Windows 8.1: WiFi dropping and/or "Limited"

  Just can't put my finger on what causes these intermittent drops. 

Windows 8.1 is the problem.

Hi everyone, sorry for my bad english.

Since i've upgraded Win8 to 8..1, my WiFi signal is unstable than before, and very slow without apparently a reason.

First of all the signal is variable from 1 to 4 bars than 5 bars before the 8.1 upgrade, and browsing, even downloads are very slow.

Sometimes WiFi drops too.

The router works like a charm with other PC / smartphone in my house.

My Wlan is a Realtek 8192CE PCI-E Card with latest drivers and my PC overall is perfectly stable.

Seems a bug or something, can you help me ? Thanks.

hi there...

i had the same problem that you had. i went through the internet all two days to eradicate the problem. finally, the problem was with the router.i guess you have the firmware upgrade of your router. you can have a look on the manufacturer's website and upgrade your router. i hope that helps.

My experience with this is strictly with the connection dropping.

HP Envy 700qe desktop (new in December 2013)

Windows 8.1 (OEM)

Broadcom BCM943228HMB 802.11abgn 2x2 Wi-Fi Adapter

The box labeled ‘Allow the computer to turn off this device’ is unchecked. 

Current driver: 6.30.223.170; updating returns this is latest driver. 

Wireless Router: Apple Airport Extreme

I am the only user of the network & router; I live in a house, not an apartment.

My antivirus is Avast. 

Having problems with Wi-Fi dropouts. 

When my router Wi-Fi connection drops:

• The Broadcom listing in Device Manager has no errors.
• The Wi-Fi bars in the tray icon are white and shows five bars (indicating being connected).
• The Wi-Fi Network List shows as Connected.
• My iPad connects just fine.
• Power cycling the router itself results in a reconnection of the computer to the router Wi-Fi.
• The HP Network check gives responses like those above.
• I can print wirelessly from this Word file to the Envy wireless printer.

To reconnect, I can click ‘Disconnect’ from the Networks display and then ‘Connect’; it is good for perhaps a few hours; occasionally has held for a couple of days.  Just can't put my finger on what causes these intermittent drops.

I understand how you feel!  I have been using MS products since the mid-80s, too!  My first computer was an IBM 50z.  LOL!  My laptop died so I had to buy another laptop immediately.  I bought a Toshiba loaded with 8.1.  I did not realize how terrible it would be.  Sometimes I cannot even keep a connection for a minute!  I have downloaded the updated Realtek driver, and changed the power settings, and the router settings as other people on this forum have suggested.  Nothing works!    I am beyond frustrated!  You are right.  It does remind me of the dial-up back in the day. I have resisted long enough buying a Mac, but these disconnects and limited connections are totally unacceptable.   I am going to write to Microsoft (they don't list an email address) to tell them my disappointment.  Your offer to buy your "almost new" HP sounds enticing, but I have a Toshiba Satellite that is 3 weeks old!  I hope I can get rid of mine!!!

Mine got fixed by a Microsoft engineer. He spend about 2 hours on my machine.

In fact he pointed me to following hardware requirement for installing Windows 8.1

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/system-requirements

“To install a 64-bit OS on a 64-bit PC, your processor needs to support CMPXCHG16b, PrefetchW, and LAHF/SAHF”

This would result in different drivers being supported for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 (and even different Wifi adapters on the same machine not being supported.

f.ex. For my Acer Aspire E1-571 there are Windows 8 drivers for network adapters from Broadcom, Atheros and Intel. For Windows 8.1, only the Atheros adapter has a driver supported by Acer. (see http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/drivers )

My machine has an Intel adapter. But - if I got it correctly - he had it fixed by

1. Keeping the last Intel driver (15.10.5.1 31-Oct-13 , I believe the date is important here)
2. Right-click ‘Command prompt’ > Run as an administrator: ‘netsh int ip reset C:\resetlog.exe’
3. turn off the “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” in the network adapters power settings pane

Looks like a mixt of all solutions I’ve seen before. The PC is steady since 4 hours (including 3 reboots). But I’ll keep you updated if would change its mind.