Laptop Plugged Into Router, Now Wireless Connection Is Lost

[Carbo]

I need the help of the collective braintrust here. This has me perplexed.
New Dell XPS 15 laptop. Out of the box working perfectly fine. Connected immediately to the wireless router, (Netgear WNDR 3700), and all was well.
I connected via a Cat5 cable the other night so I could transfer files from the old desktop I'll be junking. The desktop is connected to the router via Cat5. (Also have a second laptop on the network and the connection hasn't been affected by this problem at all.)
The problem is this: after transferring my files to the laptop I shut it down and disconnected the cable. When I turned the laptop back on a little later it would connect to the internet intermittently. Even when it did the connection was like molasses. Tried everything and every suggestion to fix the problem. Reinstalled the drivers, reset the modem and the router, uninstalled this and installed that. Finally, after nothing cured the issue, last night I formatted the drive and did a fresh install of Windows 7 Pro. Once I did that the connection was perfect again. Not knowing what I seem to know now I wired the laptop into the router and transferred my data. When it was finished I once again shut it off, unplugged the Cat5, and went on with things. Came back two hours later, turned the laptop back on, and once again I am unable to connect to the internet. Identical symptoms and the common cause seems to be wiring the laptop into the router.
What on earth is going on? Thank you for any help!

 

[her209]

When you say you turn off the laptop, are you actually doing a shutdown or just putting it into sleep mode or hibernate?

 

[Carbo]

Complete shutdown.

 

[Carbo]

BTW, connected via cat5 again and the laptop is flyin'.

 

[JackMDS]

Your Wireless does not work!

This is the way to debug it.

Check the Device Manager for valid Wireless card entry.
http://www.ezlan.net/Win7/net_dm.jpg
If there is No valid entry, delete any Bogus Entry, and re-install the Wireless card's Drivers.
Check the Network connections to make sure that you have a Wireless Network Connection Icon/Entry, and that the Properties of the Icon (right click on the Icon) are correctly configured with TCP/IPv4 protocol in the Network Connections Properties.
http://www.ezlan.net/Win7/net_connection_tcp.jpg

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Many Wireless cards' drivers also install the vendor's Wireless utility.
Make sure that if there is a vendor's Wireless Utility is Not Running together with the Windows native Wireless utility (WLAN Service) .
----------------

Make sure that No Firewall is preventing/blocking the Wireless components to get to the Network.

Some 3rd party Software Firewalls/AV/Security suit,s keep blocking aspects of Local Traffic even it they are turned Off (disabled).

If possible configure the Firewall /Security suit correctly, otherwise totally uninstall it, and get rid of its residual processes to allow clean flow of local network traffic.

If the 3rd party software is uninstalled or disables, make sure that Windows native Firewall is On .
3rd party Network mangers like Bonjour, and NetMagic can block local traffic too.
---------------------------

Working TCP/IP stack should look this way.
Right click on the Wire card Network Connection, choose Status, Details, and see if it got an IP and the rest of the settings.
http://www.ezlan.net/Win7/status-nic.jpg
Description is the card manufacturing data.
Physical address is the card's MAC number.
The xx should be a number from 0 to 255 (all xx same number).
yy should be from 0 to 255
zz should be from 0 to 255 (all zz the same number.
The lease date should be valid to the current time.

*Note 1. IP that starts with 169.xxx.xxx.xxx is not valid functional IP.

*Note 2. There might be an IPv6 entries too. However, they are not functional for Internet traffic or LAN. They are needed for Win 7 special HomeGroup configuration. ---------------------------------------------------

A message in the Wireless little Window that says Connected does not means that your are really have a valid functional connection.
If everything above is OK you have to be able to connect to the Router.
Connecting to the Router means that you can enter the Router's core IP into an address bar of a browse, be able to connect, see, and configure the Router's menus.

If it does not connecting to the Router, log from any computer that can connect to Wireless Router with a Wire, disable the Wireless Security, make sure that the Wireless broadcast SSID is On, and try to connect with No Wireless security.

Enable the Wireless security after you mange to establish a functional connection.

 

[Modelworks]

Look in the bios setup for something like auto switching of network port. Some laptops have a buggy bios with win7 and don't handle the switching from wired to wireless well. My laptop auto switches between the two now but before with the wrong drivers it did similar to yours and I had to disable the setting in the bios. Normal functioning of the feature should allow you to be using wireless and when you plug in a cable the wireless should disconnect and switch to the wired, unplug the wired and it should switch back to wireless.

 

[Carbo]

Jack, a knowledgeable network guy is going to tap into my router later on and have a look at things. The post you wrote above might as well have been written in Arabic for me.

Modelworks, took a look in the BIOS but didn't see anything that might be the culprit. If the problem continues into tomorrow I might have to call up Dell support. . .:\

 

[spidey07]

Make sure you don't have windows wireless support and the card utility installed at the same time, that can cause this kind of "fighting" over your IP stack.

Run "ipconfig/all" from a command prompt to make sure you're getting a valid IP.

 

[Carbo]

Spent about 45 minutes chatting with Dell last night, all to no avail. The rep suggested the usual uninstall and reinstall the drivers. Didn't work. Then he suggested installing additional drivers. Didn't work. Finally, he suggested flashing the BIOS. . .uh, no, thank you.
Did some research on my own and found this thread: http://communities.intel.com/thread/21134?start=0&tstart=0 Seems to be identical to my issue: same wireless card and identical router. But there doesn't seem to be a fix. The laptop runs fast and furious when wired into the router. But cut the umbilical cord and it becomes a paperweight.
Replace the card with the same model and hope I get a working one?
Try a different card? Call Dell and demand a new laptop? Hammer?
Any suggestions?

 

[ch33zw1z]

Ensure all firmware and drivers are up to date. That includes flashing the BIOS. Yes, seriously.... Like others have said, make sure Windows isn't fighing another program for control of hte adapter.

Test the lappy with a bootable version of Linux, like Ubuntu Live. If it works fine in Linux then you know it's a Windows issue, not hardware.

Simply replacing the card may not fix the issue

 

[Carbo]

It seems to be fixed! Turns out that a default setting in Advanced Power Managment has the wireless card shutting down when the laptop is running on battery power. Changed the setting to Maximum Performance and it has been running fine since. I'll give it a day before declaring victory.
What genius thought that would be a good thing??

 

[ch33zw1z]

It seems to be fixed! Turns out that a default setting in Advanced Power Managment has the wireless card shutting down when the laptop is running on battery power. Changed the setting to Maximum Performance and it has been running fine since. I'll give it a day before declaring victory.
What genius thought that would be a good thing??

Users like options, so they get options. Congrats on the easy fix!

 

[her209]

It seems to be fixed! Turns out that a default setting in Advanced Power Managment has the wireless card shutting down when the laptop is running on battery power. Changed the setting to Maximum Performance and it has been running fine since. I'll give it a day before declaring victory.
What genius thought that would be a good thing??

Hahaha... now that you mention it, I've come across a similar issue. But it had to with the Ethernet port being turned off when the laptop went to battery power.

 

[Carbo]

Users like options, so they get options. Congrats on the easy fix!

I like options, also: how would you like your steak, sir? That's an option.
But having a wi-fi card shut down when a laptop is running on battery power is, well, I am being punked?? :sneaky:

 

[Fardringle]

Actually, disabling the wireless adapter while on battery can be very useful. The wireless card drains a lot of power from the battery so the ability to turn it off when it is not needed is a great feature. For example, say I'm on a plane (where wireless isn't allowed) or camping, or in any situation where there's no wireless and/or limited options to recharge the battery. I disable the wireless adapter in my laptop and add a decent amount of time to the life of the battery before it needs to be charged again.

 

[Carbo]

I agree that having that option is a good thing. I'm just surprised to see it as the default position.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I like options, also: how would you like your steak, sir? That's an option.
But having a wi-fi card shut down when a laptop is running on battery power is, well, I am being punked?? :sneaky:

If you don't like options, buy Apple.