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Laptops with 8265 cards constantly dropping connection on new enterprise infrastructure

PWall9
Beginner
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Hello - I just installed a new Ruckus enterprise wifi infrastructure for my school. I have ~50 Lenovo Carbon x1 Gen 6 laptops with Intel 8265 cards in them that are constantly dropping their connection to the new network (never happened with the previous AC wave 1 network). I tried updating to the newest Intel driver (v. 20.70.11.3) to no avail. I have a ticket open with Ruckus and they asked me to post a question here for troubleshooting assistance from the client side.

 

Peter

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
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PWall9, Thank you for posting in the Intel® Communities Support.

 

In order for us to provide the most accurate assistance, we just wanted to confirm a few details about your system:

Is this a new computer?

Did you make any recent hardware/software changes?

Was it working fine before?

The wireless cards, did you purchased them separately or did they come installed in the computer?

When did the issue start?

Which Windows* version are you using?

Did you check with your Internet service provider to make sure the Internet is working properly?

Did you try to connect the laptop to a different router or access point?

The 50 laptops, are all them using the Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265 card?

If you test just one laptop is the problem the same?

 

We recommend to install the Intel® Wireless driver provided by the manufacturer of the computer since that driver was customized by them work with your specific platform. The Intel® Wireless drivers are generic, meaning they might or might not work with your specific platform.

 

I looked on Lenovo's web site and according to them the latest Intel® Wireless driver available is version 21.30.2.0u, please try a clean installation of that driver:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000022173/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking.html

https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/cr/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-x-series-laptops/thinkpad-x1-carbon-6th-gen-type-20kh-20kg/downloads

 

Regards,

Alberto R.

 

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

 

Regards,

Alberto R.

 

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

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PWall9
Beginner
2,216 Views

Alberto - Apologies, I have been trying to collect more data with packet captures with Ruckus tech support but that has been inconclusive so far. Answers to your questions below:

 

Is this a new computer? - These computers are 1 year old Lenovo Carbon X1 laptops

Did you make any recent hardware/software changes? - No changes to the laptops. The only change is an all-new Ruckus wifi network (Ruckus R730 APs).

Was it working fine before? Yes, it was working fine with the old wifi network, which was made up of Fortinet (formerly Meru) AC wave 1 APs.

The wireless cards, did you purchased them separately or did they come installed in the computer? Factory installed equipment.

When did the issue start? On day 1 of installing the new Ruckus wifi APs.

Which Windows* version are you using? Windows 10, various clients have either version of 1803 or 1903.

Did you check with your Internet service provider to make sure the Internet is working properly?

Did you try to connect the laptop to a different router or access point? It's occurring on any access point these clients are connected to in the school. No reported problems when they take their computers home (though it's unlikely any of these people have an 802.11ax access point at home either).

The 50 laptops, are all them using the Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265 card? Yes, they were all bought at the same time. None of our Mac OSX clients have an issue connecting.

If you test just one laptop is the problem the same? See answer to previous question.

 

I have downloaded and installed the latest driver for the Intel 8265 card from Lenovo's website that you linked above and it did not fix the problem or change the symptoms of the problem at all. One thing to note is that when this issue is seen, it seems to happen when the laptop comes out of sleep mode. Basically a teacher will be using their laptop just fine on the wifi network and then will get up from their desk to teach class (thus their laptop goes to sleep due to inactivity). When they come back to their desk to use it again, the wifi network is disconnected and will not reconnect to any networks *at all* (even open networks with no password). In order to work again, the computer must be restarted (easiest fix for my users to do), or the wifi connection disabled and reenabled through the "change adapter settings" section of the "network and sharing" section of the old-school control panel. In additon, looking in the "System" section of the Event Viewer, there are a ton of errors thrown by the Netwtw06 driver. One says "Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265: The network adapter has returned an invalid value to the driver.". The other says "Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265: Has determined that the network adapter is not functioning properly". There is also another Event Viewer error message I arrived to this morning that says 'The network interface "Intel (R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265" has begun resetting. There will be a momentary disruption in network connectivity while the hardware resets. Reason: The network driver requested that it be reset. This network interface has reset 9 time(s) since it was last initialized.'

 

I'm not sure where to proceed from here - I've given the link to this support thread to the Ruckus support team so that they can see the steps you are having me try. The packet captures are inconclusive because the capture stops every time the wifi interface gets reset (refer to the event log message above). What's next?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Peter

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
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PWall9, I just wanted to check if you saw the information posted previously and if you need further assistance on this matter?

 

Regards,

Alberto R.

 

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
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PWall9, Thank you very much for providing those details.

 

In this case, it seems to be that the problem could be related to compatibility between the Lenovo Carbon x1 Gen 6 laptops and the Ruckus wifi network.

 

Since the problem is happening with all the 50 laptops actually indicates that it is not a problem with the Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265 card, it seems to be related to the Operating System or even the BIOS of the laptops.

 

At this point, what we recommend is to keep checking with Ruckus technical support to verify if there are known issues or compatibility problems between the Lenovo Carbon x1 Gen 6 laptops and Ruckus devices and to check if they have further suggestions on this matter.

 

Additionally, you can also get in contact with Lenovo directly for them to confirm the compatibility between the devices and to verify the settings in the BIOS of the laptops, they might be able to try to replicate this issue using the same exact computer that you have:

https://support.lenovo.com/us/en

 

You can always contact Microsoft as well to confirm if there are known issues with Windows* and the Ruckus device and if they have some recommendations for this scenario:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us

 

Regards,

Alberto R.

 

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

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PWall9
Beginner
2,216 Views

Alberto - I believe your conclusion is incorrect (or at the very least premature). I would postulate, given the amount of people complaining on this forum about problems with newer drivers for their Intel wireless cards, that there could be a bug in the driver that is somehow triggered by newer (802.11ax) wifi equipment. There is another question posted by an IT support person within the last week or two talking about almost the exact same symptoms, but with a different wifi equipment vendor (Meraki in that case). I need you to be more helpful than just saying "it's not our problem, go ask someone else".

 

Peter

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
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PWall9, Thank you very much for your response.

 

The reason why we think this is a compatibility issue is because the issue started right after the Ruckus device was installed.

You mentioned that the problem happens when the laptop is coming out sleep mode, in those cases what happens is that the motherboard is not sending the correct signal to the Intel® Wireless card to be reactivated, so the problem could be related to the BIOS of the laptop in reference to the power states and not regarding the Intel® Wireless driver.

 

Please provide the information requested in the following form so we can further assist you:

 

Problem details

Problem description: 

Frequency of occurrence (once an hour, day, always): 

Computer power source (plugged in or battery):

Steps to reproduce (provide links to forums, online help, screen shots):

Attempted workaround (turn off settings, change power settings, etc.):

Environment (office, school, hospital, factory, home):

 

Client computer details

Computer manufacturer(s):

Computer model(s):

Windows OS (provide Version number if Win10, and 32- or 64-bit):

WiFi configuration manager (e.g. Intel PROSet, Windows AutoConfig (native), etc.):

WiFi adapter model(s):

WiFi device driver version:

Number of systems affected:

 

Wireless security method

Encryption Type (Open, RC4, TKIP, AES):

802.1X authentication type (WEP, TKIP, CCMP):

Key Management Type (PEAP, EAP-FAST):

 

WiFi network environment

Access Point manufacturer, model, & SW version:

Wireless Frequencies in use (2.4 and/or 5 GHz):

802.11n or 802.11ac enabled (None/HT(11n)/VHT(11ac)): 

Channel Width (20 MHz vs. 40 MHz) for 2.4 GHz?

Channel Width (20 MHz vs. 40 MHz vs. 80MHz) for 5 GHz?

SSID stealth mode (hidden or broadcast):

 

Enterprise Customers:

WLAN Controller manufacturer, model, and SW version:

RADIUS Server Make/Version:

 

Debug data

Please include the following (if available):

· Intel Wireless Reporting Tool (WRT)

· Intel WiFi Tool (ping utility)

· Windows System Event log

· Windows WLAN-AutoConfig log

· Screen shots depicting failure

 

We do recommend still to contact Ruckus support and Lenovo support for possible BIOS updates or suggestions on this matter.

 

Regards,

Alberto R.

 

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

 

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
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PWall9, I just wanted to check if the information posted previously was useful for you and if you need further assistance on this matter?

 

Regards,

Alberto R.

 

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
2,216 Views

PWall9, Since I have not heard back from you, we are closing the case, but if you have any additional questions, just reply back or post a new question.

 

Regards,

Alberto R.

 

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

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