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New A51m 7700 - Atheros Mini-PCI dropping connection???

post #1 of 11
3/21/05 at 4:00pm
Thread Starter 
Can anybody help me figure out why my Atheros Mini-PCI a+b+g card keeps droping the connection after about 5-10 minutes? What happens is I set it up and it connects fine, then after the 5-10 it drops out but still appears in the taskbar to be connected only the lights aren't blink to show activity, because there's really no connection. like it's going into sleep mode or something and won't wake up. If I use no WEP security it stays connected, but with WEP enabled at 64,128, and 152 it drops.

Here's what I've tried:

Uninstall stock drivers and installed current drivers and software tool
Clean install of OS and everything else
Tried my Linksys PCMCIA A+G card and it works fine, although I think it might drop too but after a longer period of time

Then after it drops, I have to reboot, uninstall dirvers and software, reboot and reinstall drivers and software and then I can connect.

Is it maybe a temperature bug where it's getting too hot?

Any thoughts will help, thanks.
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post #2 of 11
3/21/05 at 4:44pm
Sounds like it may need the internal antenna to the card repositioned, check this knowledge base article out...

http://help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/al...Z2U9MQ**&p_li=

I hope this helps you, sounds like this may be the problem...
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post #3 of 11
3/21/05 at 4:46pm
Be sure to also reference this article as well...

http://help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/al...MQ%2A%2A&p_li=

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post #4 of 11
3/21/05 at 10:18pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Codename_47
Sounds like it may need the internal antenna to the card repositioned, check this knowledge base article out...

http://help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/al...Z2U9MQ**&p_li=

I hope this helps you, sounds like this may be the problem...
Already did that. I wasn't having signal problems. it shows me getting a full signal, I'm only 5 feet away from the router.

haha, you should have followed it up with, let's see how this works out. hehe

Thanks. I believe I'm going to try and swap the antenna wires. the black one is hooked up and I've been pondering for a week now to switch to the gray one since that's what's in all the photos and tape the black one off.

Be back in a second.
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post #5 of 11
3/22/05 at 2:03am
Thread Starter 
OK. I swapped wires.

Stock it came with the black wire hooked to the front most (corner of the card) jack with the gray wire hanging free and the inner most jack with nothing plugged into it.

I pulled the black off the front jack and plugged the gray into the inner jack (nearest the barcode in the pic on Alienware link: click and scroll down to see pic ) and left the black wire hanging.

Then I re-read the instructions on the site, it says to hook BOTH wires up. click and #3 at the bottom so if it doesn't quit dropping with this configuration I guess I'll crack her back open and hook up the black one so both are hooked up and give that a shot.
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post #6 of 11
3/22/05 at 4:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by keisur
OK. I swapped wires.

Stock it came with the black wire hooked to the front most (corner of the card) jack with the gray wire hanging free and the inner most jack with nothing plugged into it.

I pulled the black off the front jack and plugged the gray into the inner jack (nearest the barcode in the pic on Alienware link: click and scroll down to see pic ) and left the black wire hanging.

Then I re-read the instructions on the site, it says to hook BOTH wires up. click and #3 at the bottom so if it doesn't quit dropping with this configuration I guess I'll crack her back open and hook up the black one so both are hooked up and give that a shot.
Hopefully that will do it! Let me know... Goodluck and congrats on your lappy...
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post #7 of 11
3/22/05 at 11:10am
Thread Starter 
Nahh, didn't work. I guess tonight I'll try hooking both wires up and see how that goes. After that if it doesn't work I'm going to scrap that stupid card and forget about it. My Linksys PCMCIA card is doing the same thing, I checked it out last night too. Seems to be more of a BIOS or some other system problem keeping it from working on a consistent basis. It's just like it had a timeout set or something, man this is bugging me to death.
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post #8 of 11
3/22/05 at 2:28pm
TURN OFF the Windows XP "Wireless Zero Configuration" service. You can either do this through Administrative Tools -> Services, or UNcheck the "Let Windows Configure My Wireless Connection" in the wireless network adapter properties.

Then, use the Atheros Client Utility to control the connection.

ed
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post #9 of 11
3/22/05 at 2:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Darkfire
TURN OFF the Windows XP "Wireless Zero Configuration" service. You can either do this through Administrative Tools -> Services, or UNcheck the "Let Windows Configure My Wireless Connection" in the wireless network adapter properties.

Then, use the Atheros Client Utility to control the connection.

ed
Cool, didn't even knew that existed...
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post #10 of 11
3/22/05 at 6:10pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Darkfire
TURN OFF the Windows XP "Wireless Zero Configuration" service. You can either do this through Administrative Tools -> Services, or UNcheck the "Let Windows Configure My Wireless Connection" in the wireless network adapter properties.

Then, use the Atheros Client Utility to control the connection.

ed
I've done that. That doesn't fix my problem. I've also tried using the Linksys utility. My problem isn't that it won't connect. it will, and with either of the 3 utilities. it just won't stay connected for longer than about 10 minutes.
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post #11 of 11
3/22/05 at 9:17pm
Thread Starter 
I believe I may have stumbled upon something.

I'm using the Atheros mini-pci card with the Linksys utility for the connection. I've been connected and surfing now for almost 2 hours and no drop. the trick? I'm using the Wireless-g option and not the Wireless-a. hmm, it seems the system just doens't like the wireless-a. so I guess it's got nothing to do with the antenna wire(s) or the connection utility that is running it.
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