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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[MLee59]

OK Intel...

With all due respect this is getting to be a bit ridiculous now. For me the problem has been lingering more than a year now and successful resolution of this is nowhere in sight. I believe I have waited patiently among other unfortunate users of this particular product.

I don't think we are asking too much for a product to work the way that it is designed to work. The so-called updates and please wait postings are simply no remedy to what we have faced over the horrendous experience we had with your product.

So please let us know what the status is and if successful resolution is in sight. I simply don't appreciate the fact that you are offering us a glimpse of hope that this will be resolved - If you are not able to do so be upfront so we can all move on.

Sincerely,

Michael Lee

British Columbia, Canada

[MSant24]

I have had this problem for over 1 1/2 years, and I think we finally found the solution. Curiously, the laptop never dropped an internet connection either at school or at other people's homes, so it made me think that there was a problem with the router configuration. I called my ISP this morning and they had me change the SSID settings for our internet connection from WPA-WPA2 to just WPA. We're going on an hour without a dropped connection (and it's never lasted more than about 20 minutes before). They also said that if the connection drops out we could try the WEP setting instead, but so far so good. I hope this helps someone. I don't know why this has been such a long lasting problem, but I would love to hear if this works for anyone else.

[Kevin_M_Intel]

We are really sorry for the inconvenience on this matter. We will release a driver soon that contains important fixes. In the meantime I recommend you to install the latest version we have and run all windows updates:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=23726 https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=23726

Kevin M

[PB6]

Dear Kevin

This is a great news however as a end-user and HW engineer I would like to hear a clear answer: did you find a root cause and solution for connection dropouts?

In my opinion this is a critical issue with the first priority. Currently we have 16.11 release of Intel drivers for Intel 6230 wireless module that I have in my Samsung ultrabook and still the same problem. I would like to know in which country you develop these drivers? Sorry but it looks like cheap outsourcing. I cannot believe that good Intel engineers from Silicon Valley or Israel write a critical patch so long.

I realize that this is a business and many things can not be published but please keep in mind consequences for an Intel brand.

I hope that your strategy is NOT to deceive customers because you afraid class action settlement in US like in Nvidia G84 case (in case of unresolved hardware bug).

And please remember that end-users also work for Intel and similar companies. Next time I will choose an Atheros or Broadcom product.

Of course they also have a silicon, hw/sw bugs but maybe less critical than in Intel products.

Best Regards,

PB

[John_S_Intel]

* Intel recommends that you obtain and use the software provided by your laptop manufacturer. Please check with your OEM first. *

We have posted the latest generic version (17.1.0) of Intel® PROSet/Wireless WiFi Software and drivers to download center:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=24220 Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software for Windows 8.1*

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=24219 Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software and Drivers for Windows 8*

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=24217 Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software and Drivers for Windows 7*

This version supports the following products:

Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6205

Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6235

Intel® Centrino® Ultimate-N 6300

Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 105

Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 135

Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 2230

[DL_nn1]

Still having the same issues as i have had for over a year...

My ping is peeking once every minute giving me huge lags.

And yes i have tested maybe 10 different routers and my friend with the same laptop is having the same problem.

When will you fix this???!!!

[KYusi]

kevin_intel Wifi just dropped out to limited again. "default gateway unavailable" the same issue as before. Thanks for nothing. I'm in disbelief.

[SSchm15]

Same issues as before. We live since one and a half year with that bug. Isn't it time to give us a new piece of hardware that has no bug? Most of us don't think that this a driver issue anymore!

[John_S_Intel]

Please contact Intel Customer Support. We'd like you to open up a service ticket with the contact center and do some further troubleshooting. Let the contact center agent know that you have already reviewed all of the information available on our online support community and have been asked by the product support engineer to open a support case. There are several issues that have been root-caused and fixed in the latest version of PROSet (17.1.0) for the 2230 adapter. We need to find out what is happening in your system that is unrelated to the connectivity issues that were fixed in this latest software package.

Thanks,

John S.

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[RLake]

Just to make sure I'm following correctly, the latest driver has fixes for the 2230 adapter but not the 6235 as covered by this topic? :/

I have the following Intel system (from the EPP no less) which I hope ought to make it easy to source a configuration to replicate failure. I'm considering alternative wireless/bluetooth devices at this point...

NUC KIT D54250WYK

SSD 530 SERIES

6235AN NETWORK INTERFACE CARD

The wireless router is a Linksys E1200 but I've had the same connection dropout with an Apple Airport Extreme. All other devices connected to the router are fine, 3rd-party USB wifi dongles in the NUC included.

[JBrow30]

I've been testing the new driver on w8.1 x64 with intel N2230 wireless card.

Still the same problems as before, connection drops ( not as much but still there ), connection alive but no communication and a few minutes ago while watching a movie Wifi froze completely. A restart of the computer did not work. Had to power off and boot from scratch to enable it again.

Wifi seems more stable while on power cord than on battery.

So Wifi is still not usable.

[GArki]

This new driver seems promising so far (8.1u1 x64). I haven't had a connection drop since it was installed almost a week now. I did some stress tests as well, running torrent, downloading huge files on local network and from NAS which usually caused connection drops quite fast and repeatedly.

I'm not saying this has finally fixed the issue because I had my hopes up several times so far and eventually this issue always came back so far, but I doubt I ever had such a quiet period with the heavy use I did the last week.

[GArki]

Today I had two connection drops again so this driver still does not solve the issue. This is really annoying now, I'm suffering from this for more than half a year. I didn't bought an Ultrabook to get it connected via an UTP cable whenever I want a stable connection.

[HVoge]

Boy, after 15 months of aggravation i really hoped you would have nailed it with this update. But sadly, within a few minutes of enabling bluetooth and trying to use it, wireless failed once again.

This network card has cost me days of my life! At least it no longer causes endless disruptions to the entire network - with more recent updates, some restrictions on wifi settings and especially keeping bluetooth turned off at all times. UGH

[SPiqu]

I have tested the 17.1.0 driver on my Dell XPS8500 with Windows 8.1u1 x64 for a week and experienced zero drop out (Default settings).

Previously I had to disable and enable the adapter every other minute on W7 x64 with all the previous driver versions.

I torrented, played mmorpg and did massive downloads without problems.

[John_S_Intel]

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