Hi, i have a Sony Vaio (VPCM13M1E), and i need some expert advice, for i know not what to do with this laptop... Iit has a problem with the wireless connection: randomly, the wireless connection drops no matter what wireless network its connected at that moment. I have other wireless devices on the house (Ipods, Laptops) that dont have this problem with the wireless. On the Event Viewer, under "Services and Applications / Microsoft / Windows / WLan AutoConfig" its registered moments before the "drop": "Wireless Security Stopped." then "Wireless Configuration Utility successfully ceased a connection to a wireless network." then it attemps automatically to restart the connection, only to fail an register this: "association to a wireless network started" "fail to associate to a wireless network" (under Error level) and finally "Wireless Configuration Manager failed when estabilishing a connection to a wireless network" (under error level) So, to restore my wireless connection, i disable de Wireless Device, wait a few seconds, re-enable it, and it works again. What i have done so far to try to overcome this problem: - Updated from the native Windows Driver, to the manufacturers driver (Ralink) latest driver... - Uninstalled the 3rd party software (aka Sony Vaio Smart Network)... - Changed the ability to windows stop the wireless to change energy... - Changed the driver option of power management to Constantly Awake Mode... - Changed the wireless security connection of the router... and finnally (part 1) - With the help of a local store of a friend of mine, changed the wireless "chip"to another brand... (part 2) - reinstalled Windows using the automated recovery that comes with the Sony Vaio... none of this worked. A friend of mine loaned me a USB Wireless Adaptor, and with that connection it didn't drop... ever... Please help me in anyway you can... i dont know what to do since i don't want to spend money buying a USB Wireless Adaptor... Thx in advance. P.S. - my windows is in Portuguese-PT, so i had to translate the error messeges to EN... so i may have mistyped something.

Uninstall the wireless adapter driver on laptop, after that install the latest version of wireless adapter driver, make sure it's the one used for Windows 7. Don't install 3rd party wireless utility if possible. Feel free to have a look on this wireless network troubleshooting tips article to get more ideas. Hope this helps.

Thx for the input Dawooddoe, but before i installed the latest Ralink driver, latest Windows driver was already installed... and did try the "remove-reboot-reinstall" move on the windows driver... no changes then. Then i did go on to the rest of the steps i mentioned. Again, thanks for "trying". ;)

Hello, Is this a new laptop? If not, did it used to work fine before? If so, and based on the information from your post, it's possible that the wireless transmitter/receiver on your laptop is malfunctioning. If it's under warranty, I would have Sony check it out. Miguel Fra | Falcon IT Services, Miami, FL www.falconitservices.com | www.falconits.com | Blog

I believe i got it... after weeks of "pain" looking for the problem. One of the Tips i read, was about "WLAN AutoConfig Service in Windows 7", and how to choose between this Service and the Wireless Device Manufaturer's software... Tried doing as they say, but got nowhere... only found out that when i disabled the Windows Service, automatically the Sony software would "shut down" the Wireless device... So, as a "nowhere to go but up now" move :), i changed the property of the WLAN AutoConfig service from Automatic to Manual, stopped the service, and then started the wireless from the Vaio software... the service got back on, and the wireless hasn't dropped once since. To be honest, don't know exactly how what i did changed anything... but it worked. So, thanks for the tips, as they got me in the right path. :)

In your post you said you had uninstalled the Sony 3rd party wireless program.. let's hope it stays working!Miguel Fra | Falcon IT Services, Miami, FL www.falconitservices.com | www.falconits.com | Blog

Well.... it didn't... :( You jinxed it FalconIT (just kidding ;) ). I updated Windows to the latest patches... and i am stuck in this again. Still, i believe this is a SW issue... anyway i can control the Wireless adapter without the WLAN AutoConfig? Other than Sony's that is... some software that controls Wireless devices or something like this?

Hi, Please check if issue will also occur in Clean Boot Mode. Hope this helps. Jeremy Wu TechNet Community Support

Hi, Please check if issue will also occur in Clean Boot Mode. Hope this helps. Jeremy Wu TechNet Community Support

Still occurs... :(