Network Connection dies over night. Problem developed after re-imaging laptop. No other changes to network or PC.

Question

Gateway MT6458 Laptop w/ Vista SP2

Marvell TopDog 802.11n Wireless card with latest driver

I recently had to blast out my home laptop and did a factory restore and start from scratch again. This turned out to be a good thing because I got a lot of junk off my laptop BUT since the restore I have encountered a problem with what appears to be my wireless card or router dying every night. I essentially use my laptop as a desktop PC and have a chill pad under it and leave it on most of the time. What has started happening is that every night my network connection dies. It only seems to happen late at night, although yesterday I was VPN’d to my machine testing my VPN credentials to get into the office and it died on me then as well.

Before I re-imaged the laptop everything worked 100% fine with no changes to the router or network configuration since then.

Now my network connection randomly and completely dies on me. Like Red X, no local, no internet at all! It almost seems like it is Hardware related because after this happens I am unable to connect to any networks, Windows still sees the available wireless networks (So my wireless card should be ok right?) but I am unable to reconnect to them without rebooting. Once I reboot the machine all appears to be well.

I have Verizon FIOS as an ISP and use the router they issued with FIOS. Like I said before the router and laptop were working fine before my restore, no issues at all.

What have I done so far:

Uninstalled the driver for the wireless card and loaded the latest driver

Checked power settings to ensure nothing would be killing the wireless card to save power (although in device manager in the setting options for this driver, under the power management tab the “Allow windows to turn off this device to save power” option may not be getting set correctly. I always uncheck this option but after I reboot the laptop it goes back to being checked.) I couldn’t find a fix for this on Vista.

Answer 1

Hi,

Allow Computer turn off this device should be UnChecked = Control Panel - Device Manager - WiFi device

double click  - Power Management tab.

Check your Settings (BIOS/CMOS) - usually F2 as you boot - for Wake on Lan, Wake on Modem and so on.

Troubleshooting Windows Vista Sleep and Hibernate

http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/vista/vista\_hibernate.htm

How to troubleshoot performance issues with standby, hibernate, and resume in Windows Vista

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950686

Might need to reset all Power Settings back to default and then put back as you prefer.

How to Troubleshoot a Vista Sleep Mode Problem and Find a Solution

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/63567-power-options-sleep-mode-problems.html

How to enable and disable Hibernation - you can try disabling it and reenabling it.http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/165508-hibernation-enable-disable.html

How to restore the default power plans in Vista (then go back and change as desired)

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/198047-power-plan-restore-default-settings.html

Control Panel - Device Manager - look at Power Management settings for Network Card, WiFi, Modem,

and other devices. (Double click the device and Power Management Tab)

Might need to reset all Power Settings back to default and then put back as you prefer.

Hope this helps.

---

Rob - Bicycle - Mark Twain said it right.

Answer 2

Thanks for the reply SpiritX. In my original post I stated I do uncheck this, however a reboot re-checks this setting.

Apparently this is a known issue with XP and 7 and I have another question on here to see if there is a work around for this.

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistaperformance/thread/0e526509-0462-4b71-9eb0-d8d96f5e1263?prof=required

I will check the BIOS settings and see what I can find.

This is not a sleep or hibernate issue because all my settings dictate that plugged in laptop will never sleep or hibernate.

I will try to reset all the power plans and try to re-establish all of my settings as well.

Answer 3

Thanks for the reply Bindu, I do currently have my power settings configured as you mentioned.

This is in relation to another question I have on here:

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistanetworking/thread/d3cb3afc-6a06-49cf-b23e-ca2a826694a6

Can you help with that?

Answer 4

Hi Matt

The option which you are trying will work if it a wired network adapter only. Check the below link which explains it. (Third question in the article)

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Troubleshoot-network-connection-problems

You may try the below given steps to re-enable power savings for your wireless adapter.

• Change the wireless power saving setting:
• 1. Click Start >> System and maintenance >> Power options
  2. Click on Change when the computer sleeps on the left pane.
  3. Choose Change Advanced Power Settings
  4. Expand Wireless Adapter Settings
  5. Expand Power Saving Mode
  6. Choose Maximum Power Saving, Medium Power Saving, Low Power Saving to enable various levels power save modes.

Hope this helps.

Bindu S -- Microsoft Support

Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forumand let us know what you think

Answer 5

I recently re-imaged my PC from a factory restore disk. I'm not sure if I did not notice this issue before but now whenever I un-check the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" for my wireless adapter it stays unchecked however when I reboot it becomes checked again.

I found several issues relating to this however they were all XP and the workarounds and registry keys they reference are not correct for Vista.

Thanks!

Vista 32 bit Home Premium Sp 2

Gateway MT6458

AMD Turion

Marvell TopDog PCI_Express Wireless card (Driver 1.0.2.53)