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Is my wireless card at fault?

Tags:
  • Wireless
  • Ethernet Card
  • Wireless Network
Last response: in Wireless Networking
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September 26, 2014 2:41:41 AM

Hey, so I recently moved into university (Living in a house with flatmates) and up until then have not used my wireless card. However, after having broadband installed I noticed there are no Ethernet ports in the house and of course tried wireless. Now, before this I had been using my phone as a hotspot and it worked fine. However, now with the broadband I can barely connect to the internet and the signal is constantly strengthening/dropping off. What makes me beleive it is the card is that I can seem to connect my laptop to the internet from any point in the room, but my desktop only a handful. Even then, my laptop speeds are satisfactory (From a cheap provider) whereas it is literally unusable on my desktop, getting about 2KBps when I tried to update my Graphics driver.


Here are my specs:
Nvidia Geforce GTX670
Samsung EVO 250GB
WD Caviar 2TB Black
Asus Z77 Extreme4 Motherboard
TP-Link WN881 Wireless adapter
Corsair TX650
Corsair 8GB vengeance RAM

More about : wireless card fault

September 26, 2014 2:53:06 AM

Asus Z77 Extreme4 Motherboard
You mean Asrock?

It could be the wireless card, or it could just be loose.
Have you tried reseating the card?
Remove and update the driver for the wireless card as well.
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September 26, 2014 3:03:22 AM

I've reseated it, and yeah my bad - I meant Asrock. As for the drivers, when I go into the device manager I see an "atheros AR928X network adapter" which I have uninstalled and reinstalled (However it didn't seem to share any common name with the TP-link so I'm unsure if this was incorrect in the first place.)

The problem may have improved, though the connection was always fluctuating so I can only try and test with about 10 minutes of use.
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September 26, 2014 3:34:22 AM

The problem still seems to be persisting, I've noticed that when I run a diagnostic on the network adapter it comes up with a problem which it says windows have fixed. (By resetting the adapter, I believe.) When this happens, the signal strength bounces up to three bars and then instantly down to one again.
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September 26, 2014 3:36:23 AM

grady said:
I've reseated it, and yeah my bad - I meant Asrock. As for the drivers, when I go into the device manager I see an "atheros AR928X network adapter" which I have uninstalled and reinstalled (However it didn't seem to share any common name with the TP-link so I'm unsure if this was incorrect in the first place.)

The problem may have improved, though the connection was always fluctuating so I can only try and test with about 10 minutes of use.


Go ahead and test. Here is the driver page you need to download from.
Make sure to get the correct version, Windows 7 64 bit for example.

http://www.tp-link.com/en/support/download/?model=TL-WN...
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September 26, 2014 3:37:00 AM

grady said:
I've reseated it, and yeah my bad - I meant Asrock. As for the drivers, when I go into the device manager I see an "atheros AR928X network adapter" which I have uninstalled and reinstalled (However it didn't seem to share any common name with the TP-link so I'm unsure if this was incorrect in the first place.)

The problem may have improved, though the connection was always fluctuating so I can only try and test with about 10 minutes of use.


grady said:
The problem still seems to be persisting, I've noticed that when I run a diagnostic on the network adapter it comes up with a problem which it says windows have fixed. (By resetting the adapter, I believe.) When this happens, the signal strength bounces up to three bars and then instantly down to one again.


Really does sound like a driver related issue.

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September 26, 2014 3:51:19 AM

I can't open that link - It just says the web page is not available. Any alternatives?
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September 26, 2014 3:52:40 AM

grady said:
I can't open that link - It just says the web page is not available. Any alternatives?


Weird. Sounds like you more than just signal strength issues.
Anyway. Try googling the card model number and go look for the download page.
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September 26, 2014 3:54:28 AM

That's odd though as I am on my laptop now and I can connect to ANY Other webpage but that. Looking for something else now.
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September 26, 2014 3:58:50 AM

grady said:
That's odd though as I am on my laptop now and I can connect to ANY Other webpage but that. Looking for something else now.


Small DNS issue that should be resolved by your ISP or local Admin.

If you do not come right, let me know and we can figure out a work around.
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September 26, 2014 4:23:54 AM

Right, I downloaded the driver files though it came with an assortment - After finding the driver for windows 7 64 bit, how exactly do I install it? Just extract it somewhere?
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September 26, 2014 4:26:22 AM

Depends, extract it and look for an executable install file.
If that fails, find the hardware via device manager and then instal it manually.
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September 26, 2014 4:28:34 AM

I did it manually and apparently it has successfully updated, I will continue using it and see if I have the same problems. (Was I meant to do an uninstall first? As I didn't)
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September 26, 2014 4:29:28 AM

FIrst I'm gonna jump in the shower though ^^ Thanks for staying with me thus far.
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September 26, 2014 4:33:24 AM

No problem. You can try uninstalling any network drivers, running a registry sweep(with CCleaner), restart and reinstall.
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September 26, 2014 4:44:40 AM

No trouble thus far, and I noticed in devices my network adapter used to be called "atheros AR928X network adapter" Whereas now it has it's proper TP-Link name, which I assume is a good sign. I'll come back in a hour or so either crying or picking your solution :) 
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Best solution

September 26, 2014 4:49:13 AM

Sounds promising. Let me know. :) 
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September 26, 2014 9:29:52 AM

So, I just got back from university and my computer cannot connect again - Although my laptop, which is in the same room and further from the router has absolutely no trouble. :( 
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