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

Anonymous
2013-12-07T13:47:35+00:00

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!!

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Internet and connectivity

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Anonymous
2013-12-08T06:07:27+00:00

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.

  1. 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.
  2. In Device Manager, locate the device you want to update, and then double-click the device name.
  3. Click the Driver tab, and then click Uninstall drivers and follow the instructions.
  4. 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.

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-12-08T11:27:28+00:00

    Thanks for the response John,

    It apparently has nothing to do with the drivers, as I have tried installing and testing many driver versions already. Whether was it the Microsoft one via the update interface, the Atheros drivers from older versions (such as 260), to the exact one you sent me a link to here (263), or even a newer one I found on Atheros.cz (268).

    I have been testing all of them in the last couple of days, as well as fresh reinstallment of the Atheros BT suite. None fixed the issue and the problem persists - wireless connection drops intermittently.

    I've read a lot about this problem online and struggled to find a solution yet, it also appears many others are having problems with laptops with the similar wireless adapter. I've also read somewhere on a different support forum that changing the encryption settings of the router from WPA2 to WPA is a workaround solution to the problem. I'm currently connected to my wifi with WPA encryption for 12 hours and has yet received a single connectivity drop (I had them at least once an hour before that).

    This is however definitely not a solution I am happy about. Something is wrong, whether it is with the wireless adapter, or windows 8, or the compatibility of both of them together.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-12-08T19:24:34+00:00

    I take back what I said regarding the Wireless connectivity being fine now after changing the encryption method to WPA. Problem persists, WiFi disconnects intermittently. I'm helpless again.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-12-09T08:25:28+00:00

    Hi Sinvany,

    Internet connection problems are most commonly caused by disconnected cables or by corrupted network card drivers. Follow these methods:

    Method 1: I would suggest you to follow the troubleshooting steps from this link:

    Why can't I connect to the Internet?

    **http://windows.microsoft.com/en-IN/windows-8/cant-connect-to-internet**

    Method 2:

    Also suggest you to flush DNS by performing the following steps and check if it helps.

    1. Press Windows key + X, Click on Command Prompt (Admin).
    2. Type: ipconfig /flushdns and press enter.

    Note:

    • The ipconfig /flushdns command provides you with a means to flush and reset the contents of the DNS client resolver cache. During DNS troubleshooting, if necessary, you can use this procedure to discard negative cache entries from the cache, as well as, any other dynamically added entries.
    • Resetting the cache does not eliminate entries that are preloaded from the local Hosts file. To eliminate those entries from the cache, remove them from this file.

    Method 3: If issue persists, there might be a problem with your network adapter, the piece of hardware that makes it possible for your PC to connect to a network.

    **http://windows.microsoft.com/en-in/windows-8/fix-network-adapter-problems**

    Hope this helps

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-12-30T01:27:59+00:00

    I have this exact same problem and it is very frustrating.  I have not been able to find a solution and it is exactly as it was described above.

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