WiFi Connection drops out randomly
Alright, I moved to Windows 7 Ultimate x64 a few weeks ago, and everything's been working fine, until this past week. Every now and then, my wireless card will start having hiccups, dropping all connections, losing its connection to the access point, and then reconnecting, all within 30 seconds. Everything will then be fine for about five minutes, then it'll repeat. It starts doing this randomly, and stops doing it randomly. I have only had it happen at home, however, I'm hesitant to pin it on any of my network equipment, as I have several laptops and desktops that all are working fine whenever this occurs, and are connected via WiFi and Ethernet to my router. Sometimes rebooting stops this, sometimes it doesn't. If I shut off the computer for six hours, it stops. Rebooting the DSL modem and the access point doesn't help, as the symptoms continue afterward. In my Event Log is under Windows Logs>System, the first event in the series is always this series: 1) The TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service was successfully sent a stop control. The reason specified was: 0x40030011 [Operating System: Network Connectivity (Planned)] Comment: None Log Name: System Source: Service Control Manager Date: 12/22/2009 8:49:44 PM Event ID: 7042 Task Category: None Level: Information Keywords: Classic User: SYSTEM Computer: Tripp7 Description: The TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service was successfully sent a stop control. The reason specified was: 0x40030011 [Operating System: Network Connectivity (Planned)] Comment: None Event Xml: <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event"> <System> <Provider Name="Service Control Manager" Guid="{555908d1-a6d7-4695-8e1e-26931d2012f4}" EventSourceName="Service Control Manager" /> <EventID Qualifiers="16384">7042</EventID> <Version>0</Version> <Level>4</Level> <Task>0</Task> <Opcode>0</Opcode> <Keywords>0x8080000000000000</Keywords> <TimeCreated SystemTime="2009-12-23T04:49:44.563566000Z" /> <EventRecordID>30345</EventRecordID> <Correlation /> <Execution ProcessID="660" ThreadID="2628" /> <Channel>System</Channel> <Computer>Tripp7</Computer> <Security UserID="S-1-5-18" /> </System> <EventData> <Data Name="param1">TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper</Data> <Data Name="param2">stop</Data> <Data Name="param3">0x40030011</Data> <Data Name="param4">Operating System: Network Connectivity (Planned)</Data> <Data Name="param5">None</Data> </EventData> </Event> 2) "The Computer Browser service entered the running state." (which makes no sense since the Browser service was supposed to be already running) 3) "The TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service entered the stopped state." 4) "The Application Experience service entered the stopped state." 5) "Name resolution for the name (random site that I or one of my services tried to happen to connect to at the time, and is always different) timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded." 6) "The browser has forced an election on network \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{367493D5-02F6-46A9-869A-FDB435FA1AB9} because a master browser was stopped." 7) "The Computer Browser service was successfully sent a stop control. The reason specified was: 0x40030011 [Operating System: Network Connectivity (Planned)] Comment: None" 8) "The browser has forced an election on network \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{367493D5-02F6-46A9-869A-FDB435FA1AB9} because a master browser was stopped." 9) "The Computer Browser service entered the stopped state." Five to ten minutes later, that repeats for each time this has happened. SO, what I would like to know is this: 1) Why is this happening? Event log says "Operating System: Network Connectivity (Planned)" but I certainly never PLANNED for my network to drop out every 10 minutes! 2) How can I fix this? 3) How can this be prevented from happening again? What I've tried: Rebooting computer Rebooting network hardware Rolling back driver Updating driver Disabling all security applications Checking for updates Confirming WiFi settings Confirming network settings Disabling IPv6 Looking through Task Scheduler to see if anything might have caused the problem Check signal strength and interference (80% signal strength, no interference sources (I'm running in 5Ghz mode), no attackers (see previous), etc.) Please don't suggest I use a wired connection, or that I try to, as it's not practical for me to run an Ethernet line from halfway across my already-built house. Other details: Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 4GB RAM 250GB HDD Acer Aspire 6920 Laptop NIC: Intel 4965AGN 2.4/5Ghz 802.11n WiFi adapter
December 23rd, 2009 12:18am

I've been experiencing the same thing for about the same period of time with Windows 7 Professional (x64). The only thing I would add to that is that on my wifi router's log I get an entry that says the following at the same time: Wireless system with MAC address XXXXXXXXXX disconnected for reason: Received Deauthentication.
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December 23rd, 2009 3:04am

See, that indicates to me that it's Windows 7 telling the computer to deauthenticate and leave the network, and not something being caused by the router/access point.
December 23rd, 2009 3:45am

Under the properties of the wireless network connection you can tell windows NOT to look for better connections.If your signal is weak or lossing packets wins looks for a better connection.Try to set your connection to never look and see if that is a fix.Open the list of wireless connections, hightlite the one you use, right click, select properties, under connection deselet the "connect to a more preferred network if ..."Now if you are in charge of the wi-fi AP you should make sure your SSID is not the same as others around you.And adjust the channel it is on so it is not the same as other networks aroundin the G world 1, 6, 11 do not over lap so if others around you are on 6 (default for most home grade AP's) use 1 or 11 ansd so on.A short "wardrive" around the network area is a good idea.
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December 23rd, 2009 8:54am

The "Connect to a more preferred network if available" was already un-checked. And this is an 802.11n network out in the middle of network, so there's no other networks to conflict or for it to try to connect to.
December 23rd, 2009 8:13pm

OK Have you hardwired it for testing?Have you booted to safemode with networking and tested??Try a second WiFi adapter and see it still happens??ran hijack this / scanned for malware / virus???Taking a shotgun to it???
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December 23rd, 2009 10:35pm

The problem is that this starts randomly, and having my computer plugged into my router is impractical in my situation. Scanned for malware and all that, no dice. Second wifi adapter is impossible; I can't afford a 802.11n USB adapter. Booting to safemode: Impractical (see first item) I've tightened up my firewall's security rules and also found that my wireless network wasn't on the top of the list of networks I had saved, so I switched that. Hopefully that fixes things?
December 23rd, 2009 10:38pm

Good luck
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December 23rd, 2009 10:42pm

You need to download the latest driver from the following website. Acer - Service & SupportImportant Note: Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you find technical support. This contact information may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this third-party contact information. Then I suggest you remove the adapter driver from Program and Features. Then reinstall the driver. If the issue still occurs, please re-create the wireless connection with the anti-virus program, disabled.Arthur Xie - MSFT
December 24th, 2009 2:25am

You need to download the latest driver from the following website. Acer - Service & SupportImportant Note: Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you find technical support. This contact information may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this third-party contact information. Then I suggest you remove the adapter driver from Program and Features. Then reinstall the driver. If the issue still occurs, please re-create the wireless connection with the anti-virus program, disabled.Arthur Xie - MSFT Acer's drivers are non-existant for my system (Aspire 6920), the drivers for the sister-system (Aspire 6920G) are outdated. I've tried the outdated drivers for Vista as well as the drivers directly from Intel which are up-to-date. Both have the same issue. Tried uninstalling/installing, same result. I've done a complete uninstall and reinstall of my drivers and their software with ESET disabled, as well as changed my SSID, WPA2 key, and hidden the SSID. Is there any way for me to tell if someone is using a deauthentication attack to try and sniff my WPA2 key?
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December 31st, 2009 4:37pm

I have exactly the same problem. I had it with my NETGEAR WN111v1 adapter (which I thought was faulty) on XP Pro x86 which I replaced with ALFA AWUS036H (same XP). Now that I switched to Windows 7 x86 I still experience random connection droppings. My router - Linksys WRT54GL flashed with Tomato doesn't give me any dodgy log - the connection is up and running. I thought it's USB controllers but no - I've checked every single port. I even disabled my built-in NIC. Nothing's changed. All the drivers are up to date. I have my Windows firewall disabled (I use the router's one) and no antivirus installed (so far; I had Avast on XP). Now, is it possible the USB device doesn't have enough power supplied? Any other suggestion is highly appreciated.
July 10th, 2010 3:05pm

I am experiencing the exact same problems. Running Dell Studio 1558 laptop using win 7 home premium 64bit. Threr are many posts on different fora out there but nobody has an answer. There some speculation that the issue is assicoated with "computer browser" service but every time I stop the browser service, something restarts it in a few minutes. I have had stretches of a day when the nework dropouts don't happen, even with "browser" working, then other days when it will happen 5-10 or more times in a day. We have ruled out hardware (dell swapped out my network card, many people experience the same issue). All drivers, bios etc are up to date. Symptoms: Alarm noise; tray icon changes to no network. Pop up message “Intel MyWifi Technology, Hardware radio switch off” connection goes down. Then immediately connection starts up again (obtaining IP address, etc). Event viewer clues: "The TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service was successfully sent a stop control. The reason specified was: 0x40030011 [Operating System: Network Connectivity (Planned)]" then almost the same time it says: "The TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service entered the stopped state." then 5/10ths second later: "The TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service entered the running state." browser messages are also appearing in logs but these are posting sometimes just after the network stop, sometimes hours before...so hard to envisage a straightforward cause-effect link: "The browser has forced an election on network \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{1234BD38-33AC-4DD9-A792-922330C529D3} because a master browser was stopped." It isn't clear a) what stops the master browser? b) what stops the TCP/IP helper service? c) what restarts the browser service despite setting the recovery options to not restart? d) if Microsoft has any intention to address this Windows 7 apparent bug.
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October 24th, 2010 1:50pm

I have exactly the same problem on my Dell Latitude D620 with an Intel Pro/Wireless 3945ABG card. This only started a week or so ago and is a problem no matter whether I'm at home or a coffee shop. When I'm wired, everything is fine. When I'm wireless, it's EXTREMELY slow and drops frequently. It's best illustrated with www.bandwidthplace.com. When I'm wired, the test begins immediately and I consistently get 13 down/2 up. When I'm wireless, there's a 15-second delay before the test will even start, and then the speedometer is all over the place. Sometimes it falls down to 2 or 3, then it blasts up to 6 or 7. The upload almost always fails when I'm wireless. IT'S NOT THE DRIVER. My computer was working great from the moment I installed Windows 7 (Pro, 64-bit) even with an old March 2009 driver. Right now I'm running the August 2010 updated driver and still having the problem. IT'S NOT THE ROUTER. My roommate has an Apple notebook and while I'm struggling with my wireless connection he's having no issues. I even have Apple TV and it doesn't have a problem. IT'S NOT [LIKELY] THE CARD. Starting in late September 2010 I've noticed this issue plastered all over forums, so unless I'm having a hardware failure at the same time as all of these other people posting, I don't understand why Microsoft keeps responding with the same old blah blah blah (try rebooting your router, install the most current drivers, blah blah blah). I have removed and recreated the device and network connection, no help. My "Automatically connect to a preferred" checkbox is unchecked. AGAIN, everything has worked great for months, but it all broke down about a week ago. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!
October 31st, 2010 6:40pm

I have the same problem. Two separate devices. First one: IBM ThinkPad T60, Windows 7 Ultimate (all updates installed), Intel Pro/Wireless 3945ABG card, newest Intel driver (13.3.0.137). When I had vista on this notebook I had a stable connection to my wireless lan. Then I changed to Windows7. After that the wireless connection started to drop and reconnect randomly when connected to my network. Socond one: A few weeks ago our netbook (Asus eeePC with Windows XP) which was working absolutely fine on the same network went wrong and we get a new one with Windows 7. Same problem - network connection started to drop and reconnect randomly when connected I've tried everything and I'm really frustrated. When reading some forums a lot of people write about this behaviour and neither MS nor Intel seems to have an idea.
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December 5th, 2010 2:18pm

I dont want to step on your post, but I feel like we are having the same issues and quite frankly I am sick of it. My laptop is 3 Months old and a mirror image of yours and I havent done as much reasearch on my connection drops as you have because It is rediculous for a new computer to have such a crazy issue especially since I have a 5 year old pc wireless that never ever had a problem, my daughter has an acer aspire one 40 feet away from wifi and still exellent connection. When My pc is connected 20 feet or 3 feet it just randomly drops. Only difference I can see between you and I is, My pc will never reconnect and the status say's connected. Might I add it actually say exellent connection. But I can not even browse the web. One more thing after I disconnect and ask it to reconnect it will for how long is still a mystery, But Suspiciously it gets really bad when I am downloading. High band width seems to really have an affect on my connection. I am certain its a windows 7 issue but Nothing microsoft has said fixes anything. I dont think they care. If I dont get this $2200.00 laptop to stay online I swear I will never buy another Microsoft product as long as I live. I have been told its my wireless adapter that I dont have...My wireless is built in and again if thats what it is there should be an update or a fix. It is still under warranty and I just dont have the time to keep going back and forth with this sill crap. I have tried everything that was in your list and then some. I made changed to the Registry that was suppose to fix it ..........nope.......I was informed that a format and recover should fix my connection on "at the time" a month old computer. I left it 3 days with the people I bought it from who wiped it clean deleting files and photos I can never get back. Im old school pc and the children who worked on my pc had no business working in retail... I am sorry for venting but maybe Billy Gates will read this and come to my house and fix this issue........ Nope..........Anyway it doesnt seem to be a problem going away........so I better down grade to Vista or even XP if I want my laptop back. I actually wrote this in WORD then copy paste because I was afraid the my connection would drop and I would have to start over. After reading over my post I discovered thay my auot correct spelling and grammar was turned off...........Sorry. WORD always made me seem smarter than I really am ....LOL.
February 18th, 2011 10:27pm

Blah blah blah is right and I'm about to give up. I have done everthing I have been told and then some. I hope you have some luck with this. I have three friends with the same problem and they are just living with it. My computer is three months old. In a previous post I stated I have a 2200 dollar laptop when in fact I meant 1200. The point is I think the money we pay for these computers with microsoft operating systems installed are worth more than someone telling us to try the same old crap mentioned in every single post in these forums over and over again. It just shows they do not read any of these. They just randomly connect and make an appearance. It's very sickening when you just said "I tried updating the driver" and they respond again "try updating the driver"....Im using a Compaq right now and in 20 minutes it has dropped 2 times. Windows 7 of course. I am really running out of options. Going to microsoft looking for a fix is like trying to play call of duty for the first time ever on Veteran mode. Just not working. Sorry I cant help you I just wanted to respond to what I think was a very good post. You said it all, Blah blah blah, and frankly I am about to make a Youtube video containing me, a 45 and everything I own microsoft. No Joke. Im going to wait it out a bit longer, but if I have to break out the video camera and the 45 I will never buy another microsoft product. My sister uses Mac and she has never ever ever had a problem such as this. Or any real issues I can think of. Anyway if I make the video I come back and post it.............lol...............Good Luck!...........
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February 18th, 2011 11:26pm

I have the same problem and it is in desktop machine with Asus P5B Deluxe Wifi... WLAN just drops, crawls does everything to annoy me. I bought an external USB WLAN stick trying to resolve the issue and disabled the internal WLAN module. Same disconnects and slowness continues. I have absolutely done everything possible trying to fix this. Upgraded all drivers back and forth. Re-installed Win7, tried every possible service disabling combination and registry hack I have been able to find. I had this same maching running XP with no problems whatsoever. The problem is NOT in my router or Internet connection. I've got PS3 connected to the same network with absolutely no problems. I have Apple iTouch and it is working perfectly. And my friend has Apple laptop which works fine here. This is just insane that Microsoft does not even admit there is a problem. This crap ends soon and I will be so buying something else than Ms shit.
February 20th, 2011 12:41pm

I never did resolve the problem except by purchasing a USB adapter. I fought with it for months and just decided I was going to have to deal with the stick hanging out of my laptop until it's time to upgrade, and then my laptop becomes a hardwired server.
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February 21st, 2011 10:36pm

Microwaves and telephones interfere with wireless connections. When the internet drops is there someone on the phone or is someone cooking a rustler burger in the microwave? If you have lots of machines connecting to one router you might need to purchase a repeater which will boost the wireless signal.
February 25th, 2011 7:48am

This is the most annoying thing in the entire universe, I work online from home and it seems cross the entire internet hundreds of forums/blogs etc, that this is a windows 7 problem. Wired, wireless, cross every router brand known to man, the connection drops. the crap thing about mine is that besides it being random at times, and always when I dl larger files, whenever I open my win7 laptop it knocks everything offline. xbox live goes down, ipod internet down, wii down, anything that is connected to the internet drops. Can you all at Microsoft please stop blaming everything else under the sun and fix the issue? Pretty please with a cherry on top? I hate mac and really dont want to switch EVERYTHING but it's bananas that this has not been fixed yet. It's extremely annoying. I know it's rough to take responsibility, but it's a pretty huge problem. Please fix it.
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March 30th, 2011 7:40pm

I've been having this same problem and i THINK i've solved it for me. Basically, windows was for some reason turning off my wireless card to save power (why would they think that's a good idea?). There's other ways to find this option to uncheck it, but here's the steps i took. Hope it helps you. Control Panel Network and Internet Manage Wireless Networks Adapter Properties Configure Power Management Uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power (Seriously, what brain genius thought it was a good idea to shut down a main system to save power without even telling me? That's like a space ship deciding it can save power by shutting down navigation or life support and then forgetting to mention it to the crew.)
April 14th, 2011 9:17pm

Phredt, Thanks for this. Can I just check your suggestions for correcting this issue? I can get as far as 'Adapter Properties' and then 'Configure', and then I can't find 'Power Management'. Where is it? I can find 'Power Saving Mode' under the 'Advanced' Tab. Is this what you mean? The options available seem to suggest even more power management options: CAM (Constantly Awake Mode) - which I have checked. Fast_PSP (Power Save Mode) Max_PSP (Max Power Savings) Any help as to turning off Power Management much appreciated.
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April 17th, 2011 5:58am

Power Management should be the bottom tab (the one on the far right side) after you click the Configure button. I will tell you this, though, it may not fix your problem. I have the constant WiFi drop issue, especially when I am trying to stream video, play online games, or download large files. That box is not checked on my computer. Nor is the box checked to "connect to a more preferred network." This is not a driver issue, either. I work in IT support and support literally thousands of computers that run on a large enterprise WiFi network, so I know what the hell I'm doing. I am running a computer that I've only had since last fall--about 6 months. It has Win7 Home Premium x64. My daughter has the identical computer. Both of us have this problem, and it isn't network-specific. The home network itself has not changed. My Vista laptop worked on this network. I also had a machine running Win7 Pro x32, and it ran fine on this (and other) networks, too. It is only the 64-bit edition that seems to throw these fits. If Microsoft wants to pull this crap, I'll throw Fedora Core or Ubuntu on the machine, run WINE when I have to, and be done with it. And I won't have to pay for it or worry about malware. What is the freakin' fix, Microsoft?
April 30th, 2011 2:45am

Pls check if your modem is working fine.. :) Have you tried direct connection. To see if there is any packets drop ? How many users affected ? If direct connectivity works fine = your wireless card or AP is having problems.. :) Guowen Su | CCNA, CCIP, MCP, MCSA, MCSE, MCTS, MCITP, CEH | http://www.microsoft.com/en/sg/default.aspx Our Goal? VERY SATISFIED Customers. If you're not...let's talk!!
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April 30th, 2011 9:52pm

I got the same issue - Windows 7 x64 Home Premium (1 week installation with SP1 and all drivers up to date) on a shiny new Dell N5010 connected to a Linksys WRT160N wireless router (latest revision 3 with latest firware 3.0.3). It was awful - drops every hour and the router even restarted itself - who knows what network mess it was. I found two two wokring solutions for me: Disable Network discovery (or simply change the network location to Public) Disable the Computer Browser service Now no drops no nothing. Of course, my laptop is the single one in the network. I will soon see another computer being added, so I'll tell what happens then.
June 12th, 2011 1:18pm

If you are NOT using IPv6 in Windows 7, Turn it off. It seems that having it on, even though it is unaddressed, while only using IPv4 causes your connection to get lost at random times.
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January 15th, 2012 1:23pm

I have a Dell 3945abg card, I fixed mine by turning off bluetooth discovery mode in settings, it no longer drops wifi.
August 20th, 2012 4:36am

I've been having this same problem and i THINK i've solved it for me. Basically, windows was for some reason turning off my wireless card to save power (why would they think that's a good idea?). There's other ways to find this option to uncheck it, but here's the steps i took. Hope it helps you. Control Panel Network and Internet Manage Wireless Networks Adapter Properties Configure Power Management Uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power (Seriously, what brain genius thought it was a good idea to shut down a main system to save power without even telling me? That's like a space ship deciding it can save power by shutting down navigation or life support and then forgetting to mention it to the crew.) That's some nice work, man!
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September 11th, 2012 7:55pm

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