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 have an Asus Zenbook prime that came with Windows 7 installed. The N6235 worked great until I upgraded to Windows 8. Since then, I have experienced sporadic network drops, usually when on battery and after some amount of idle time. I played with the power saving settings for the network card as others have suggested, with no change. I uninstalled the Intel driver, which is the current version (15.5.6.48) and had been installed prior to the Windows 8 upgrade. This can be done through the Windows 8 control panel, uninstall a program option. Once the driver was uninstalled, my driver version reverted to the Microsoft signed version, 15.5.4.45. I assume this is the version that is part of the Windows 8 installation. Since the downgrade, the wireless interface is slightly different, there is an additional question when connecting to a wireless network asking if the network is private or public. I have been using the older version of the driver for a few days now and the connection problems have disappeared. One additional note, although I do not use the bluetooth feature, it is enabled without a problem. I hope this helps anyone who is still having this issue.

[idata]

Hello,

I've got an Asus UX32VD with the Centrino-6235 and Win 7 64 bit. I use a AVM Fritz.Box 7320 as Router and a D-Link DAP-1522 as WLAN Access point. When my notebook is connectet to the Fritz.box via WLAN than I have no connection problems, but if i use the D-Link then I have the problems mentioned in this thread: sporadic connection problems to the access point.

So this is probably a problem related to the router. Here must Intel begin to investigate.

[idata]

Well, I am running Windows 7, and considering there are people with other brands of computers reporting the exact issue we have, I would venture to guess it is Intel.

[idata]

OK, I have just signed up for Intel's forums specifically to join the numbers suffering through this nonsense.

I encourage anyone else (like myself) who has googled just about every combination of ''Samsung Intel Centrino 6235 wifi issues connectivity problem fix'' etc etc etc.. Who has tried every combination of power setting, every combination of driver rollback...Who has sat on the phone being told by a Samsung ''tech'' to remove and refit the battery to fix the problem on a SEALED ULTRABOOK??...Who has suffered through Samsung livechat being given links to driver downloads for laptops that do not have the same network card, who later tell you there is nothing they can do for you, who then lie and tell you that there are no drivers available before dosconnecting you...On and on I could rant.

ANYONE RECOGNISE THIS SCENARIO?? - Add your voice. Sign up takes two minutes. Power in numbers.

I have a Series 9 (NP900X4C-A03CA), currently on latest drivers and have similar problems.

I get the Samsung default software popping up telling me 'network connection disconnected'' (or something) and any page I try to view needs at least 1 (often 4) reloads before all elements(css,images,scripts) will load and a page is fully functional. (Imagine facebook, but with no CSS and comments not working or gmail loading bar never quite getting there unless you refresh a couple of times or a blog loading with all the photos showing dead links - that sort of thing)

• It is NOT my ISP
• It is NOT my router. All other devices work fine. Why can't the most expensive device in the house?

After writing an email to the ''Office of the CEO'' on Samsung's website, I was put in touch with a real engineer at Samsung in Ontario. He was at least sympathetic (and a nice guy), but explained that he had never heard of such a thing. I guess this is what worries me most. Do Samsung / Intel just pump products out then NEVER look at the statistics on how many support calls they get on the specific product/issue? Do none of the guys at Samsung or Intel have a poke around the odd review site or even their companies own forum and see people screaming out for at least an acknowledgement of ''Don't worry guys...we feel your pain and will pull through for you eventually. Just bear with us'' - That would be fine. S**t happens, people make mistakes. Just please tell us that we are right and not making this up??

Please?

[idata]

I know this doesn't help but I have a NP700G7C-S02US and it has exactly the same issue as

I have 4 different AP's to try at home, I use this as my work computer as well and find I need to use Ethernet when I go to clients or my 4G card.

The pages sometimes load correctly but more times than not (no matter what browser I use) the page only partially loads, so I need to refresh a few times.

This is not an issue when playing online games, file transfers, just internet browsing.

[TChus]

I was hoping to find a solution to this problem but it appears there isn't one to be found. The common denominator is the Intel 6235 module. Anyone know of a good class action attorney?

[idata]

I had the same problem. I had a Samsung with the Intel 6235 wireless adapter. I am a web designer and if I can't get on the internet or have problems getting on the internet, then the laptop is no use to me. I read all the posts on here and it looks like Intel does not care or they think the issue will go away. I just return the laptop back to Best Buy for a better one, but this time I made sure that the laptop did not have the Intel 6235 wireless adapter.

[idata]

I have the same problem! I can't get a sustained stable connection using Wireless N, but wireless G is stable. I have tried all the suggestions on the forums (disable bluetooth, maximum performance on the WiFi NIC etc) with no success.I have a Billion 7800N, all other devices in my house work fine on wireless and have a stable connection.

I paid a premium for a Samsung Series 9 NP900X3C-A01AU only to be let down by Intel's Wifi.

Why doesn't Intel respond on this topic or give us an indication on a fix??

[TChus]

Figured out my particular scenario in the settings of my D-Link DIR-655 and this 6235. Setting the router and adapter to match supporting features was key. Enabling WMM, 802.11 n,g,b only (no a), and using the 20 MHz channel width was effective. Am now getting 54-180 Mbps (according to Windows) without dropping sessions and video streams well. Getting 23 Mbps d/l and 3 Mbps u/l through U-Verse consistently. Having a professional installer or use only the laptop's OEM specifications is a bad excuse by Intel to blow this off inmho. The "Main" and "Aux" connectors may need to be alternated for utilizing pre-existing internal antenna placements. Both the BT and WiFi are finally usable on my modded non-OEM spec'ed Asus S400CA.

[idata]

We bought fifteen HP 9470m laptops with a Centrino 6235 for our company and we're also experiencing unworkable speeds sometimes (although the signal strength stays excellent). Only work-around is to reconnect to the network or disable 802.11n. We use about 6 different models on this wireless network without any problems so it must be the 6235 chip. Any response from Intel would be nice.

[idata]

I made an account just to say this.

I've had the exact same problem with the exact same wireless card, and was following this thread for a number of days. Nothing suggested thus far has worked aside from madman6886's suggestion to use generic Microsoft drivers instead of Intel ones.

This is the only thing which has worked for me, and instructions on how to do it are as follows:

1. Download an extra copy of drivers from Intel for this card (just in case this doesn't work and you lose any way to connect to the Internet).

2. Go to Device Manager (in Windows 8, type "Device Manager" on the Start screen - it should be under the "Settings" filter - else you can find it in Control Panel), and under "Network Adapters", you should see something like "Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N 6235".

3. Right-click it and press "Uninstall." Make sure the checkbox for "Uninstall device drivers" is checked, if it shows up. (You'll lose your internet connection here.)

4. Under the "Bluetooth" section, look for the Bluetooth adapter (forgot what it's named, specifically), and repeat the process.

5. Go to Programs and Features (in Windows 8, type "Programs and Features" on the Start screen under the "Settings" filter - else it should also be in the Control Panel), and uninstall anything that has to do with Intel Centrino or Intel Bluetooth or whatever.

6. Restart and open Device Manager again - if you right-click "Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N 6235" under Network Adapters and go to Properties, under the Drivers section, it should list "Microsoft" as the provider instead of Intel. You are now using generic Microsoft drivers for your card.

I hope this helps anyone out.

[idata]

Nothing that has been posted thus far has solved my issue... Did I really just pay 999.99 at bestbuy for a laptop that has latency issues?

Every time I play League of Legends and other games, I have sporadic extremely noticeable latency spikes. This has happened on several different wireless connections, Intel please provide a answer referencing a hotfix...

[idata]

I tried Sean's suggestions (driver roll back) and seemed to work, but after about 5 minutes or so, the network problems started again.

I'm not sure why Intel is ignoring the N 6235 issue? Maybe they just hope we go away.

[idata]

The solution of Sean Collins worked for me.

My Computer is: SAMSUNG Ativ Smart PC Pro/Windows 8 Pro

Symptoms: whenever doing a longer, continuous download, the connection dropped after some 100 MB, a few seconds later indicating "limited" (my test case: Samsung SWupdate, 210 MB large update for "recovery", never finding an end). Disconnect/Connect helped, but certainly the download was interrupted. Also happened for Videos, or sometimes without obvious reason (maybe drobbox/email in background).

After killing the Intel drivers, the Device Manager showed Intel drivers, and SWupdate ran through... However, after restart there are Intel 15.5.6.48 drivers again shown... Hm. I keep you informed.

[idata]

Going off my assumption in post 418, I did some research into my D-Link DIR-655, and it appears that it was originally designed with Draft-N, while I assume that since the Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 is newer, that it was designed with the full IEEE 802.11n standard. There was a firmware update on my router, and after installing that update, I haven't had any problems thus far (after several system reboots and sleep/hiberate as well as multiple large downloads) on my ASUS UX31A. I'm not positive that this fixed the entire issue, but I've had a small success. I will post an update again in a few days with further testing results.

[idata]

Phillip Bradbury wrote:

Going off my assumption in post 418, I did some research into my D-Link DIR-655, and it appears that it was originally designed with Draft-N, while I assume that since the Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 is newer, that it was designed with the full IEEE 802.11n standard. There was a firmware update on my router, and after installing that update, I haven't had any problems thus far (after several system reboots and sleep/hiberate as well as multiple large downloads) on my ASUS UX31A. I'm not positive that this fixed the entire issue, but I've had a small success. I will post an update again in a few days with further testing results.

Give it a couple of days. My UX31A always came back with issues after some time. I use an Asus RT-N16 running Tomato firmware.

[idata]

I can confirm that uninstalling the Intel ProSet software and the Intel 15.6.1.20 driver such that the Microsoft Driver 14.8.8.75 is used WORKED FOR ME AS WELL!!!!! I have a Samsung Series 9 with Windows 8 and I am using the DIR-655 router. One thing that confused me first was that the "Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235" under the Network Adapters section of the Device Manager kept coming back after reboot. I did it 10 times then I finally realized that this WAS the Microsoft driver when I opened it up and went to the "Driver" tab. BTW, the original driver would drop out every time I tried to do a relatively large download (like the "Recovery" download in the SW Update software). Once I switched to the Microsoft driver, this download worked fine. I have been using for an hour with no dropouts. Time will tell. Hope this helps someone.

[JRich9]

My Samsung ATIV XE700T1C came with 15.6.1.19 installed (since I purchased the tablet directly from Samsung and not from the Microsoft store). Connections were stable and WIDI worked perfectly with that driver. Then an update to 15.6.1.20 was offered both in SWUpdate and on the Intel website. Updating the driver caused streaming disconnects sporadically, every 10-15 minutes. I then went into my Device Manager and rolled the driver back to 15.6.1.19, and everything works fine, including WIDI (which I understand the Microsoft drivers do not support). I have notified Samsung of the problem with the 15.6.1.20 driver, but have not yet received a response. Hopefully, Intel will pay attention to this site and work with Samsung to come up with a version (15.6.1.21??) that will work properly (and Samsung SWUpdate will stop warning me that I am going to have problems with my computer by running the older driver version).

[idata]

dracore wrote:

Phillip Bradbury wrote:

Going off my assumption in post 418, I did some research into my D-Link DIR-655, and it appears that it was originally designed with Draft-N, while I assume that since the Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 is newer, that it was designed with the full IEEE 802.11n standard. There was a firmware update on my router, and after installing that update, I haven't had any problems thus far (after several system reboots and sleep/hiberate as well as multiple large downloads) on my ASUS UX31A. I'm not positive that this fixed the entire issue, but I've had a small success. I will post an update again in a few days with further testing results.

Give it a couple of days. My UX31A always came back with issues after some time. I use an Asus RT-N16 running Tomato firmware.

dracore wrote:

Phillip Bradbury wrote:

Going off my assumption in post 418, I did some research into my D-Link DIR-655, and it appears that it was originally designed with Draft-N, while I assume that since the Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 is newer, that it was designed with the full IEEE 802.11n standard. There was a firmware update on my router, and after installing that update, I haven't had any problems thus far (after several system reboots and sleep/hiberate as well as multiple large downloads) on my ASUS UX31A. I'm not positive that this fixed the entire issue, but I've had a small success. I will post an update again in a few days with further testing results.

Give it a couple of days. My UX31A always came back with issues after some time. I use an Asus RT-N16 running Tomato firmware.

Absolutely right. After 3 1/2 days of this working great, it stopped working today. Back to working with my USB wireless card, since it doesn't randomly stop working. This is extremely disappointing. Maybe some day Intel will figure out this driver problem--in the meantime, I'll be letting everybody that I know to put a moratorium on Intel wireless purchases and to stick with D-Link, since I've had nowhere near the problems with them.

[JDubb]

I just did this and my internet is now working fine!

[idata]

Stumbled across this thread and others as I was about to complete my purchase of a Samsung ultrabook.

Just decided not to.

Congratulations, Intel, congratulations, Samsung. Engage with your customers (and potential customers) or they will desert you.

I'm now off to put more money in the ever-swelling coffers of Mr Mac. I wonder why that happens???