Internet connection issue - Optimus

[Bobby]

Hey,

I know there are probably a few threads already discussing this but I needed advice in layman terms.

I have a new Optimus V which I'm very happy with for the most part. Like a few others I'm having connection problems. My laptop loses connection every 20 mins or so when on Wifi. Surely my machine should have come as up to date as possible? I am wary of uninstalling/installing drivers as I'll be honest, I'm relatively new to this level of technology. If I need to do this to sort out the issue, is it relatively easy? Where and how can it be done? If there is a step by step guide for beginner's I'd be very grateful. I can always call PCS but the moment they start with terminology I'm new to, I'm lost. Bit annoying tbh as I would have thought my laptop would have been ready to go!? Any help would be great, thanks.

 

[Stephen M]

Would ned to know what OS you are on, Windows 7, 8, 8.1 etc. There have been problems with 8.1 and that may not be the fault of PCS, they can only supply what is up to date when they ship. You will have had a disk with drivers on it. It may be worth a google search of the problem as there are several forums that will help as well as this one. I am afraid if you have Windows I will be of not much further help as I migrated to Linux a few months ago and have not looked back.

 

[Bobby]

It's win 8.1. Yes there was a disk that had drivers on it, one of which was to instal WLAN but that's what I didn't want to get into. I don't know whether I have to uninstall one first or not...

 

[ubuysa]

If you have an Intel wifi card this is a known problem, a search on here or via Google will show up many threads complaining about dropouts when using Intel wifi cards. It's not restricted to Windows 8.1, the problem also happens with 8 and 7 as well. The driver on the PCS supplied disk might not be the very latest and the most up to date driver might perfrom better. The easiest way for a non-techie to get the latest driver for an Intel device is to use the Intel Driver Update Utility. Go to http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect and follow the instructions there. The utility will scan your laptop for Intel devices and indicate whether any newer drivers are available, it also provides a link for you to download the correct driver.

This is an annoying problem, I know because it affects my Optimus IV too, I am now cable attached to my router to avoid the problem. But it's not the fault of PCS, it's clearly an Intel problem and were I specifying my laptop again I'd not choose an Intel wifi card. If reliable connection is important to you then you might consider replacing your card with a different one, it's located under the keyboard on the Optimus chassis but it's not too difficult to get at.

 

[Bobby]

Ubuysa, that link looks really helpful thanks! That's the explanation I was looking for, you made it really clear what the problem might be so I'll run the scan when I'm home from work and we will see. If I do need to update/install anything, do I need to make sure anything is deleted? Or is it a case that it is just updating the current driver?

 

[ubuysa]

Ubuysa, that link looks really helpful thanks! That's the explanation I was looking for, you made it really clear what the problem might be so I'll run the scan when I'm home from work and we will see. If I do need to update/install anything, do I need to make sure anything is deleted? Or is it a case that it is just updating the current driver?

In general drivers can be updated in place, if the old driver must be uninstalled then the driver installation will ensure that this happens. However, if you are having device problems and you are upgrading or reinstalling a driver in order to fix them it's wise to ensure that the old driver is uninstalled (and do a reboot).

In your case I would install any new driver the Update Utility finds on top of the existing one. If you still get dropouts you could try uninstalling the wifi card and it's driver (do that via Device Manager, right click on the card and select Uninstall from the drop-down list) and then do a reboot. Once Windows comes back install the latest driver again.

From what I've learned of Intel wifi cards since having these problems myself it doesn't seem as though there is a magic bullet that completely fixes these issues. This might just be something you have to live with I'm afraid.

Edit: It's worth experimenting with the location of your laptop and (if you can) the wifi router. Wifi uses fairly weak microwave radio signals that are very easily disrupted and interfered with by a range of home devices including, cordless phones, microwaves, fluorescent light fittings, and even faulty switches. It might be worth trying to eliminate as many of those as you can. It's also worth downloading inSSIDer from http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/, this does a site survey of your local hotspots and graphically shows you which other hotspots are on the same channel as yours and their relative signal strengths. It can often help you decide whether to change the channel your wifi router uses to one that is less busy.