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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[idata]

"I recently purchased a Samsung Series 7 Ultra with the Centrino Advanced-N 6235 and experienced "Limited Connectivity" problems --meaning that the PC sporadically lost connection to the Internet (but not the router). A couple of days ago I unchecked "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" in the Properties' Power Management tab of the following devices: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 and Intel Centrino Wireless Bluetooth 4.0 + High Speed Adapter (Control Panel > System and Security > System > Device Manager). I have not had a "Limited Connectivity" problem since."

I tried this, hopeful that it would solve my problem as well, but after following these steps, I had the exact same dropout problem, the only difference being that this time the yellow "!" did not appear over my wireless network icon in my system tray. I had no Internet connection, but now the adapter was reporting that I was still connected.

[idata]

Exactly the same as the above poster. Turning off power save made no difference, still getting drop outs...

[idata]

If you guys can rollback to or install the 15.5.6.48 driver, I would do that. This newest driver started causing the "yellow exclamation mark" not connected to the internet issue. (I'm on Win8 Pro x64) I installed 15.5.6.48 and have had zero issues. Ignoring the update notification in the Samsung SW Update app for now.

[idata]

This thing has more bugs than my Ex trying to Tweet on a Vista computer! I have given up, just ordered a Intel 6230. Gonna give it a try when it gets in next week. I haven't seen threads with the same issues on the 6230, it also is Dual Band card but has Bluetooth 3.0 instead of 4.0 (haven't seen any 4.0 devices out there anyway), maybe going back to the "tried and true" will do the trick. I'll report back after giving it a try.

[idata]

I agree with hfm.

I wrote this some time ago (a few posts earlier) - I found that the only one working configuration is to use 15.5.6.48 version of the driver. I did this and I have never experienced dropout since that time (i downloaded many large files, watched youtube, etc.)

my OS: Win 8 x64

I went to this driver version using my recovery image (to have clear OS), but there is another way i had tried before that:

1) uninstall current ProSet software from Add/Remove programs

2) go to Device Manager, select Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N 6235 and uninstall driver (with option to remove driver software)

3) refresh devices in Device Manager

4) repeat 2) and 3) until you get 15.5.6.48 or earlier

5) if there was no 15.5.6.48 along the way you may need to select Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N 6235 and try to look for new driver (it worked for me and it found 15.5.6.48 (not the latest one))

6) ignore all requests for driver update (SW Update or Windows Updates)

Note: I tried to use WLAN USB dongle to check whether there were some differences in WLAN behavior using that USB dongle and N-6235 on 15.5.6.48. There was none. Both worked the same way, so I stayed on N-6235 15.5.6.48.

Pawel

[idata]

In Device Manager I simply rolled back the driver. The only option I had was 14.8.8.75. This fixed my drop-out problem.

Before that I did try adjusting the power settings but that made no difference.

[idata]

Has anyone with Windows 7 found an old driver that works?

[idata]

Chris,

So far, I been testing 15.3.0.16 and this is the only version that I can run without any problems (crossing fingers)... so far. I've been running it for 2 weeks now. I did some heavy streaming but not too much. Not a single drop. Running 130mb/s. I did see very small packet loss, maybe 1 packet would get dropped out of the thousand, so not too bad.

I got Win7 Pro 64bit, Sager NP9130.

[idata]

I have been tested all versions from oldest to newest. 15.1.1 version is the best one. no dropouts but imperceptible slowdowns. (if you r playing online games, ping will be between 80-300, if you r not playing online games,you probably do not detect any slowdowns.)

if you want to dowload my driver.... https://www.dropbox.com/s/34jq4yqd4wekzg5/Wireless_15.1.1_Ds64_Win7_Win8.exe Dropbox - Wireless_15.1.1_Ds64_Win7_Win8.exe

( I am a NP700 G7C-S02TR user with Win8-64bit..)

[idata]

Thanks cadi, I'll give that one a try and report back

[idata]

No change with the 15.1.1 driver for me unfortunately...still getting dropouts

[idata]

Hello

tried also to go back to version 15.5.6.48. But there are still dropouts. Now turned off N mode again and wait for a new fixed driver Version... Can't understand, why Intel can't fix such a important feature like a wlan Driver in an acceptable time.

It's like a car without wheels.

[MJ5]

Same here! Samsung ultrabook NP900X4C-AO2PL. Tried changing power settings: probably disconnections are less frequent, but still frequent to much. Tried turning off 802.1 n. Again: just slight improvement. Driver I have is already 14.8.8.75; but I can see SW update (Samsung's) prompts to install 15.6.1.20 but another problem: SW update doesn't connect to the server. I'll try to install the driver manually if it doesn't work maybe a tiny USB wireless adapter.

That ultrabook is a gift for my fiancee. Now we're both frustrated. What a shame on Samsung and Intel.

[idata]

Hi,

Just thought i'd share what I have done to temporarily overcome the issue. The newest driver for me (15.6.0.19) was pathetic, constantly dropping connection every few minutes of moderate internet use. So I decided to roll back the driver (15.5.7.52) in adapter settings (which a lot of you have done) and fingers crossed my connection seems stable. Seems like the problem is a poor driver update. I will be waiting for Intel to release an updated driver that should properly FIX our problem!

Laptop: Samsung 550P7C Win 8 64bit

Adapter: Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6235

[idata]

Hi,

I also rolled back the driver to version 15.5.6.48 and re-enabled 802.11n mode. The tray-icon shows no WiFi problems, but there are still dropouts and if i take a look at the windows event-log, I still can see, that the connection still makes problems. So I turned of n-mode again :-(

[AAlbr]

I've recently bought a Samsung NP540 and I'm seeing the same problems as everyone else. Dropouts every few minutes for which I have to restart the laptop to regain connectivity. I've tried all the recent drivers up to the 15.6.1 release and they've also made no difference to the dropout behaviour. It's typically every 10min-30min still. I've also tried with and without n-mode, disabling BT, changing channel, power save options, clean Windows 8 installation, changing the WiFi AP from a WN604 to a WN802T and it made no difference. Other devices on the network, e.g. iPad, S3 and Advent netbook, have no problems maintaining connectivity to either AP.

I'm really surprised this NIC is having problems as I've used Intel LAN cards for years and they've been very reliable.

At the moment it is holding it's connection to my office guest wi-fi but that's an open network with all security and encryption turned off. Really wary of turning the protection off at home though just to test.

What's interesting about the dropouts is that they're not quite instantaneous in their totallity. Last night I was running a couple of telnet sessions to a linux box and it started showing input lag, sometimes of up to 10 seconds for keypresses to appear in the sessions. Also I'd start seeing full lines of solid white bars as if I'd been marking blank lines. I'd go to another machine where there's an open telnet to the same box and it would respond normally. This input lag 'superficially' appears to be the harbinger of network loss which then appears to occur about a minute or two later, however I only spent a couple of hours on this last night so it's currently my perception rather than a demonstrable symptom. Will have another go tonight to see if I can reproduce the 'telnet effect'. I can say though that if I disconnect and then reboot the laptop, I can then telnet back to the linux box as normal until it starts happening again.

[idata]

Guys today I could solve my problem with this adapter and the solution is so funny i never thougth this will work.

I'm studying on a technicl college and i got now for 4 months everyday connection losts in 30seconds intervalls.

I have already the forth device and it was still not working.

i tryed a lot of the ideas you guys posted here. but no one helped really.

The Problem is the Connection handling software.. the idea gave me the IT support of my school.

I didn't found a chance to open any of the programms came with intel on my XE700.

I have still the latest driver installed first.

The solution is: open tast manager and sort for intel processes and terminate them all. after this you need to deactivate the adapter and restart it,

for successful days everyday just deactivate all intel autostart processes. if something is not working on yours so you can easyli just allow the one you need. i could deactivate all. it just work great and i'm so happy... why i didn't tried that earlier...

Anyway i don't need to say anything about intels poor support. just happy to be able to use my tablet after 4 months!!!!!!!!!!

Greets

[idata]

@Piranha16:

I tried your workaround. But for me, your solution hasn't solved the problem. Maybe it has worked for other users?

[idata]

@Stark

what kind of system and card do you have? Which nr of driver?

i've on te latest witz my XE700 and win8pro x64 with 15.6.1.20 (latest over sw update of samsung)

i had the big troubles in my schoolnetwork with eap and mschapv2

soon i will check it on the win7 system of my friend with similat troubles. & give some feedback.

hint: try out step by step disabeling processes of intel. dont forget to disable and reenable the adapter after to ensure the changes will affect this

I deactivated this autostart processes:

• hkcmd Module
• igfxTray Module
• Intel Services Manager
• persistence Module

[idata]

Although I have centrino n2230 it is the same issue - killing/stopping all intel processes seems to help (I will test today again), but it works for me only when I turn off N and set wifi mode to 802.11b only (maybe it is router dependent, I do not have access to it). Anyways, thank you for sharing. After those weeks I will gladly change bad connection for killing all intel processes.

Suggestion: maybe someone more savvy and with some time to spare could isolate which particular intel process is causing the issue, so it will be easier to advice regular users on how to fix the problem.

[idata]

@piranha16

I've Win8 x64, Samsung Series 9 (NP900X3D-A03), Intel Adapter 6235 with driver 15.6.1.20

Deactivated the 4 intel autostarts. Restart an so on...

But there are still this dropouts.

The only thing that helped me, was to turn off the "N" mode. But I know, that's just a "half solution".