Hi all, I am hoping someone will have some brilliant solution to my intermittent problem. I hate intermittent problems, they are so hard to work out!

Here goes:

My husband's laptop has a built in wireless connection. Most of the time it is ok, but periodically, it will just "hang". He will be on the internet and surfing around just fine, then he'll click on something and firefox will return a page not found error. Many times it is for a page that he regularly visits and I am able to visit it on my laptop so I know the page is ok.

Here are his specs:
HP Pavilion DV1000
Win XP Pro SP2
Intel Pentium M Processor 1.6 Ghz
2 GB RAM
Intel Pro/Wireless 2200 BG Network Connection
NOTE: THIS LAPTOP CAME WITH XP HOME SO WHEN I INSTALLED XP PRO, I HAD TO FIND AND INSTALL ALL THE DRIVERS FOR THE HARDWARE. Also, I have done this once before with no trouble, then we had a HD failure and got a new one under warranty so I had to do it all again.

Here is what I have done, and also what I have noticed. (I used to be a low level techie in a previous life so I do know a few troubleshooting tricks).

I HAVE NOTICED: the system tray icon for the wireless used to stay lit up constantly while connected, now it will flash on and off, mostly stays off. When I hover over it, it tells me it is connected with excellent signal strength.

I have done these things:
1. Disabled and re-enabled the wireless
2. In Device mgr, changed the Power Management from Low (default) to 2 notches below High
3. In Wireless Connection Properties, Wireless Networks Tab, properties for our network, changed the Network Authentication from WPA-PSK to WPA. NOTE: When I go back in, it is changed back to WPA-PSK.
4. I uninstalled the driver and when I rebooted, the system found it and installed it PNP

try to eliminate interference first and make sure you are well away from cordless phones and base stations

next try the laptop in closer to the wireless router

wireless is synonymous with errors and the builtin correction can take a heavy load on the system



http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filter_res...mp;submit=Go%21

make sure your driver date in device manager is current

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filter_res...mp;submit=Go%21

11.5.0.32/9.0.4.37 11/7/2007

I never mess with the other software

Thanks DaChew, I will try that.

I discovered one other thing in talking to him last night, it seems to happen after about 5 minutes of connectivity, every time! To clarify, his connection will be good and fast for about 5 min, then it will hang and never recover, even with a reboot.

As far as the proximity to the wireless router, he likes to go into the garage which is probably a good 30 feet from the house. If he can't use it in the garage, then to him, it is just pointless.

And, it used to always be fine in there. Really am not sure what may have changed, but I will check out the drivers for sure.

I will post again later to let you know the results.

Thanks again!

Have you been power cycling the wireless router regularly? Can it be repositioned to give him a better signal?
Does it have the latest firmware?

If his laptop is older then newer cards and adapters perform so much better.

Hi Chewy,
I wanted to give you an update. I updated the driver for the built-in wireless. I have also power cycled the wireless router. The notebook seems to be better than it was.

I also found out something more: this problem of it hanging up usually happens when he is in Hotmail. I told him to stop using hotmail and the problem would probably go away

Anyway, thanks so much for your help and I think we will close the book on this one.