stuff)

I am tired and upset.

Maybe send us a replacement card?

Maybe inform ignorant technicians about the issue?

NP900X4C

[idata]

Malcatron, indeed, reverting to the Microsoft driver makes things better but not quite perfect, cheers though! As mentioned earlier in the thread, there seems to be a lot of different reason for the dropouts. It's shame however that WiDi does not run on these drivers, that's not critical for me but would be really useful as we used to use WiDi extensively.

[RTar]

@Malcatron - Not sure why you take the matter so personally . The solution you suggest it is well known to many since at least the end of last year.

Nothing new.

We all do that. It is reported as a "patch" everywhere.

You might not use Wi-Di but most people do.

It is incredible that in more than 9 months Intel hasn't come up with THE SOLUTION

[MH7]

The tone of your post was very negative and a little condescending. Since posting what I found worked for me several people have responded to say they are happy with the results, so obviously not everyone knew of this fix, despite it being "nothing new".

Also I took the time to describe the steps as clearly and simply as possible so that those less technical could apply it. If it has helped just one person then I'm glad I took the time to write it up. I'm still using the Microsoft driver and until Intel pull their finger out and provide a proper solution it is still the best "patch" available (short of changing your wireless adapter). If you have any better suggestions to fix this issue then let's hear them? Otherwise, keep your negative comments to yourself.

As for WiDi, maybe where you live everyone is tech savvy and "most people" use it; But a quick straw pole around my office shows me that nobody here has even heard of WiDi let alone used it. They do however ALL use a wireless connection to access the internet. Therefore, no prizes for guessing which function most people would prioritise. If you use WiDi then I guess your stuffed, but myself and many others are just happy to not be losing our WiFi connections every 10 minutes.