Connection drop with Intel Pro Wireless 3945 A/G Mini Card

My sister just got a new Dell Inspiron E1505 that came with an Intel Pro Wireless 3945 a/g mini card and it has been an adventure to get the internet or any networking at all to work with the laptop. I instantly formatted the laptop since it came included with so much junk. I reinstalled Windows XP Pro SP2 and installed all the drivers for the video card, chipset, sound, and so on using all the drivers on Dell's support section. The drivers loaded fine for all hardware and was ready to go and I began setting up the network and it began have problems.

The wireless router I am trying to connect it to is a Netgear WGT624 using WEP 128 bit, mac filtering, and I have broadcasting disabled and it is using DHCP currently. Now these settings work fine for my laptop with an Intel Pro Wireless 2200, my father’s laptop with a Linksys WPC54G, my PSP, DS and everything else we have tried to connect to it, but this new laptop just does not want to work.

The drivers on Dell's site for the Intel card come with the software and I installed the software and tried to get it to work first with that. I could not get it to work without broadcasting, so I turned on broadcasting and it started working. So I began browsing the internet and then it just cut out and totally dropped the connection and the network entirely. It says that I need to enable radio even though it’s checked off at the bottom and was just working on radio 1 minute earlier. So, my first theory was to uninstall the software and try to use Windows wireless configuration which for some reason would not work without broadcasting either. So, I turned broadcasting back on for the windows one and I was able to connect. Once it connected, I tried the internet and got nothing. Now it never disconnects from the network, or it at least seems not to, but I never get the internet. At least with the Intel software I get the internet for five minutes.

My next theory was to totally disable the Windows wireless configuration and I proceeded to disable its service. So I did that and it did nothing different with the Intel software. It still connects for about five minutes and then just drops the entire connection. I was going to try switching to static IPs, but I am not sure if that would have anything to do with it or not. I am beginning to think it might be something with the card, but if it were the card I assume it would just not work period, so I don't know. The laptop also has a Broadcom 440x that is enabled but not in use at this time, but it will be needed in the future.

I also get an interesting message when the computer is on battery and tries to go to standby. I get the following:

"The device driver for the 'Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection' device is preventing the machine from entering standby. Please close all applications and try again. If the problem persists, you may need to update this driver."

I had a feeling that it may be something with the driver. I went to Intel's site:

http://support.intel.com/support/w [...] 010623.htm

Those appear to be newer drivers, but I could be wrong. I tried those drivers before, but when I tried to apply the new drivers it said that it was no different then the ones currently on there. So, I did not try installing the software that came with that driver though, as I tried this new driver when I was trying to get it to work with the Windows wireless configuration. I guess I could try installing this new version of the software and maybe that will get it to work. I am running out of things to try and I really do not want to have to deal with any tech support people right now, so any assistance anyone could give me for this problem would be greatly appreciated.

Here are the specs and current driver versions:

Chipset: Intel Mobile Chispset, 1.66 GHZ Intel Core Duo T2300E. Driver: 7.2.2.1006, A09

Wireless Card: Intel Pro Wireless 3945 A/G Mini Card. Driver: 10.1.1.7

Wired Card: Broadcom 440x. Driver: 4.37.0.0

Modem: Conexant HDA D110 MDC v.92. Driver: 7.38.0.0

Video: Intel GMA 950. Driver: 6.14.0010.4543

Sound: SigmaTel Audio STAC 92XX. Driver: 5.10.4995.0001

Card Reader: Ricoh R5C832. Driver: 6.0.4069.1

Touch Pad: Synaptics Touchpad. Driver: 8.2.4.6

That is pretty much every driver that I installed. Also to note that when it has a connection it is getting an excellent signal at 54.0 Mbps. Thanks again.

In the properties for the card there was a check box enabled that says:

"Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"

I unchecked the box and restarted the computer and I tested out the internet.
Even with the checkbox off it still continued to do the same thing that it did before. It gets the internet for the first five minutes and then it just drops the connection. There is nothing inside the windows power management that deals with it from what I can see from. Should I try a particular power management program that may completely stop this? Thanks for the suggestion and any further assistance would be greatly appreciated.

I had exactly same problem on the same notebook I was helping setup for a friend.

Blue68F100 is right. It has to do with the power settings for the Intel Pro wireless card.

I dont have the computer anymore so trying to recall from memory.

Go to Control Panel->System->Hardware Tab->Device Manager. Select Intel Pro under Network Adapters. Right Click and Select Properties. Under Advanced tab, there is a setting for Power Management. If I recall correctly, this is a slider with Max Battery on one end and Max performance on the other. You have to set it to Max Performance. This fixed it for me.

It maybe a bit different as it appears you are using a newer driver version but the general direction above should help you get to the same settings.

Hope it works. Good luck!

The one variable that you haven't described is the wireless card in your laptop. Based on the symptoms you've described, I would bet it's an Intel card (you can check your device manager to verify.) The problem is described below in both a link and a freehand description.

If it is an Intel (or Dell manufactured by Intel) you'll be happy to know there IS a solution. The problem has to do with an "undocumented feature" of the wireless called PSP (Power Save Polling) that works primarily when your laptop is running on the battery. This permits your wireless device to shut off devices (primarily newer routers) that it's connecting to in order to save power. The references on the Intel site (below) show you how to minimize the impact using your PC’s and Intel’s Power Management settings. To correct the problem permanently, however, you'll need to do the following:

You'll need to upgrade the firmware of your router to the latest available.

You'll also need to upgrade your Intel wireless driver to the latest available (from either Dell or Intel).

Then you'll need to make the following changes to the Wireless Router Settings:
Under the Advanced Wireless Settings:
Change the Beacon interval from 100 to 50

Change the fragmentation threshold from 2346 to 2306

Change the RTS threshold from 2347 to 2304.

Updating the router firmware and wireless device driver will fix the problem by about 80%. The three additional changes should make the problem "go away."

http://support.intel.com/support/w [...] 006205.htm

Similar problem with a Lenovo T60. Setting the Intel ProSet Power Management to maximum performance, does solve the problem. HOWEVER, whenever I sleep, power down, etc. the setting goes back to "Default". Anyone know how I can disable the "feature" of going back to Default?

hi everyone; i have been seeking a positive answer to this issue, however not of the replies were satisfying since i have tried all of the solutions offered by good intention. nearly one year later since i started i solved the problem and here it is:
this is unfortunatly intel wireles 3945 agn problem at all. i came to solution by simply changin security protocol; when i applied my security on the router as "TKIP or WEP or ANY OTHER" except "AES" protocol. the protocol TKIP especially disconnects ramdomly whn i start to watch movie online or download somthing which were my obvious symptoms i have been experiencing. yesterday i changed the protocol from modem at first from TKIP to AES and also adjusted my intel pro/wireless adaptor on the notebook accordingly and that woked great. it is no matter you installed the latest software from intel the problem will continue as before as interminent loss ol connection. thus pls follow the way i did and you will see everything will work fine and you will not see any disconnection. pls share your feedback with me at candilite@hotmail.com and if you can go further advise intel to fix this bug accordingly since i dont think my english is enough to tell in detail. i apologise for my poor english also since i am from turkey and can expain this way only.
kind regards

BeckoningChasm -- I don't what you are referring to when you say "I found this page". Which page and where can I find it? I have Sony VGN-FS875P/H running Win XP. About 4 yrs old. I am not sure if it has this page or "Display/Screensaver/Power" you are referring to. It is almost impossible to access the Internet because of this problem. Would greatly appreciate your further insight. Is there any I can speak with you over the phone?
Many thanks.
Ned