Qualcomm Atheros AR9485WB-EG - wireless adapter occasionally loses connection (Windows 8.1)

Anonymous

Hello,

I have an ASUS S451LB laptop.

Running Windows 8.1.

Using Qualcomm Atheros AR9485WB-EG Wireless Network Adapter.

I have an extremely annoying problem lately - I am surfing the web, connected to my home network through WiFi, and every now and then (approximately once an hour or so) my network connection fails. The network notification doesn't show an exclamation mark or anything, everything seems fine but a connection would not be established and I would not be able to use the internet for about 1-3 minutes. Sometimes the problem would fix itself and my connection would renew, and sometimes I rather not wait and when I open the troubleshooting program it resets my WiFi adapter and reconnects to my home network and everything is normal again.

I have two other laptops connected to my home network (Both HP laptops, one is on win7, the other is 8.1) that do not suffer from this odd wireless behavior. Same goes for my android devices, they never fail the connection to my home network. In addition to that I've also connected to my router directly using cable connection for a few days, and never suffered these connection disturbances. Therefore I presume the problem lies within my ASUS laptop's WiFi adapter.

Yesterday I've tried reinstalling the drivers version 10.0.0.263 (currently the latest), also reinstalled the whole Qualcomm bluetooth connection suite as well and problem still persists.

If anyone could shed some light and help me fix this horrible WiFi adapter issues I'd fly over and buy him a beer personally!!

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

Hi Sinvany,

I would suggest you to clean install the drivers by uninstalling the drivers from device manager and reinstalling it and check if it helps:

Download drivers from this Asus link:

http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=3&s=554&m=ASUS+VivoBook++S451LB&os=&hashedid=latm32feTKbHlUm8

You must be logged on as an administrator to perform these steps.

Open Device Manager by pressing Windows key + X, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking Device Manager.‌ If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
In Device Manager, locate the device you want to update, and then double-click the device name.
Click the Driver tab, and then click Uninstall drivers and follow the instructions.
Restart the computer install the downloaded drivers and check.

Follow the suggestion from this link. These steps can help if you can’t connect to Wi-Fi, you have limited connectivity, your connection signal is weak or drops intermittently, or you can’t find a network.

Can’t connect to a wireless network

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/networking-and-connectivity/cant-connect-to-a-wireless-network

Wired and wireless network problems

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-IN/windows/network-connection-problem-help#network-problems=windows-81&v1h=win81tab1&v2h=win7tab1&v3h=winvistatab1&v4h=winxptab1

Hope this helps. If you need further assistance with Windows, let us know and will be glad to help.

0 comments

59 additional answers

Anonymous

2016-07-21T11:40:04+00:00

After many tentatives(drivers, power option, modem settings,) finally ....just invert your wifi card wires ! for my asus worck... 2 days without disconection .
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2015-08-02T23:55:40+00:00

My wife is not a power-user or gamer. the laptop i got her was like $279. I guess they are like, "Fu*k you" we got your money and what do you want for Pennies?!?!"

Ha! i was surprised it had 4 GB of ram...
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2015-08-02T22:35:36+00:00

To all you guys buying stuff. My method has been working with no drops for almost a year now. But keep going out and spending your $$$

Like you, I don't believe in "band aid" solutions for getting around the WiFi issues with my ASUS laptop by replacing the built-in NIC with either an internal or an external adapter.

It was an odd case of the older Atheros Win 8.1 drivers that was provided by ASUS not working 100% perfectly with the hardware, resulting in intermittent wireless connectivity.

A clean reinstallation of the drivers with the latest one actually cured my WiFi woes for good. I did not have to resort to using the generic Microsoft WiFi drivers (as what you've done with your wife's ASUS notebook). Depending on the market, ASUS uses either an Intel or an Atheros NIC for its laptop products.

For the Republic of Gamers' models, I read somewhere that ASUS chose the Atheros AR9485WB model for its high speed throughput for wireless LAN gaming instead of Intel's. The problem actually lies in the outdated drivers rather than the Atheros hardware.

If anyone should be blamed, I think it would be ASUS for not publishing a notice of advisory to its customers to update the WiFi drivers. Responsible laptop manufacturers should not leave problems like this to be resolved by the end user.
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments