Funky WiFi behavior

Hi all - wondering if anyone else out there is having the same issue:

I've got an A1, Win XP home model, 120GB HD, in the States. All in all, a great machine and perfect for mobile blogging.

Here's the odd issue I've got with the WiFi:
- I have the A1 configured to go into StandBy in WinXP when I shut the lid.
- Sometimes, after resuming from StandBy, the WiFi is very slow.
- Sometimes, after resuming from StandBy, the WiFi is off, and using the WiFi enable/disable switch does nothing. The machine also won't go back into StandBy when this happens, returning an error with the driver/WiFi device preventing it from entering StandBy.
- Open Device Manager, disable/enable the Atheros WiFi device, and you're back in business. Also, can change any of the driver detail settings, and you're back in business as well.

It's very... odd!

Other info:
- It seems to have something to do with the Power settings, but changing any/all of them for the Atheros doesn't seem to fix it.
- The Atheros device properties is missing the Power settings tab. This is a known bug in Win XP but supposedly was fixed in SP3, so the hotfix available from MS doesn't work.
- I upgraded the driver to the latest version available from Atheros, but have the same issue.

Any thoughts/ideas/comments are appreciated!

Cheers!

 

An update:

- Turning the WiFi off via the front switch before going into StandBy does NOT help

 

I have observed this problem with Linux few times as well. The WiFi did not come back after waking from standby. However even more interesting is that it completely disappeared from device list after 7 hours. The WiFi returned back after turning it off, waiting 1/2 hour and restarting it. Very odd. Maybe WiFi card got very warm and shut down.

 

I've experienced something at least in some way like this. After installing ubuntu using it for a while and then restarting my wireless randomly disappeared. I chalked it up to doing a bad job and repeatedly tried reinstalling the drivers. I eventually gave up and returned to windows (dual boot setup) and promptly discovered that for some reason the card wasn't working anymore... or something? ozorba may be right, it may be overheating because when it stopped working in both windows&ubuntu it wasn't coming up as installed hardware at all. In windows when i tried reinstalling the drivers the installer gave me an error stating there was no atheros hardware installed (didn't show up in device manager at all, not even as unknown hardware). Frustrated, I turned off the laptop and went for a drink. The next morning, I booted up and no problems anymore, it was back on both windows AND ubuntu. Oh, and this is on the same 120gb windows version.

 

I'm having the same problem in Vista. Sometimes the wireless card disappears, it's not present in device manager. This seems to happen when moving from one wireless network to another. Rebooting reinstalls the wireless. I tried turning off the power managment for the wireless but it still disappears. Interesting this seems to occur in XP, Vista, and Linux.

 

I've experienced some of the issues mentioned above, including the wi-fi hardware disappearing in device manager under XP. I have a long history of experience using atheros based cards, but not so much with the newer generation chipset varieties.

The card factory installed in the Aspire One is the AR5BXB63, which apparently uses the second generation b/g atheros chipset; AR5007EG. See here for the reference design:

http://www.atheros.com/pt/AR5007EG.htm

I've done some basic research, and it seems that the AR5007EG has some issues. I've recently installed a card with the prior generation chipset; AR5006EX (Gigabyte GNWI07HT-S0) and so far, wi-fi performance 'seems' to be without issue. I prefer to use the atheros client and utility on XP systems. I will report of my experience with this card as time goes on.

Search for "AR5007EG" to find reports of the various issues with this chipset.

 

It seems this computer´s wi-fi is not stable unless you set the wireless network card to power save mode = off.`

Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
Click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System.
Click the Hardware tab, and then click Device Manager.
Find the Atheros Network adapter and under the advanced tab change the power save mode to off.
This solves the wi-fi problems on my A1 running XP.

 

Thanks! Have tried switching power save setting to Off in the driver, still no luck.

 

I'm curious, are you using the wifi card driver that came originally with the AO, or did you upgrade it via Windows Update?

Because the newer driver available thru Windows Update has known issues, including connectivity problems, problems after waking up, etc. I had similar problems and rolled back to the original driver and it's been perfect since.

The original drivers can be had here:
ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/a ... .0.224.zip

Not sure if this will help you but it's worth a shot.

 

having the same problems here. i'm pretty sure it's a hardware issue so i'm going to try and exchange it tomorrow. i'm on day 28 so, I'll be getting in just under the wire!

the reason i'm thinking it's a hardware issue is because i have a dual boot set up. when the wifi dies in Windows, it is also dead in Linpus.

I think it does have to do with the card overheating. Reinstalling the drivers and switching the power management setting to off did not help either.

 

I wish I had found these posts first. I've been experiencing the exact same issues. Have even swapped out my Vista install for the original XP install and same deal. I dropped it off at the post office about 2 hours ago having it RMA'd. Wish I had found this sooner.

 

Just so we're all on the same page, here's the primary post in the networking section. Appears to be a bios issue (possibly).

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=1477&start=70&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

 

Thanks, all!

I had updated my driver via the Atheros website. I will try rolling back to the old version suggested here and report back on what I find.

Cheers!

 

Hi.

Having the same issue with WiFi. LED on, ping to router revealed drops in connectivity.
Connection on and off with no clear pattern i errors.

Here's my learnings so far - And hopefully a fix, that's seems to work (now on my third day without errors. Fingers crossed!)
- Disabled Power save on NIC -> Error still there.
- Updated driver to 7.6.0.260 -> Error still there.
- Roll back to "unofficial" driver from Atheros (link found in this forum) -> Error still there.
- Updated driver again to 7.6.0.260 -> Error still there.

Submitted support ticket to Acer. After 2 days they suggested to do OS recovery. I had tried this two times and the answer just shows that Acer didn't escalate my ticket. (I was very detailed in my description - Perhaps I got them confused..? )

The same day I submitted the ticket I also changed Windows so that Hibernation and sleep was disabled.

I think this did the trick.

So for now (still crossing my fingers) it seems that the cure for my AO was drivers to 7.6.0.260 and disbling hibernation and sleep.

I will let you know if the error comes back.

Regards Nielsensan

 

I haven't had any problems since upgrading the bios to the latest v. 3440

 

Thanks again all!

Just updated to the new BIOS version. So far so good... will give it a few days & report back...

 

OK.. this is going to sound odd but...

After a few days running the latest BIOS update, and I still experience the problem with WiFi coming out of StandBy.

However... I experience this less often than I did previously. Still need more time to ensure it's not due to other factors but for now I'd say that the situation has improved but the issue still exists.

 

Does anyone know how to do this in Linux? The wireless disappeared and Network Tools will not start anymore.

 

I upgraded the bios and all has been well for a couple of days now its gone completly...this thing is driving me nuts...probably have to send it back to dabs.. for a refund

 

Reinstalled the OS and its back working.