A couple of months ago, I bought a new HP Envy H8-1414. Right out of the box, it has had problems connecting to the WLAN. Due to where I live, and the apartment, I don't have access to wired internet, only wireless.
Here is the problem. I have connection, and decent. Then it drops out for around 5-90 seconds. And then it is back. Long enough to interrupt streaming, downloads, uploads, web browsing, gaming... and total chaos in the now internet required computing age. Now here are some of the weird things about this puzzle. It may be anywhere between 1 minute to 12 hours before another reset. All networks, including my neighbors networks disappear.
1) White bars, Internet Access. Things working Fine
2) Dark gray bars with a red x, No connections are available. Nothing shows up in the network menu, no connections on this computer.
3) Dark gray bars with a ?snowflake?. Wireless connections are available. There are hidden networks shows up in the network menu, but when I hover over that, my network and the neighbors networks show up. I at that point am automatically connected to my network.
4) White bars. Internet Access. Things working fine again...?
Only two computers on my network have done this. A HP-DV7 laptop, and this HP Envy. I have tried over 20 different computers in this location and no problems like this have been seen.
With the DV7 that was having the same issue, I did try other routers, but had the same results. I don't have a spare router to test at this time to see if my computer would behave in the same format.
I swapped the wireless card out to see if it was hardware, and received the same result.
but when I ran Ubuntu, I did not see the problem with the spare wireless card (from an old Sony laptop.)
The wireless cut outs seem random, but I can reproduce them by running multiple flash windows, or a heavy graphics intensive program along with an internet program. (This include gaming, thus why I stopped playing MMO's) *Note, on the mobo, the wireless card is seated just above the fan for the heat sink for the wireless card. Not sure if this is may be the problem?
Now I have done the following under the advisement of HP, (and going through their steps because the computer is under warranty:
1) Driver Update
2) Uninstall Driver and then Driver update
3) Bios Update
4) Change power setting to prevent sleep on wireless card
5) Factory Restore
6) Repeat 1-4
7) Factory Restore from Disk sent from HP
8) Repeat 1-4
9) Re-seat wireless card
10) Update firmware on router.
11) Factory Restore from Disk sent from HP
12) Repeat 1-4
13 HP is coming out now to replace antenna? and card? in computer... (sat) but I would like some more ideas of what it could actually be.
After restores, I have also tried before letting windows update, and after windows update, Before installing software and after. I have tested this in both Chrome and IE and get the same results. (Reason being, HP told me that programs like chrome were not supported by their systems, and I would have to use IE to browse. It failed, went back to Chrome.)
This is a large puzzle to me, especially why it would work in Linux, but not windows. Thank you for your time in reading this and replying. Any more information I would be happy to give.
OS Used: Windows 8-64 bit
Linux Used: Ubuntu 12.10
Current Computer Info:
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 8, 64 bit
Processor: AMD FX(tm)-6120 Six-Core Processor, AMD64 Family 21 Model 1 Stepping 2
Processor Count: 6
RAM: 10031 Mb
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 7450, 1024 Mb
Hard Drives: C: Total - 940760 MB, Free - 889985 MB; D: Total - 11400 MB, Free - 1387 MB; J: Total - 1430796 MB, Free - 1198634 MB;
Motherboard: Gigabyte, 2AC8
(All items are factory)
Wireless Cards
Native - Ralink RT3290
Used for testing - Atheros AR5B95
Router: Netgear N600 (WNDR3400)
Here is the problem. I have connection, and decent. Then it drops out for around 5-90 seconds. And then it is back. Long enough to interrupt streaming, downloads, uploads, web browsing, gaming... and total chaos in the now internet required computing age. Now here are some of the weird things about this puzzle. It may be anywhere between 1 minute to 12 hours before another reset. All networks, including my neighbors networks disappear.
1) White bars, Internet Access. Things working Fine
2) Dark gray bars with a red x, No connections are available. Nothing shows up in the network menu, no connections on this computer.
3) Dark gray bars with a ?snowflake?. Wireless connections are available. There are hidden networks shows up in the network menu, but when I hover over that, my network and the neighbors networks show up. I at that point am automatically connected to my network.
4) White bars. Internet Access. Things working fine again...?
Only two computers on my network have done this. A HP-DV7 laptop, and this HP Envy. I have tried over 20 different computers in this location and no problems like this have been seen.
With the DV7 that was having the same issue, I did try other routers, but had the same results. I don't have a spare router to test at this time to see if my computer would behave in the same format.
I swapped the wireless card out to see if it was hardware, and received the same result.
but when I ran Ubuntu, I did not see the problem with the spare wireless card (from an old Sony laptop.)
The wireless cut outs seem random, but I can reproduce them by running multiple flash windows, or a heavy graphics intensive program along with an internet program. (This include gaming, thus why I stopped playing MMO's) *Note, on the mobo, the wireless card is seated just above the fan for the heat sink for the wireless card. Not sure if this is may be the problem?
Now I have done the following under the advisement of HP, (and going through their steps because the computer is under warranty:
1) Driver Update
2) Uninstall Driver and then Driver update
3) Bios Update
4) Change power setting to prevent sleep on wireless card
5) Factory Restore
6) Repeat 1-4
7) Factory Restore from Disk sent from HP
8) Repeat 1-4
9) Re-seat wireless card
10) Update firmware on router.
11) Factory Restore from Disk sent from HP
12) Repeat 1-4
13 HP is coming out now to replace antenna? and card? in computer... (sat) but I would like some more ideas of what it could actually be.
After restores, I have also tried before letting windows update, and after windows update, Before installing software and after. I have tested this in both Chrome and IE and get the same results. (Reason being, HP told me that programs like chrome were not supported by their systems, and I would have to use IE to browse. It failed, went back to Chrome.)
This is a large puzzle to me, especially why it would work in Linux, but not windows. Thank you for your time in reading this and replying. Any more information I would be happy to give.
OS Used: Windows 8-64 bit
Linux Used: Ubuntu 12.10
Current Computer Info:
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 8, 64 bit
Processor: AMD FX(tm)-6120 Six-Core Processor, AMD64 Family 21 Model 1 Stepping 2
Processor Count: 6
RAM: 10031 Mb
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 7450, 1024 Mb
Hard Drives: C: Total - 940760 MB, Free - 889985 MB; D: Total - 11400 MB, Free - 1387 MB; J: Total - 1430796 MB, Free - 1198634 MB;
Motherboard: Gigabyte, 2AC8
(All items are factory)
Wireless Cards
Native - Ralink RT3290
Used for testing - Atheros AR5B95
Router: Netgear N600 (WNDR3400)