Wireless adapter connecting & disconnecting repeatedly (Railink 802.11bgn)

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CoreyKro

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Jul 7, 2015
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Bizarre problem just started the other day.
Windows 10 on an Intel DZ77GA-70K mobo.

I started hearing the notification that a device was being connected and disconnected. The bluetooth icon in the system tray was disappearing and re-appearing non-stop. In my adapter settings, the wireless adapter flashes between "not connected" and "Disabled" in a loop, then disappears and repeats.

The computer is also constantly searching for a homegroup, and goes back and forth between searching and deciding there is no home group, before resuming the search. It also no longer sees the other computers on my network as computers, but does see them as media devices.

Seems to be an issue with the Railink wireless 802.11bgn adapter on the mobo. The only thing that stops the madness is disabling the device. But it wont stay disabled. After a restart, the problem starts over again.

I tried the latest drivers from Intel, to no avail. I uninstalled the bluetooth devices and wireless devices, updated Win 10, hoping for new drivers, but no such luck.

I didn't change anything else on the system. No idea whats causing it, so I was hoping the experts here might have some suggestions.

 
Solution
Ralston18
I can see a bit of a "connection". If wifi is getting turned on then the computer may be attempting to connect to some other network (local Xfinity Hot Spot.... who knows?) and then Homegroup attempts to do its thing.

Are you intentionally using Homegroup? I have had it become active due to personal error or just plain gremlins. Sort of takes on a life of its own and will cause some confusion by trumping how you want your network to be and work.

Does anyone else use the computer in question and possibly have rights to download installable apps?

Anyway, will stay with the present plan and see if perfmon reveals anything. May take some careful watching and some research to figure out what is what. Some unidentified process for...
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Ralston18

Ralston18

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Oct 11, 2014
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Does appear to be an adapter or even mobo failure of some sort.

Double check that you are really disabling the adapter. The restart after being disabled is really strange. Sort of suggests some other code turning the adapter on again. But with the bluetooth and the other connectivity related behaviors it could indeed be a mobo problem somewhere. Power related maybe.

Two suggestions:

1) use perfmon /res to watch the neworking functions and running processes. See if you can find a some activity corresponding with the "connected" / "not connected" events.

2) borrow or purchase a USB wireless adapter and see if that works. Need to narrow things down by elimination.
 
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CoreyKro

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Jul 7, 2015
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Funny thing is that I don't need the wireless, as its my main desktop machine. Its never on wifi. This whole thing is just odd. The mobo is only 3 years old, so I hope its not failing.

I think somehow the network drivers are funky under Win 10, since I've managed to get the WiFi to stop trying to turn on, but the HomeGroup thing is a bit of a head scratch, since thats happening under wired ethernet as well.

Will try the perfmon tonight when I get home. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
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Ralston18

Ralston18

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Oct 11, 2014
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I can see a bit of a "connection". If wifi is getting turned on then the computer may be attempting to connect to some other network (local Xfinity Hot Spot.... who knows?) and then Homegroup attempts to do its thing.

Are you intentionally using Homegroup? I have had it become active due to personal error or just plain gremlins. Sort of takes on a life of its own and will cause some confusion by trumping how you want your network to be and work.

Does anyone else use the computer in question and possibly have rights to download installable apps?

Anyway, will stay with the present plan and see if perfmon reveals anything. May take some careful watching and some research to figure out what is what. Some unidentified process for example.

Wondering (for the paranoid) if some virsus or trojan could be set up to enable wireless and then look for an unsecure hot spot and download more nastiness.... Or some app is just using that path to phone home etc.. Maybe some of the more security-minded posters will comment on those possibilities.
 
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Solution
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CoreyKro

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Jul 7, 2015
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I'm not actually using HomeGroups at all. There is no homegroup set up on my network. But HomeGroup is always listed in the file explorer. Normally it just stays in place, and if you click it, you get the "No homegroup set up" message.

Nobody else uses the computer. Just me. And I ran some of my usual malware/anti-virus checks and they came up clean. Didn't install anything in the past week or two, that I can recall, but if it were anything, it would probably be some malware/toolbar BS and not something so nefarious.

 
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CoreyKro

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Jul 7, 2015
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Tried to create a homegroup. That got the HomeGroup icon to stop flashing and searching for a homegroup. However, oddly, I can't change the password to the homegroup. When I do, I get a "you can't create a homegroup on this computer" message.

 
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CoreyKro

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Jul 7, 2015
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Decided to "refresh" my Windows 10 after checking the performance monitor for anything funky.

Updated to the newest "service pack" for Windows 10 and things seem to have chilled out.

Hate that I had to do it that way, but c'est la vie.
 
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CoreyKro

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Jul 7, 2015
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Well, that only lasted a couple of days. It started flaking out again today. But there were some Windows 10 updates last night (or the night before) so I guess I have something to look at more closely.

Annoying.

 
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krla

Feb 26, 2018
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I had a similar problem with a RALINK RT5390R 802.11bgn WIFI Adapter. It would randomly disconnect/reconnect to network. I changed my router setting to 802.11 g only, and it has worked fine since.
 
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