Vista - Lose wireless after a few hours, requires restart, need help!

This has been going on for a few months now on my new HP dv5-1000us notebook running Vista Home Premium 64-bit. The computer starts up with wireless networking and wireless connection working fine. At some seemingly random time (usually a few hours) my connection status will go from "local and internet" to "limited connectivity" with the little yellow warning icon. I try disconnecting and reconnecting, it can't connect. I turn off and on the adapter using the on-keyboard button, it says it is going "off" then "on" but connection is not restored. "Repair" attempts fail immediately, with no explanation given, it just says it can't connect. I can't ping any IP address or websites, I get "host unreachable" messages. The only solution is to restart, at which point everything is fine. Note that in this time when the wireless is not functioning, I can plug in an ethernet cable and be connected to the internet just fine.

I did IPCONFIG/ALL in the connected state, and the 'after' disconnected state.

In the connected state:
Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : dhe.duke.edu
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom 4321AG 802.11a/b/g/draft-n Wi-Fi
Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-21-00-35-51-FE
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::ad1e:6705:f705:d3f5%11(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 172.17.10.193(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.252.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, February 18, 2009 4:31:13 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, February 19, 2009 4:31:13 PM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 172.17.8.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 1.1.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 152.16.177.101
152.16.177.100
Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 152.16.177.102
Secondary WINS Server . . . . . . : 152.16.177.100
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled


In the disconnected state:
Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . : Media Disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : dhe.duke.edu
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom 4321AG 802.11a/b/g/draft-n Wi-Fi
Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-21-00-35-51-FE
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes



When everything is working fine, I can manually turn off the WLAN adapter and I get the same IPCONFIG results. When I manually turn it back on, connection is immediately restored.

So it seems to me like Vista is somehow losing its connection with my Wireless adapter. I have updated the driver to the most recent version and it still experiences the same problem.

Thoughts? Solutions? Thank you!

I'm no expert on this, but it sounds to me as though the problem may lie with your firewall.

Some firewalls, if they sense a threat (real or imagined) will close all ports and thus stop traffic to and from your machine. Rebooting will return things to their base settings.

I'm sure the experts will be along soon and tell me I'm talking rubbish. But, until they do, just check.

Oops. Sorry, didn't notice the ethernet cable bit

Memo to self: Don't try to answer questions. Sorry again

I have Windows firewall off, and use Norton Internet Security 2009.

If it were by chance a software issue, would there be a log of it somewhere in the event viewer (or elsewhere)? I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary, but can make a mental note to check again next time it happens.

Hi Diamond D, and welcome to the Vista Forums

First thing that I would check is the power settings for the adaptor.

Right click on the entry for the adaptor in device manager and if there is a power tab check that windows is not allowed to switch off this device to save power
As this is a wireless adaptor it may not have a power tab and you may need to check the advanced option for a power save related item.

Hope this helps

Thanks for the suggestion Barman. Under the Advanced tab, I see the following power-related items (current setting)


Minimum Power Consumption (Enabled)
Power Output (100%)

And under the Details tab, there is a "Power" entry with the following data:

Current power state:
D0

Power capabilities:
0000000F
PDCAP_D0_SUPPORTED
PDCAP_D1_SUPPORTED
PDCAP_D2_SUPPORTED
PDCAP_D3_SUPPORTED

Power state mappings:
S0 -> D0
S1 -> Unspecified
S2 -> Unspecified
S3 -> D3
S4 -> D3
S5 -> D3

--------------------

Anything noteworthy there?

The advanced settings you have there appear to relate more to the system sleep states supported by the device - those states that the adaptor recognises and thus is able to wake from. For example S3 is Sleep and S4 is Hibernate.

However I may be mis-reading them,

The power control is normally like this ...



And I was hoping that you would have the same or a similar on/off option in the advanced settings

Is the Current power state a changeable item?

if so you may want to see if you get an improvement by setting the current power state to D3, although this may cause further problems, and the fact that these options rarely have any documentation available, I do not want to suggest something that may cause more issues.

What is the exact adaptor model ?

Adapter is: Broadcom 4321AG 802.11a/b/g/draft-n Wi-Fi Adapter

There is no Power Management tab as you showed. It goes General, Advanced, Driver, Details, Resources (which has some non-editable memory range settings). Current Power State is non-editable.

Looking at what I believe is my Ethernet Adapter (Realtek RTL8102E/8103E Family PCI-E FE NIC), the properties for that device does include a power management tab just as you posted. The box for "allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" is checked in that one.

Hi Diamond D,

Have had a chance to check what issues other users of this card are having and this drop out connectivity problem has been mentioned

Two solutions offered were ..

It is caused by another wireless router in the area broadcasting on the same channel causing interference - cure for that is change the channel in use

The router is a 54g type and the auto select in the adaptor automatically downsizes to match, it does however check at regular intervals to see if it is able to switch back to the higher "n" speed. a glitch at this point causes the adaptor to crash causing the lack of connectivity - the fix for this is to set the adaptor to 54g when connecting to a 54g router.
This may also be a factor with a "n" router if the signal is blocked or weakened in any way that causes the router to switch to 54g and the adaptor fails when trying to match.

You may want to try these fixes to see if there is an improvement

Barman, thank you for all your help with this.

I understand what you're saying about the causes, but don't know how to make the changes you suggested

Are these changes I would make to the settings on my router, or my adapter? And are they one-time changes that would stay in effect?

I have to say that interference seems less likely (in my novice opinion) unless the adapter is very sensitive because this has happened at my apartment, at my family's house, and here at work - 3 different network types, 3 different router brands, etc.