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

Your suggestion to replace the built-in WiFi NIC is a good one, but I'll have to check with the ASUS Service Center if my request to do so will invalidate my laptop's standing 2-year warranty. I know that they can replace this crappy Atheros NIC with another one on the spot, but whether I'll be getting another replacement card from Atheros or Intel is a totally different matter.

Just a small update: I managed to fix my WiFi problem and it is now working just fine.

What I did was that I went to a local tech store, bought the Asus N13 WiFi adapter, plugged it in and voila!

No more irritating lag spikes or lost connection - the new WiFi adapter works like a charm.

It is a bit sad that I had put endless hours in trying to get that crappy Atheros working while the solution was that easy... ;-)

Cheers!

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 $$$

Hi,

Sorry I forgot to read, or I wasn't notified by the Microsoft Communuty regarding your reply to me until now.

In my case with the ASUS G551-JM laptop, I later discovered that I did NOT have to do anything beyond removing the old Atheros drivers and reinstalling them with the latest ones from Qualcomm's download site.  I'm not kidding! :-)

The earlier drivers provided by the ASUS support site were poorly written or mismatched with the built-in Atheros NIC, while the latest one from the official Atheros support site worked like a charm. The first attempt at updating the drivers only worked briefly until I decided a second attempt at reinstalling the drivers.

For the second attempt, I used IOBit's Advanced Uninstaller to mop up whatever remants of the old Atheros driver in the Windows registry and remembered to reboot the laptop.  I can't remember if I also refreshed Windows 8.1's system files before re-installing the December 2014 driver, maybe I did.

Anyway, the results were fantastic! No more having to reset my TP-Link WiFi router after the driver installation. My notebook latched on to the home network flawlessly each and every time. This is what I expect from f all Windows computers, regardless of whatever network interface card brand they have.

I did NOT have to spend anything on an external WiFi dongle or adapter because I strongly believe it defeats the purpose of having the WiFi's antenna and electronics built into the bezel of the laptop's LCD display.  I've owned four laptops in the past and never had to buy an external WiFi adapter - except in one case where I bought a TP-Link USB external WiFi adapter for hotel rooms where the WiFi signal is too weak for the internal NIC to receive. The external adapter unfortunately wasn't as sensitive as I expected, so I ended up using it for my home desktop PC.

Who would have thought by merely updating to the new drivers properly would have fixed the WiFi issue for good?

In any case, I'm now on Windows 10 but am not sure if the Atheros drivers are the same from the Win 8.1 version. However WiFi works perfectly every time like it did before the OS upgrade.

On an unrelated note, Win 10 has issues with putting the laptop to sleep and sometimes, waking up from hibernation (blank screen). Hopefully it's a case of teething problems unitl Microsoft fixes problems as rudimentary as this, or I'll just roll back to Win 8.1.

Sorry to hear that you had to buy the ASUS N13 adapter - in my case it wasn't necessary at all and updating your Atheros drivers could have solved your WiFi issues too.

cheers!

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.