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Windows 7 wireless network won't connect after reboot; I need to reset adapter every time

Anonymous
2010-10-16T21:09:21+00:00

Okay, this is a weird one. I'm very computer literate, and I'm about to just wipe the laptop and go back to the initial factory setup to see if that fixes the problem, but here goes. I've got a Toshiba A665D-S6059 notebook, and at some point the wireless networking stopped working properly. When I reboot, the WiFi icon in the system tray shows it can see connections but it won't connect to anything. If I try to connect to my network, it gets an error and I can use the "Troubleshoot Problem" option. At that point, it will reset the adapter and the problem is fixed... until the next reboot. I can manually go into the network adapter control panel, disable and enable the adapter, and that also fixes the problem. But beyond that, nothing I have tried will let the notebook connect immediately after rebooting.

Things I've tried:

  1. Uninstall device from Device Manager (reboot and let it find the device again)
  2. Install the latest Realtek drivers
  3. Reset Winsock (netsh winsock reset)
  4. Clean boot (via MSConfig and choosing selective startup)
  5. Making sure WLAN service is set to "Automatic" startup
  6. Lots of searching for anyone else with a similar problem (close but no cigar)

So at this point I'm stumped. If I use the Fn+F8 key combination, it sort of disables/enables the wireless adapter, but it doesn't actually reset the adapter -- I have to manually do that. In all cases, however, I can see the five or so WiFi networks in my area. I'm connecting to my own WPA2 secured router (in the same room). I've probably tried a few other things without success as well.

Anyway, does anyone have something else to try, or should I just go ahead and reset the system to factory defaults? At this point, I've backed up the data I need to keep, and this is a strange enough problem that I'm ready to give up. Suggestions?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Internet and connectivity

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-10-18T13:39:08+00:00

    So wouldn't you know it, after doing the factory reinstall and then grabbing all the latest Windows Updates... the Wireless networking started doing the exact same thing as before! Gah! But, this time I didn't have system restore disabled, and so I was able to roll back to before grabbing all the updates. After a restore and a reboot, the wireless was working again, so obviously one of the updates broke the functionality of the wireless.

    At that point, I decided to try grabbing all of the updates with a couple exceptions: I left off .NET 4 (it's new and I encountered an issue on a different PC recently), and I didn't grab the optional updates. So really I installed about 98% of the available Windows Updates. Rebooted and everything still worked, so then I tried the optional updates as well as .NET 4. I was able to determine that the actual culprit was a Realtek network driver, but the catch is it was theirwired network driver, and it was breaking the wireless networking functionality. Okay, "breaking" isn't entirely accurate, since you could still get it to work, but anyway I left off that driver and now the laptop is up to date and running happily. Interesting to note that the wired Realtek driver was just published in the last week or two, which is why I didn't encounter the problem before.

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-01-19T20:08:18+00:00

    Hi there,

    With a brandnew laptop I had a simular problem. At every reboot or when waking up out of sleep mode the wireless was disabled. First I solved this by putting 'MS Mobility Centre' in the startupfolder (in startmenu) after a reboot I clicked to enable the wireless. This was an anoying clickexperience after every reboot so I found a different solution.

    In the startupfolder I placed a batchfile with only one line of text:

    "@netsh wlan connect ssid=1 interface="Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Connection"

    Just replace the string between " " with your own adapter description. This description can be found by using the 'ipconfig /all' command on a commandprompt. The output is something like:

    Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

       Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :

       Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter    <<< This is wat you want to know <<<

       Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 56-55-68-5E-6B-DD

       DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

       Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

       Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe81::5515:1410:1c08:1522%12(Preferred)

       IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.100.17(Preferred)

       Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

       Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : woensdag 19 januari 2011 18:37:47

       Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : donderdag 20 januari 2011 18:37:47

       Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.100.1

       DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.100.1

       DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 239625550

       DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 2B-48-5D-60-5F-6A-DB-00-01-00-01-14-7E-8D

       DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.100.1

       NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

    The commandprompt can be opend by typing 'cmd' in the comandline in the startmenu.

    Hope this helps someone!

    GrtZ  Armand0

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-10-17T01:02:30+00:00

    Sorry, already tried disabling the power saving feature and no luck. Anyway, I gave up a few hours back and did the Toshiba Factory Restore, so never mind and I'll never quite know what got FUBAR'ed on this laptop. :-)

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-10-17T00:53:02+00:00

    Hi

    Try to disable the Wireless card's Power Saving.

    It sounds like "Quirky" Wireless card, hardware wise.

    If you know someone with a USB Wireless card, borrow it and give it a try.

    Jack-MVP Windows Networking. WWW.EZLAN.NET

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