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.

US

• Phone: 1-916-377-7000, Monday – Friday, 07:00 to 17:00 (US Pacific Time)
• http://intelsupportchat.force.com/icslivechat Live Chat
• http://supportmail.intel.com/scripts-emf/welcome.aspx?id=1783 E-mail Support

Worldwide

http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support Intel Customer Support

[TBela]

15.7.0.3 is what installed for my Windows 7 x64. Seems to be running a bit cleaner and at proper speeds. I hope this lasts!

[LCasc]

IMPORTANT: I had been reading extensively and I got to the conclusion that a single answer does not exist. Furthermore none of the suggested solutions is either longterm or definitive. So I decided to give it a shot: change the Centrino 6235 wifi adaptor for a different one (Realtek). You know what? Now the WiFi is incredibly stable and no drops out so far. I just regret not to have taken the decision before. Such a pity that the best solution is the simplest one.

[AAlbr]

I don't suppose anyone has seen a HowTo on removing the Centrino NIC from a Samsung NP540 ? Not found anything thus far by searching and, according to guides for other Sammy models I have found, they're nothing like mine inside. I've popped off the bottom panel where I can easily get to the HDD and RAM but it looks like disassembling the laptop to find the NIC is a whole other ball game...

Don't want to poke and hope as the laptop is fairly new and I'm ham fisted! This is a man who, while using a screw bit in a cordless drill to remove a HSF from a graphics card, accidentally set the drill to hammer!

...Which is what I'll do to the Centrino NIC when I remove it

[MKim33]

If your NP540 is anything like my NP520, it's tedious but not difficult. The bottom cover has dozens of mini tabs that cling on with a death-grip! Also, the 520 has an optical drive whereas the 540 doesn't, but here's what I did. Forgive me if I miss a few steps.

1. Power down completely

2. Remove HDD panel

3. Remove all the screws that you see from the bottom including the three or four that were under the panel. Note that a few screws are longer than the others, so remember which holes they go into.

4. Pop open the cd tray by sticking a paper clip into hole near eject button and firmly pull whole tray out. Not sure if this was necessary.

5. Using a small screwdriver pop the tab at the rear of the cd slot opening. First one's always the hardest

6. Using a hard guitar pick, work your way around the laptop releasing tabs one by one

7. Remove your bottom and expose the ugliness which is the Intel Centrino 6235!

8. Detach the two antennas attached to wifi adapter

9. Remove screw from wifi adapter

10. Pull out wifi adapter and promptly throw it in the trash!

11. Put everything back together

Hope that helps.

Mike

[AAlbr]

Thanks, about to give that a go.

[cmacd1]

To put stuff all in one place... do you mind me copy/paste this post to my blog?

C-

[JSage]

I'm experiencing a similar problem with a new Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T just purchased last week. The Windows 8 ultrabook has all the latest software / BIOS updates applied and the Intel Centrino 6235 drivers are at the latest 15.8.0.5 version.

It seems that 2.4 gHz wifi is suffering severe packet los that is especially obvious when streaming HD video from the HDHomerun prime unit, which sends the data out as UDP packets. The problem disappears when I use the 5 gHz band - so I suspect it is interference of some kind. On a hunch I disabled bluetooth and viola - all the 2.4 ghz packet loss goes away and I get a pristine picture on 2.4 as well.

This is a serious problem as the Intel Centrino 6235 card bluetooth signals are interfering with WIFI signals on the 2.4 gHz band - so you can't use both at the same time without suffering massive packet loss. Note, you won't notice this on normal web surfing or even file transfers, as TCP/IP will retransmit lost packets. The retransmissions cause increased latency which may be hard to notice. On UDP - the lost packets are obvious.

None of my other wifi cards suffer from this defect - they are work well even with bluetooth enabled.

[cmacd1]

Thanks for the update. If you read the last few pages of this noticeboard you see the error that I get on the Intel card binding N on 15.x drivers. I am not sure if your issue is the same as in dropping connections with wifi base stations. If you are seeing the same error (I have a Samsung 700T too) then you can either wait for the driver replacement (if one arrives) and looks like disable Bluetooth if this is a work around or replace the card with another maker's. The noticeboard above points to my blog that shows how to replace the card if it's the way for you to go - the cost would be around $20 US. Otherwise take the Samsung back and tell them it's their issue to fix as an OEM of the Intel WiFi card. One fix does seem to be regress to the original windows drivers - again explained above - although for me that was not a perfect fix either. It depended on the AP I connected to. My Cisco and 3COM it worked on 14.x drivers but TP LINK it always failed to bind N and so the connection would drop and connect cycling every minute or so. On a bad day, even with N off, it would still fail on B/G too. I have replaced the card, but am hanging on to the Intel card as I do at some point want to use WiDi and faster Bluetooth, but for now a stable connection trumps anything.

Good luck.

C-

[Jose_H_Intel1]

Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience.

Bear in mind Intel® is precluded to recommend the integration or replacement of any wireless adapter due to the regulations already mentioned at the beginning of this thread (/message/164519# 164519 http://communities.intel.com/message/164519# 164519).

Instead, we suggest contacting the computer manufacturer for a professional and approved installation of the wireless adapter in the specific system you own as explained in the article below.

Regulatory information regarding hardware installation or upgrade

http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-011644.htm http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-011644.htm

Intel is paying attention to this issue and we appreciate your patience and understanding; in the meantime you may provide valuable information through the https://supportmail.intel.com/scripts-emf/welcome.aspx?id=1783 e-mail form.

The information that we would like you to provide is:

• Manufacturer and model of laptop that is experiencing issues
• Model of the Wireless adapter
• Operating System version
• Driver and PROSet version used.
• Behavior after testing with the latest driver version
• Confirm if the latest Windows Updates were installed
• Access Point manufacturer, model and firmware version
• Detail description of the issue such as how often issue occurs (hourly, once a day, etc.)
• When issue occurs (during specific game/software/time of day/location, etc.)
• Where issue occurs (number of access points nearby, home or office, hotspot, other wireless devices, using 2.4GHz or 5GHz, etc.)
• Geography or Location ( I.e North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, etc)* this is very important.

Thanks,

Joe

[cmacd1]

I thought I'd sent an email, Joe. I have now done that if it helps.

C-

[DBaxt2]

Hi Joe, I sent an email to the link you provided. I am one of many suffering from dropouts on the N-6235 Wifi card. I've installed what I believe are the latest drivers (15.8.0.5), made sure all updates were installed, and rebooted. Many times. No luck. Keeps dropping my connection.

Every other device in my house works great (two Asus notebooks, Ipad 2, Kindle Fire HD, and any guests that I let connect). And, as others have mentioned, I certainly can't ask hotels, coffee shops, or family to change their router configuration just so I can connect when traveling.

I've temporarily installed a $12.99 Panda Wireless N micro USB adapter. It works great. Not a single dropout. Streaming videos. Rock solid connection. But I really want the built-in Wifi to work. Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

doug

[VTere]

Definitely not a solution, but I have noticed that the 6235 on my laptop does not like Atheros based Routers/WAP. I have access to two routers at home and at office, each with Atheros and Broadcom chipsets. The dropouts only happen when I connect to Atheros based ones. With the Broadcom based routers, the connection is fine.

Obviously we can't control what kind of router people have, so it would be great if intel can figure this out.

[YShar6]

Joe,

Please pardon the tone, but filling up the form will not fix the problem. I use my laptop in 4 different locations. I do not have access to actual router in 3 of those locations and cannot provide router information. In my home, I just replaced the router a few weeks ago and it did not change anything. I have the newest 15.8.0.5 driver (which actually made the problem worse). WiFi drops and that the story.

Intel either does not care or cannot fix it.

I spent over $1500 on the laptop less than a year ago and cannot use it for work. I cannot contact the manufacturer for warranty, for a number of reasons: 1) cannot send it to them, as I need it for my work. 2) I upgraded from WIN7 to Win8 and Samsung does not support upgrades. 3) I upgraded the hard drive and it voids warranty.

Do you think I will avoid intel hardware from now on?

[idata]

Bear in mind Intel® is precluded to recommend the integration or replacement of any wireless adapter due to..

We do realize that, but i'd rather spend an hour changing the useless centrino chip in my $2000 laptop than wasting hours and hours on configurations and driver changes. I'm just happy someone posted the recommended chips to look for here.

The 15.8.0.5 drivers did nothing for me. The state of the art (though not extremely new) Cisco access points at work use channel 6 and 11 (2.4ghz). Channel 11 is slightly better than 6 for anyone trying to get stuff working somewhat. The 5ghz cheap Asus router at a co location works just fine.

I'm basically in the same spot as shargoy, except that i CAN send my laptop to Asus. But since the closest repair center is somewhere else in europe and Asus will claim my laptop for 3 weeks, where do i send the invoice for the 3 weeks i can't use the computer? Not going to happen.

This has been going on for quite some time now, and you should have tons of data to sift through and fix it, my guess is that you simply can't because of some hardware limitation or failure.

[JB26]

Update:

Intel Emailed me and had me try to install their "Wireless Reporting Tool" (WRT), it fails to install for an unknown reason and they said they''d get back to me but have been silent.. that was a few months ago. Love the support from Intel.

I noticed new drivers for the card were available but they fail to install with a (-10)

Again after speaking with Intel support they said there was nothing they could do. Awesome.

[cmacd1]

For those that also struggled, like me, to remove the Intel proset software in windows 8 Control Panel> Programs with the error about this version on your machine cannot be upgraded, remove old version manually, the following thread tells you how to fix it.

/message/191994 http://communities.intel.com/message/191994

[JB26]

Hey still having issues:

The new update that Intel gave out fails to load on the WiFi card and gives an error (-10), why are we still having issues 6 months into the first reported issue?

Also still having issues getting a Wireless N connection. Max speed is still under 70Mbps.

[MZimm5]

With 15.8.0.5 and N-Mode disabled in driver settings, everythings works perfect.

So something is definitly wrong with the N-Mode specific driver code, please fix this ASAP Intel.

[cadam9]

I am having issues as well. I have this card by default in my Dell XPS 12. $1500 laptop and the card is garbage. Even the latest drivers do nothing. I don't seem to drop connection. However pages never want to load properly if at all. Disabled Bluetooth in device manager and still doesn't work right. Disabled power saving and nothing. Disabled Bluetooth amp in the advanced tab or wireless adapter in device manager (not sure what this does exactly) and still did not fix it. Disabling N mode is the ONLY fix. But I need N mode for transfer speeds on my network! You would think Intel of all companies would make a decent card. And here we are STILL fighting with driver updates that DO NOT WORK! Guess i'll have to find another card that will fit in my laptop. It's an ultrabook, shouldn't any adapter work?

[cmacd1]

Check the spec for your laptop first. Some cards can be soldered in. Mine wasn't. Also consider your warranty before opening up the laptop.

From a post earlier I updated my blog with a list of cards and features as well as instructions on how to replace the card on the Samsung 700T. That may be useful in getting you on your way. Keep the Intel card as it is a higher spec than those listed so if fixed would be worth putting back in.

http://macdonaldz.blog.com/2013/06/01/replace-intel-centrino-advanced-n-6235/ http://macdonaldz.blog.com/2013/06/01/replace-intel-centrino-advanced-n-6235/

Good luck.

[JHay]

It seems like there are a few different issues described here, so I don't know if this would address all of them, but I had very bad WiFi drop-out on my new Samsung ATIV Book 6, and was about to return the computer, but found a review on Amazon (of all places!) describing how to disable the Intel driver (using the default Windows driver instead). This has worked amazingly well for me, and many of the reviewers on Amazon, as well.

See the "dissed" user's full review at http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-15-6-Inch-Touchscreen-Laptop-Mineral/dp/B00B588J6S Amazon.com: Samsung ATIV Book 6 15.6-Inch Full HD Touchscreen Laptop (Mineral Ash Black): Computers & Accessories for more details.