Windows 8.1: WiFi dropping and/or "Limited"

Anonymous
2013-10-20T17:01:27+00:00

Since installing 8.1 Pro, I'm having issues with WiFi dropping internet connectivity and always showing "Limited" when clicking on the system tray icon.  When I troubleshoot the problem using the system tool it is always the gateway that is faulty.  I have uninstalled/reinstalled the device drivers several times, installed the newest drivers directly from Intel, restarted the computer, etc.  I can restore connectivity by turning WiFi off then back on, but the connection will drop at what seems to be random intervals.  My applicable system specs are as follows;

Lenovo Y510P  Laptop

Windows 8.1 Pro

Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230

Apple Time Capsule router w/newest firmware

Needless to say this is quite an irritating bug that didn't exist prior to the update to 8.1  I hope this can be resolved quickly. Thanks!

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Internet and connectivity

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-10-12T21:41:56+00:00

    Limited connection means the connection is not working. It could be a hundred different reasons. It is like a car not starting, that just means its broke.

    Sometimes its the ISP, bad router data, bad drivers, bad config data.

    In your case a switch in networks could have got you new config data from the router which was the issue. Or it may have reset a profile.

    Any time someone has a issue with their PC and they need to ask a question the question should be asked on a new thread. It is too hard to troubleshoot not knowing what was done.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-10-12T21:02:48+00:00

    One strage thing that has helped for me on 2 separate occasions where wifi connection at home on my home wifi network (Asus RT-AC66U) got unstable:

    I just connected my Dell Inspiron Win 8.1 to another wifi network. I don't understand why or how, but this action seemed to stabilize the unacceptably unstable connections each time. First time, it got unstable again due to driver updates, second time is still stable, having tried and rolled back the driver a few times to the last stable that worked for me... I'm btw running 8.1 on a Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260. Latest Intel drivers do not work OK, I've rolled back to driver version 17.0.5.8 as of 2014-06-18 a couple of times...

    NO driver updates, NO config changes to stack, OS or whatever - JUST connected to another wifi network and back again and then it had become stable.

    (It should also be noted, that all other devices incl a Win 8 laptop are OK - AND that I've tried all tips&tricks seen around here, on tweaking to stabilize Win 8.1 - without luck...)

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-10-12T09:21:39+00:00

    Actually, it looks like I solved this problem. I reinstalled Windows 8.1 with the recovery partition on my computer (hp touchsmart 14) and while making this, the system deleted all of the former drivers, dns caches...etc (actually the computer has been formatted completely) and after this reinstall process, I did nothing about the wifi driver. I just update windows 8 to windows 8.1 and install some of my computer programs (Office, Visual Studio, MATLAB, COMSOL, SolidWorks). Action center shows me a message that Wifi and bluetooth adapters should be reinstalled but I also didn't do that. In addition to this, before this reinstall process I was using static DNS (I was using Google DNS) but I saw in some forums that changing DNS may also cause this problem. That's why I'm not using any specific DNS now. It's automatically selected by my router or computer (not sure). Also, I checked the version number of my driver that it's not the last update (my wifi driver is Intel 7260N, driver version: 16.10.0.5). 

    So now, I haven't encountered any problems for 5 days. Before all of this process I was facing with this problem several times in a day. In addition, according to some forum posts, there may be some conflict between WiFi driver and bluetooth driver that's why switch off my bluetooth device before reinstall process. However now, my bluetooth device is open all with my wifi driver and even this there is no any corruption, speed decrease...etc. That's why I recommend you to reinstall your windows 8.1 and do nothing about the wifi driver.

    I hope, it would work:) (sorry for grammar mistakes)

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-10-12T09:20:10+00:00

    It seems there are a multitude of issues depending upon which wireless adapter your W8.1 machine contains.  My Toshiba Satellite L series laptop has an Atheros AR956x adapter.  I originally got some relief from slow/intermittent wifi connections by going back to a previous (older version) driver.  However, the wifi issue resurfaced again after I discovered that Windows was automatically updating my adapter's driver to a newer version, which I didn't want to happen.  I disabled the automatic updating of the driver, but the problem kept coming back.  Oddly enough I decided to change the settings on my router to standard channel vs wide channel (2.4ghz) and I haven't had any further issues, no matter what driver is installed.  Weird, but it seems my Atheros adapter doesn't like a wide channel signal!  :-)

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-10-12T08:10:29+00:00

    To FIX this problem got to - Device manager- Network adapters

    Find WiFi adapter-right click it-properties

    In Power management tab - Uncheck/disable first option.

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