Another Core Duo Flaw ?

[DSOA]

I have recently tested Core Duo laptops from 6 different manufacturers. All but one of them had roblem keeping a wireless connection during fast switching from one user account to another The network card resets itself (turn off/on, acquire IP etc.) every time. These test were done with machines in brand new out-of-the-box conditions. Does anyone have a cure for this ?

 

[nigelf]

just stay logged on as admin (like 99% of win pc's are)

_____________

i know - stupid comment

 

[DSOA]

That is not the problem, all users are logged on as adminstrators.

 

[nigelf]

i mean log on as admin and not log off until you shutdown

what is so horrible about reconnecting to a network? And I would think that this is a software (windows) problem. Did you try this with another notebook

 

[DSOA]

For each machine, I had two user accounts as adminstrators.
Had them both logged on using the "fast switching user" screen.
While both were logged on, switch user from one to another caused the wireless connection to reset each time. The consequence of that is that if you were busy with the network : downloading, printing, logged on to web site, etc. you would get kicked out. Also reset takes time getting the IP etc. I have 4 laptops in my household, none of them disconnects while switching. They are not Duo's.

 

[nigelf]

then i dont know (i still think this is software related) - if its not software i guess that this is a problem with the network card (is this an intel card (centrino) or something else), not the processor.

The obvious question: are all drives/patches (win) up to date?

___________

i just tried it on my lappy (pentium M, IBM wifi) - it stays connected when i switch users

 

[nigelf]

far fetched thought: maybe some sort of security software is preventing the network to stay connected when the user is "logged on" (in the search of a better word) somewhere else? make sense?

 

[DSOA]

I actually purchased a laptop with a Core Duo just recently. I did all the drivers and XP updates on it, but did not solve the problem. The same laptop also had a nasty problem with the screen sleeping and not waking when I closed the lid (power management was set to "do nothing when lid is closed") and few other problems. Good thing that I was given a full refund when I returned it.
My wife and I share a laptop and I usually keep both accounts on at all time (hibernate when not in use, reboot only when XP crashes).
Apparently, it is not a one-of kind of problem.
Hopefully, soneone in this forum can tell me if it can be fixed by tweaking the registry or something like that.

 

[DSOA]

It is possible that a firewall can cause a problem like it. But I made sure the virus protection / firewall was unloaded when I did the tests.
ALso the XP firewall was disabled in these tests.

 

[DSOA]

BTW, when the network connection got disconnected, it threw an error in the security log :
"IPSec Services failed to get the complete list of network interfaces on the machine."
I think this is the same error you normally get when XP restarts out of hibernation.
Maybe someone when know IPSec can point to the cause of the problem ?

 

[nigelf]

i dont really know a lot about networking, but maybe its a xp home vs pro problem

 

[DSOA]

It does not matter, it happens with home, pro, and media center.

 

[nigelf]

if its not a home/pro, driver or patch problem, then i dont know anything else either. I guess you will just have to live with it (or can you still rma it - might solve the problem), and wait until a patch/driver etc for the wifi adapter comes out.

1 more thing: Have you tried it with another wifi card? - that way we defenetely know who's the culprit

 

[DSOA]

It happens with Broadcom or Intel wifi, doesn't even matter which version of driver.

 

[Panzerzero]

If you turn off SSID in services.msc see if this fixes the problem. I think each user would get a new SSID if this is turned off maybe it will fix you problem.

 

[DSOA]

There is no SSID in service.msc. I think SSID is the ID of the wireless router.