Last Resort

gerico

gerico

gerico

Associate
Joined
12 Dec 2009
Posts
624
Location
Gloucester, UK
Hi there,

In advance i'd like to apologize to the admins if i'm posting in the wrong section. I'm not sure if there is a troubleshoot category.. But, i am at the end of my tether and i desperately need some help.

For around 4-5 months now i've been having pc problems, to be specific wireless connectivity problems. I'm certain it's hardware related but can't be sure. I get disconnected a LOT, and ive found i get disconnected more when i have any game running (mostly anyway). Skyrim for instance seems to kill my internet as well as other titles. The connection often just cuts out then comes back if i manually disconnect / reconnect. I've tested it's not router related because all other devices running on the connection are fine in the same room at the time of disconnect so it's just my pc.

I've rencently tried reformatting, and up until now ive reformatted in the last few weeks about 4 times thinking perhaps the install mucked up... nope.. !

I'm running a Windows 7 64bit machine with the follow spec.

Intel Core i5 750 @ 2.67HGZ (socket 1156 LGA)
Gigabyte P55-UD5 PCI Express
Radeon HD 5870 1GB
12 GB DDR3 RAM
120 GB SSD
750GB HDD
500 GB HDD

I've also noticed some other problems or symptoms for the sake of this post. One major thing ive noticed is that at the point things start to go wrong i get a jamming effect take place where say i am in a game, for instance playing Star Wars Old Republic, the game jams and sounds get stuck repeating for a few split seconds, this then repeats frequently until i get disconnected. I found this happens in any game even offline games such as Skyrim. Sometimes it even happens when just in iTunes. Secondly i went out and bought myself a BELKIN Play wireless USB adapter thinking perhaps its my wireless adapter card thats faulty. When i tried to install the device i get error codes that drivers fail to install. I've tried everything under the moon to get it working and checked system requirements and exceed them all. I've manually tried to download the drivers and install, this again seems to install but plugging results in nothing.. i check device manager to find the device cant start. I took back the USB adapter and bought a more expensive version thinking maybe i was just unlucky, but still the same problem and ive even tried different brands.

I've noticed with other things the plug in and play devices dont always install properly.. I think it must be related somehow to other issues im getting. I think ive covered all the issues and im hoping and praying some bright spark here might know or at least help me narrow down the problem and get things working properly.. im losing the will to try and even considering just getting a new rig. I work long hours so i cant stand wasting my evenings trying to work out whats going on.

I've posted many times on the MS forums in the hope someone might help but never got anything of use back.

Please Jim, fix it for me. **EDIT** If anyone thinks they can offer assistance you can always PM me and i can give you information on my system etc.

Regards
Gerri
 
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I had a problem similar to this once. I ended up cleaning off all of my motherboard drivers, and downloading and installing fresh ones from their website. It fixed the problem for me. God knows what the actual problem was though.

It could be a problem with your ethernet drivers etc. Have you tried with a wired connection? Does the problem still exist if so?

Maybe it's an ISP issue, who are you with? I used to disconnect regularly with BT, but never happens with talktalk.
 
Have you made sure the wireless power saving features are all turned off or set to maximum performance ?. There is two places you need to check:-

1- the power options in windows (type "power options" on the start menu and you will see the option there, go there and as you will see from my screen shot make sure wireless is set to maximum performance).


2- the wireless hardware's drivers will also have power saving options in two places, find the wireless hardware (type in the start menu "View network connections" click that and then it will open all you network hardware, right click the wireless hardware and select properties, when there click configure under the wireless hardware "name of wireless card goes there", you will then see something like my realtek network card screenshot, mine is a ethernet card but wireless card will have same thing there too.)

Once there go turn off all the power saving features in the Advanced Tab (there maybe many so do go threw them all and disable the power saving options and some you may have to set to maximum performance) and the same under the Power Managent Tab (remove the tick that says Allow the computer to turn off the wireless to save power) .


35jfghc.jpg





Make sure also to use the latest drivers for your wireless hardware, but i'm sure you must have tried that too. So can be as above the power saving options. Try that first if you still have problems do shout again and then I can direct you to another thing to check but lets start at the common faults first that cause such things. Also if the wireless you are using is on a USB port, make sure to disable the power saving options on the USB too, again in both power options for windows and the hardware driver for the USB port/hub. Check in your BIOS too for any power saving features that may cause Wireless and USB power saving and disable them too.
 
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Rusty0611 said:
Have you tried a fresh re-install of Windows?
Click to expand...

I'm sure thats what i did. I skanked several times and did fresh installs from disk.

@Purgatory Thanks i will take a look tonight and see if i can check these settings. Could it be a motherboard problem if im getting the usb driver problems, or do you think more software related?
 
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So you formatted the drive to unallocated space and then reformatted to NTFS and installed Windows again?

If so I really have no idea what's wrong. It looks software related (i.e. Windows) but if the same issues are occurring...

Edit: Sorry I just re-read your post and you've already said you've reformatted

When you reformatted did you have all the latest drivers on a USB drive or something? i.e. you didn't install from disc? Some of the disc drivers are so old they are prone to causing problems now.

Also for your network card/USB network adapter are they:

1) 64 bit compatible
2) the drivers you're trying to install are 64 bit versions (if they offer them)

I had a similar ish kind of problem with a network adapter or two which just didn't like 64bit Windows. Although this was a long time ago and I'd expect that to be much less a problem now.
 
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Have you tried a third wireless adapter? I've got various ones sitting around here and I can install drivers manually, plug in and hope for the best etc but some of them just won't work with win7 (not just my PC, I've tried them on others too). Specifically the D-link and Belkin ones I own are guilty of it (I'm not saying all D-Link or Belkin ones, but the ones I own have the exact symptoms in the OP). I use a different wireless adapter and it's fine.

Can you move the PC (temporarily) nearer to the router to try a wired connection? Or try a Home Plug system or similar?

If that doesn't work, it sounds like a software clash, check your processes (in task manager) and see how many programs are running by default that could affect your connection and close down all the ones that you don't really need and see how it runs.
 
random dc and lag issues in games when online can be caused by isps having problems with packet size this was especially a problem with telia servers (virgin media for example) a fix for this was to use "SG TCP Optimizer" and change your mtu default packet size from 1500 to 900 i think the explanation was that telia servers were seeing games trafic as p2p file sharing and causing disconects for some reason that may be nothing to do with your problem but maybe worth a try .. it stopped my internet from random disconnects in games so you never know
 
Rusty0611 said:
So you formatted the drive to unallocated space and then reformatted to NTFS and installed Windows again?

If so I really have no idea what's wrong. It looks software related (i.e. Windows) but if the same issues are occurring...

Edit: Sorry I just re-read your post and you've already said you've reformatted

When you reformatted did you have all the latest drivers on a USB drive or something? i.e. you didn't install from disc? Some of the disc drivers are so old they are prone to causing problems now.

Also for your network card/USB network adapter are they:

1) 64 bit compatible
2) the drivers you're trying to install are 64 bit versions (if they offer them)

I had a similar ish kind of problem with a network adapter or two which just didn't like 64bit Windows. Although this was a long time ago and I'd expect that to be much less a problem now.
Click to expand...

Hi Rusty,

Thanks for the reply. When i reformatted i used slimdrivers i think its called to search out all the latest drivers for my pc. I might try buying a new pci adapter card see if that helps but i've gone through 3 brands of wireless usb adapters and they've all failed to install which is a major headache.

@ThomBassmonkey I will try get a long cable and try direct connection and see if i still get the problem to rule out the ISP and let you know. I'm considering calling in a technician, there must be people out there i can pay to come have a look.

Cheers
M
 
Purgatory said:
Have you made sure the wireless power saving features are all turned off or set to maximum performance ?. There is two places you need to check:-

1- the power options in windows (type "power options" on the start menu and you will see the option there, go there and as you will see from my screen shot make sure wireless is set to maximum performance).


2- the wireless hardware's drivers will also have power saving options in two places, find the wireless hardware (type in the start menu "View network connections" click that and then it will open all you network hardware, right click the wireless hardware and select properties, when there click configure under the wireless hardware "name of wireless card goes there", you will then see something like my realtek network card screenshot, mine is a ethernet card but wireless card will have same thing there too.)

Once there go turn off all the power saving features in the Advanced Tab (there maybe many so do go threw them all and disable the power saving options and some you may have to set to maximum performance) and the same under the Power Managent Tab (remove the tick that says Allow the computer to turn off the wireless to save power) .


35jfghc.jpg





Make sure also to use the latest drivers for your wireless hardware, but i'm sure you must have tried that too. So can be as above the power saving options. Try that first if you still have problems do shout again and then I can direct you to another thing to check but lets start at the common faults first that cause such things. Also if the wireless you are using is on a USB port, make sure to disable the power saving options on the USB too, again in both power options for windows and the hardware driver for the USB port/hub. Check in your BIOS too for any power saving features that may cause Wireless and USB power saving and disable them too.
Click to expand...

Hi there,

I went through these steps but no luck. Tonight its even worse than usual... can hardly stay connected! ahhhhhh!!!
 
Have you made sure the router is on a channel that is not too busy ?


Have you also tried changing the wireless security type to a different type ?


Have you tried a ethernet cable to the laptop and made sure you don't get the same problem ?


Have you made sure there are no mobile phones or other home cordless phones near the laptop or any other device (CB radio users living near you ? When the microwave is switched on, etc etc) that may give off radio waves to cause DC problems ?


Have you tried the laptop on another router ? Maybe at a friends or at work to rule out the router not liking the wireless card you have ?


Try these things first. It is starting to smell like the router not liking the wireless you have on that laptop or the security type you have picked is causing the connection to be dropped too, seen that happen on some wireless devices. Shout again if still having problems but do get it tested on another router to rule out a laptop wireless fault.
 
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I remember on my laptop my account could not connect to the internet but my fathers could?
Maybe try making a new account.
 
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