[Nick Marques]

Hello all,

I have a Dell XPS M1710 laptop which has an Intel PRO Wireless 3945ABG built in. I am using the latest drivers available on Intel's website.

The issue is that it seems when the radio or adapter reaches a lot of connections or bandwidth, the radio just turns off. The connection in Vista remains active (but it changes to Limited), and the device in Device Manager is there as if everything is normal.

However, I have an LED above my keyboard telling me of radio status, and it turns off. Normally, with Dell QuickSet, you can press Fn+F2 to toggle the radio on and off, but in this case the software "thinks" it is toggling radio power, but it just stays off.

I am forced to reboot to get it back on.

This is really becoming an issue.

[Jibraill]

This might not be the issue but google turning off ipv6 and disable all of that also .. turn off the power saving under your network card that sometimes causes a issue also

[wingsfan800]

Jibreel, on Mar 17 2007, 06:40 PM, said:

This might not be the issue but google turning off ipv6 and disable all of that also .. turn off the power saving under your network card that sometimes causes a issue also

I work for a certain computer company and we get those kinds of calls sometimes. I would say that it may be a hardware issue instead of software, it just all depends on how long it takes to turn off and what you are doing at the time. but if the WIFI led turns off I would first off reseat the wireless card and see if it does it then, also perform bios update and wireless driver update. if problem persists call dell and explain what you have done and they most likely wont have you do a whole lot more.

[RyanN]

Nick Marques, on Mar 17 2007, 11:09 AM, said:

Hello all,

I have a Dell XPS M1710 laptop which has an Intel PRO Wireless 3945ABG built in. I am using the latest drivers available on Intel's website.

The issue is that it seems when the radio or adapter reaches a lot of connections or bandwidth, the radio just turns off. The connection in Vista remains active (but it changes to Limited), and the device in Device Manager is there as if everything is normal.

However, I have an LED above my keyboard telling me of radio status, and it turns off. Normally, with Dell QuickSet, you can press Fn+F2 to toggle the radio on and off, but in this case the software "thinks" it is toggling radio power, but it just stays off.

I am forced to reboot to get it back on.

This is really becoming an issue.

I have the same exact problem as well, except mine shuts off randomly. The WiFi LED also turns off and I am unable to turn it back on with my hotkey. I have a Dell Inspiron E1505 with Windows Vista Home Premium. When I press the hotkey, QuickSet tells me that I have pushed it, and pops up the Wifi and bluetooth logo, but the wifi remains off. Same thing with the limited connection. It has done this to me three times I think, but I've had other wireless problems before as well. I have an Intel PRO Wireless 3945ABG, with the latest drivers, but this has happened with an older driver as well.

[Nick Marques]

I've updated to the latest Intel drivers, which now has some PROSet features, and it happens more often. Arghh.

[AjStone]

I'm using the Microsoft drivers which were loaded by installing Vista and no problems have ever occured. This is on a Latitude D820 which is pretty much the exact same computer as a Precision M65. Intel 3945ABG. Windows Vista Business.

Try rolling back your drivers to the Vista installation.

[jaaroo79]

Hey there!!!
I've been doing lot of search about this 3945ABG and Vista on the internet and also I watched my Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop as well. It uses 3945AGB internal card and I have Netgear DG834G wireless router. Reading all about others drivers' updates didn't convince me.
However, I noticed very interesting thing. Even though many say it's inconsistent or unpredictable, there IS a particular cause why's this happening. Why is it that it works with XP and NOT Vista? -because VISTA doesn't like too many opened connections. What programs cause it?
uTorrent, but also (and I haven't seen this mentioned anywher yet), but it's so beloved and essential app. like SKYPE
I'm still testing it, but it might seem like PROBLEM SOLVED.
The problem was whenever I woke up from hibernation, having had Skype in system tray before would ALWAYS avoid establishing connection. I tried SHUT DOWN Skype always except when I use it and.. whoala - NO PROBLEMS since.


Please, do some testing if you can too, to confirm or decline this soggestion.

[Nick Marques]

jaaroo79, on May 6 2007, 11:30 AM, said:

Hey there!!!
I've been doing lot of search about this 3945ABG and Vista on the internet and also I watched my Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop as well. It uses 3945AGB internal card and I have Netgear DG834G wireless router. Reading all about others drivers' updates didn't convince me.
However, I noticed very interesting thing. Even though many say it's inconsistent or unpredictable, there IS a particular cause why's this happening. Why is it that it works with XP and NOT Vista? -because VISTA doesn't like too many opened connections. What programs cause it?
uTorrent, but also (and I haven't seen this mentioned anywher yet), but it's so beloved and essential app. like SKYPE
I'm still testing it, but it might seem like PROBLEM SOLVED.
The problem was whenever I woke up from hibernation, having had Skype in system tray before would ALWAYS avoid establishing connection. I tried SHUT DOWN Skype always except when I use it and.. whoala - NO PROBLEMS since.


Please, do some testing if you can too, to confirm or decline this soggestion.

I've known it's a connection number issue.. but have yet to find a solution. Sometimes it shuts off just having too many web pages up with Trillian and 5 IM client services. There's no reason for this.

[.John.]

I had the same problem after upgrading to the latest driver from Intel's Website, the radio just shut off and won't work. Sometimes it'll work for a little bit...but then go off, and won't come back on again until a restart. I tried uninstalling the drivers and installing other ones, but the same problem exists

I can't call Dell though, because I got my Vista via MSDN and they won't support me

[dudedan]

jeez,

I had the exact same problem with my Latitude D820 with a 3945ABG internal wireless adapter on Vista Business. It just occured to me this problem started happening right after I installed Skype. I was getting an exception error from skype everytime I started the machine, so I just unistalled it and et voilà! no more shutting off! it works perfect. I also installed the latest drivers available on intel's site. Works wonderfully.

Dudedan

[.John.]

I do not have Skype installed...and this occured when I installed the latest branch of Intel drivers (I believe that's 6.1)

My thinking was the current branch is 6.0 and the newest branch, 6.1 - would be more Vista Compatible. Boy was I wrong...

[dudedan]

boy did I speak too fast,

so for some reason the problem started again this morning. I did some reading online and found some interesting things on intel's site. Come to think of it the problem does occur more often when on battery power. check out the links below, the instructions may vary a little depending on your OS but they are quite easy to follow. I made the changes this morning and so far so good... keep fingers crossed.

http://support.intel...b/cs-006205.htm
http://support.intel...b/CS-022933.htm

let me know if this works alright for you.

dudedan

This post has been edited by dudedan: 09 May 2007 - 07:49 PM

[.John.]

Well I don't know about other people, but that's not the problem I have been having...

[jaaroo79]

Hey John,
if you're so confident it was only a matter of "wrong" new drivers, why don't you now try installing Skype or some peer-to-peer program, which would put high demand on number of connections. From what we see these days it's not a simple case having a one particular thing which would cause it, but instead, IT IS COMBINATION OF MORE FACTORS, where (what we know sure) main actors are:
1. Intel 3945 ABG Wireless card
2. Windows VISTA
and (you bet, there is...) SOME THIRD ELEMENT. An application. A program. Some process.

Reality is that whatever driver you're trying under VISTA for Intel's 3945 DOES NOT spare you from ultimately finding yourself in same problems like rest of us. This is just one forum, but I breezed through dozen others, seeing complaints about this almost everywhere!
Problem is, Intel's blaming Microsoft, Microsoft says it's Intel's problem and laptop manufacturers say they can't be held responsible and refer back to those two. So, despite this is quite AN ISSUE, none of them seem to be overly bothered. Or at least they're not tryng very hard.
That's why it's been left to us, early owners of VISTA to find out ourselves what is the ULTIMATE CAUSE OF THIS HASSLE!!! -What COMBINATION of events triggers that damn radio to shut off?

I'd like to KINDLY ASK everybody to DO SOME TESTING IF YOU CAN AND LET US SHARE RESULTS HERE. EXPERIMNET PLEASE.
If you think YOU FIXED IT, please take another step and try an application, one at a time.. to see whether it's causing it or not.
For now, those who can, please test SKYPE and leave it running in the background as long as you can. If you develop any complications within 2-3 days you then know that's it -TELL US! If you don't, TELL US EITHER. Thanx.

FEW HINTS I can give I read elsewhere (and applied too):
-Go to ADVANCED POWER SETTINGS and change WIRELESS ADAPTER SETTINGS to MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE for both (On battery and Plugged in)
-Go to Device Manager > Network Adapters > doble-click on Intel Pro Wireless 3945 ABG > (card) Advanced > set ROAMING AGGRESIVENESS to 1 - LOWEST (this limits your PC's attempts to confusingly switch onto other networks for better signal, many times loosing it completely and switching off)
-While in 3945's settings in same window click on TRANSMIT POWER and put it on 5 - Highest
-Also I changed wireless mode to b/g only -which had been described as more stable than a/b/g

Did any of these helped you improve your performance? LET US KNOW! What did you change that made it better?

My conf: Dell Inspiron 6400, connecting through Netgear wireless router DG834G

[.John.]

Well why would I install a program that:

1. I do not use.
2. Is known to cause problems, when I am already experiencing problems. Wouldn't that create 2 layers of problems?

I have my roaming aggresiveness set to Highest because I have multiple router's in my house and that let's my card switch seemlessly between the two, but for ****s and giggles per your recommendation - I set it to lowest. Also, I disabled 802.11a on my card as well...will let you know.

[RyanN]

Thank goodness, there are more people than just John and I. After it doing this more and more often, it's definitely a number of connections issue, but and the randomness I can probably explain as tabbing, updates, and IM clients. I usually have 4 IM clients running, Steam, and then Firefox with one or two tabs, but anything else causes it to become unstable and shutting off my wireless card. I wasn't experiencing this problem with RC2 at all, and it all started around the beginning of April. At that time I thought it was due to overheating, but now I can predict when it will happen. I'm not sure if the newer drivers are to blame, or if it is a Vista bug that has yet to be fixed, but whatever it is, Microsoft and Intel need to fix this because many of us upgraded to the ABG card because it gave us more flexibility, but not its bitting us back and refusing to work at all. I may try rolling back the driver, but I think this happened after Microsoft released an updated driver via Windows Update, and that's where it all started... Who knows... I guess I'll have to wait it out and just use XP when I want to do important things. Also, I do not use skype and I do not use any torrent services, so these are not to blame at all. Hopefully someone will figure this out because I really don't want to dig in my registry and mess up Vista completely.

[Giant Izzy]

I have a similar problem - Dell E1705, Intel Pro Wireless 3945ABG, Vista Ultimate. I've already turned off the power-saving mode. When the laptop wakes up, an intermittently while I am doing work on it, the wireless connection just drops out and I get "limited connectivity", IP address is gone.

I've upgraded to latest intel drivers. This is maddening.

[.John.]

The best way I can describe it though, is hardware related. The green light for "Wi-Fi" next to the Bluetooth light turns off completely.

[RyanN]

I'm actually starting to point to a variety of problems that ultimately cause this to occur. I'm thinking firmware and drivers are causing this. I just had my motherboard replaced, and it was working fine, then i upgraded the bios, and then it did it right when Vista booted up. I might try going back to version 12 instead of 14. It shut off for no reason at all after upgrading: no internet explorer, firefox, aim, msn, steam, etc... nothing, just logged in and it died. This bug seems to be getting worse and worse.... Also, none of the recommendations seemed to work at all.

[.John.]

Well, that *could* be it as well...I upgraded my BIOS to 14 right around the time I upgraded my drivers. But, you can't downgrade your BIOS - can you?