A few months ago, I purchased a used (refurbished) Venue 8 Pro 5830 for myself from the Dell Outlet. I use the tablet for travel but primarily use it to stream video from IP security cameras so it's streaming video for at least 8 hours a day, every day.
On my primary WPA2 Personal network where the unit was used constantly, the issue was never seen. Even after several months of continuous use.
On my primary WPA2 Enterprise network where the unit was used for up to 8 hours a day every day, I did experience the reported issue two times within a one week period after getting the tablet. There was even the C:\AR6K_FW_Recovery.log present as a result. Both times this issue occurred were while video was streaming over Wi-Fi but after I had stepped away for a period of time. In device manager, the WLAN card was showing error: "This device cannot start Code 10". Only a reboot fixed the issue.
Making no changes to the unit other than the two checkboxes to leave Wi-Fi connected during standby, the issue was resolved and has not returned in well over a month of continuous daily video streaming over wireless.
While I haven’t seen this exact error situation with the customers I work with, I have seen similar scenarios where the WLAN Driver will go into a Code 10 nonfunctional state and only a system reboot fixes the issue. In these scenarios where the issue occurred, we found that it was an access point setting which resolved the issue.
Thanks for following up, SteveB. As mentioned, those boxes are checked by default. The issue persists regardless, due to the underlying driver/firmware fault that is being logged with a useless level of detail at C:\AR6K_FW_Recovery.log. The only way to avoid this guesswork is to simply provide a new driver with no changes other than a verbose/debug logging mode, so we can provide useful, detailed information for the driver developers. Otherwise, I suppose this issue will persist indefinitely.
You can make the verbose logging optional or hide the setting in the registry. The driver devs wouldn't need to change anything for this update other than expand the logging that already exists in the current driver, which is only invoked after a failure occurs, so it shouldn't affect general use. Basically, when writing C:\AR6K_FW_Recovery.log after a fault occurs, flood the log with as much relevant detail as possible, instead of simple error code ids.
After a month with such a driver, all of us should be able to provide you with a large amount of detailed, useful information, which the driver devs can use to implement a proper fix for this issue (or determine that the fault is uncorrectable, so we can all move on).
Were you able to determine which particular access point setting was the cause? Could the driver be adjusted to gracefully handle those cases, instead of terminate its operation in this abrupt and generally non-recoverable manner? I, too, suspect that it's an unhandled/mishandled message from the router that causes this. Perhaps, it's a QoS or power saving mode change request of some kind that the driver doesn't recognize or isn't expecting that causes the fault. I've seen the issue on both of my home routers, which come from 2 different manufacturers and use 2 different chipsets, where the first is an 802.11g era router and the second is a newer 802.11n era router.
Incidentally, while it's true that a restart of the tablet (or disabling/enabling the wifi adapter in device manager) can fix the issue, it isn't guaranteed or reliable. With device manager, I've had to disable/enable the wifi adapter over 10 times, on occasion, before it would resume operation. In those cases where I gave up on device manager and restarted the tablet, I've had instances where 2 or 3 restarts were needed before the device would resume wifi operation. It's all very random, but it indicates that the fault is persistent, regardless of OS settings/state.
On my network I have multiple devices of all OS's and makes, the only device that has the issue is the Dell Venue 8 Pro. Common sense would point to the Dell device being the problem, makes no sense to make any changes to the AP with the chance that it might cause complications for the other devices that have no issues. The customer should not have to make any major changes for a product that should have gone through thorough testing in the first place. Wireless technology has been available for years, it's disappointing that a company as reputable as Dell would struggle with such a common provision. Getting online and staying online is pretty much the key reason for having a tablet these days, however without a reliable connection it defeats the purpose.
It wasn't the exact issue being discussed here but other scenarios which were somewhat similar and also resulted in a disabled WLAN adaptor. Both settings were on Cisco APs but there could be similar settings on others other APs. Keep in mind that these settings may not apply to this scenario here.
On the two instances I experienced the issue, a reboot fixed it and it didn't return for several days of continuous use. So far, the settings to keep Wi-Fi connected during sleep seems to have fixed the problem.
As far as a driver adjustment to better handle situations such as this, there isn't one that I know of but I've heard there are Windows registry settings which do exactly that. Keep in mind, modifying the registry fixed a similar issue for some but didn't fix the issue at all for others and would just be a band aid, not an actual fix. I'll see if I can find a reference to which settings were changed and advise.
For users who are able to do so, it may be interesting to reboot the AP instead of the system when the issue occurs to see if this clears things up automatically. If it does, there may be a setting on the AP which can be changed if rebooting clears the WLAN card inoperable state.
Completely understand the hesitation to make changes to the AP if everything else is working fine. The reality is that wireless technology is a great deal more complex than it used to be. Yesterday’s dedicated wireless cards which you could just swap out are now integrated with other devices as part of a single chip soldered on the motherboard with increased performance, new networking standards and lots of new power saving features which have to work in unison with the other devices on the chip. With the many variables which can affect performance, compatibility and reliability, sometimes adjustments need to be made to the device, existing network hardware or firmware may need to be updated. I can say that there are Dell customers with hundreds of these same model devices not experiencing the issue at all. For those who are experiencing the issue, individual adjustments to the network or device settings may help as it has for the device I am using.
It's a Windows 10 setting, just click the battery in the system tray then Power & Sleep settings. Not sure if Windows 8 or 8.1 has a similar setting or one that's as easy to get to as Windows 10.
What miracast device are you using? I don't think the TV is the issue far as connection issues go since you have something displaying on the screen. I have the Microsoft wireless adapter which works flawlessly with the Venue 8 Pro, with all the updates installed for both the Venue and the adapter, there is pretty much no lag in video or audio transfer. If you don't have this for miracast, I'd recommend.
my tablet will no longer connect via miracast to my samsung smart tv. could this also be issue with the wireless driver? it worked fine. tv was not updated. then it didn't work anymore. I saw that there was firmware update for the tv so applied it, reset it, but still will not work. tablet thinks it's connected, but the tv is black with a circle going round and round
to clarify, it worked fine but I was having the network problems. then I started messing with table to fix that and loaded that new file and now it won't connect to TV.
don't need any dongle. It is built in the samsung smart tv. worked fine before. I also had a tronsmart dongle that worked fine and would take that and venue 8 pro on trips and could watch my slingbox on tv at hotels, friends homes, etc. I lost the tronsmart dongle so can't see if that works. It did work before I started messing with the venue 8 pro wireless issues but since I don't have it can't test it out.
I only have black screen and a circle in upper right of screen with word "loading". but nothing happens. the tv said "connecting" then "connected" then screen goes black. tablet makes the noise it makes when connected and if you swipe from right and hit devices, project, it shows it is connected and mirroring-but nothing seen on tv
Ah I see, are you running Windows 8.1 or 10? Could be a video driver issue. If not Windows 10, 10 seems to play better with Miracast overall, I used to have weird issues like instead of mirroring, the tablet would only do extended desktop, but with Windows 10 fully updated, latest Dell drivers and firmware, miracast works great. Took some time to get to this point because when miracast first came out was pretty much useless.
hdfan23
1 Rookie
•
29 Posts
0
September 25th, 2015 10:00
Yes those boxes are checked by default, seems to be bad drivers or defective wireless cards.
Mikerman
915 Posts
0
September 25th, 2015 10:00
(Dell-SteveB, would you please address the current Secure Boot/BitLocker issue that is making DV8P's into bricks? Thank you in advance. Please see the following thread on this issue: http://commweb-ps3.us.dell.com/support-forums/mobile-devices/f/4586/t/19653390.)
Dell-SteveB
77 Posts
0
September 25th, 2015 10:00
have you seen the issue even with those two boxes checked?
Dell-SteveB
77 Posts
0
September 25th, 2015 11:00
Thanks as always for the detail Nobody31.
A few months ago, I purchased a used (refurbished) Venue 8 Pro 5830 for myself from the Dell Outlet. I use the tablet for travel but primarily use it to stream video from IP security cameras so it's streaming video for at least 8 hours a day, every day.
On my primary WPA2 Personal network where the unit was used constantly, the issue was never seen. Even after several months of continuous use.
On my primary WPA2 Enterprise network where the unit was used for up to 8 hours a day every day, I did experience the reported issue two times within a one week period after getting the tablet. There was even the C:\AR6K_FW_Recovery.log present as a result. Both times this issue occurred were while video was streaming over Wi-Fi but after I had stepped away for a period of time. In device manager, the WLAN card was showing error: "This device cannot start Code 10". Only a reboot fixed the issue.
Making no changes to the unit other than the two checkboxes to leave Wi-Fi connected during standby, the issue was resolved and has not returned in well over a month of continuous daily video streaming over wireless.
While I haven’t seen this exact error situation with the customers I work with, I have seen similar scenarios where the WLAN Driver will go into a Code 10 nonfunctional state and only a system reboot fixes the issue. In these scenarios where the issue occurred, we found that it was an access point setting which resolved the issue.
nobody31
2 Intern
•
77 Posts
0
September 25th, 2015 11:00
Thanks for following up, SteveB. As mentioned, those boxes are checked by default. The issue persists regardless, due to the underlying driver/firmware fault that is being logged with a useless level of detail at C:\AR6K_FW_Recovery.log. The only way to avoid this guesswork is to simply provide a new driver with no changes other than a verbose/debug logging mode, so we can provide useful, detailed information for the driver developers. Otherwise, I suppose this issue will persist indefinitely.
You can make the verbose logging optional or hide the setting in the registry. The driver devs wouldn't need to change anything for this update other than expand the logging that already exists in the current driver, which is only invoked after a failure occurs, so it shouldn't affect general use. Basically, when writing C:\AR6K_FW_Recovery.log after a fault occurs, flood the log with as much relevant detail as possible, instead of simple error code ids.
After a month with such a driver, all of us should be able to provide you with a large amount of detailed, useful information, which the driver devs can use to implement a proper fix for this issue (or determine that the fault is uncorrectable, so we can all move on).
nobody31
2 Intern
•
77 Posts
0
September 25th, 2015 11:00
Were you able to determine which particular access point setting was the cause? Could the driver be adjusted to gracefully handle those cases, instead of terminate its operation in this abrupt and generally non-recoverable manner? I, too, suspect that it's an unhandled/mishandled message from the router that causes this. Perhaps, it's a QoS or power saving mode change request of some kind that the driver doesn't recognize or isn't expecting that causes the fault. I've seen the issue on both of my home routers, which come from 2 different manufacturers and use 2 different chipsets, where the first is an 802.11g era router and the second is a newer 802.11n era router.
Incidentally, while it's true that a restart of the tablet (or disabling/enabling the wifi adapter in device manager) can fix the issue, it isn't guaranteed or reliable. With device manager, I've had to disable/enable the wifi adapter over 10 times, on occasion, before it would resume operation. In those cases where I gave up on device manager and restarted the tablet, I've had instances where 2 or 3 restarts were needed before the device would resume wifi operation. It's all very random, but it indicates that the fault is persistent, regardless of OS settings/state.
hdfan23
1 Rookie
•
29 Posts
0
September 25th, 2015 12:00
On my network I have multiple devices of all OS's and makes, the only device that has the issue is the Dell Venue 8 Pro. Common sense would point to the Dell device being the problem, makes no sense to make any changes to the AP with the chance that it might cause complications for the other devices that have no issues. The customer should not have to make any major changes for a product that should have gone through thorough testing in the first place. Wireless technology has been available for years, it's disappointing that a company as reputable as Dell would struggle with such a common provision. Getting online and staying online is pretty much the key reason for having a tablet these days, however without a reliable connection it defeats the purpose.
Dell-SteveB
77 Posts
0
September 25th, 2015 12:00
It wasn't the exact issue being discussed here but other scenarios which were somewhat similar and also resulted in a disabled WLAN adaptor. Both settings were on Cisco APs but there could be similar settings on others other APs. Keep in mind that these settings may not apply to this scenario here.
Enable Aironet extensions for legacy world mode operation
http://bit.ly/1KzCssP
Disabling Idle timeout (or other types of timeouts)
http://bit.ly/1G7xqQ9
On the two instances I experienced the issue, a reboot fixed it and it didn't return for several days of continuous use. So far, the settings to keep Wi-Fi connected during sleep seems to have fixed the problem.
As far as a driver adjustment to better handle situations such as this, there isn't one that I know of but I've heard there are Windows registry settings which do exactly that. Keep in mind, modifying the registry fixed a similar issue for some but didn't fix the issue at all for others and would just be a band aid, not an actual fix. I'll see if I can find a reference to which settings were changed and advise.
For users who are able to do so, it may be interesting to reboot the AP instead of the system when the issue occurs to see if this clears things up automatically. If it does, there may be a setting on the AP which can be changed if rebooting clears the WLAN card inoperable state.
Dell-SteveB
77 Posts
0
September 25th, 2015 13:00
Completely understand the hesitation to make changes to the AP if everything else is working fine. The reality is that wireless technology is a great deal more complex than it used to be. Yesterday’s dedicated wireless cards which you could just swap out are now integrated with other devices as part of a single chip soldered on the motherboard with increased performance, new networking standards and lots of new power saving features which have to work in unison with the other devices on the chip. With the many variables which can affect performance, compatibility and reliability, sometimes adjustments need to be made to the device, existing network hardware or firmware may need to be updated. I can say that there are Dell customers with hundreds of these same model devices not experiencing the issue at all. For those who are experiencing the issue, individual adjustments to the network or device settings may help as it has for the device I am using.
hammer-67
15 Posts
0
September 25th, 2015 13:00
when I go to this screen I only have the first two options about when to go to sleep, nothing about wifi or related settings?
Dell-SteveB
77 Posts
0
September 25th, 2015 13:00
It's a Windows 10 setting, just click the battery in the system tray then Power & Sleep settings. Not sure if Windows 8 or 8.1 has a similar setting or one that's as easy to get to as Windows 10.
hdfan23
1 Rookie
•
29 Posts
0
October 14th, 2015 14:00
What miracast device are you using? I don't think the TV is the issue far as connection issues go since you have something displaying on the screen. I have the Microsoft wireless adapter which works flawlessly with the Venue 8 Pro, with all the updates installed for both the Venue and the adapter, there is pretty much no lag in video or audio transfer. If you don't have this for miracast, I'd recommend.
hammer-67
15 Posts
0
October 14th, 2015 14:00
my tablet will no longer connect via miracast to my samsung smart tv. could this also be issue with the wireless driver? it worked fine. tv was not updated. then it didn't work anymore. I saw that there was firmware update for the tv so applied it, reset it, but still will not work. tablet thinks it's connected, but the tv is black with a circle going round and round
to clarify, it worked fine but I was having the network problems. then I started messing with table to fix that and loaded that new file and now it won't connect to TV.
hammer-67
15 Posts
0
October 14th, 2015 15:00
don't need any dongle. It is built in the samsung smart tv. worked fine before. I also had a tronsmart dongle that worked fine and would take that and venue 8 pro on trips and could watch my slingbox on tv at hotels, friends homes, etc. I lost the tronsmart dongle so can't see if that works. It did work before I started messing with the venue 8 pro wireless issues but since I don't have it can't test it out.
I only have black screen and a circle in upper right of screen with word "loading". but nothing happens. the tv said "connecting" then "connected" then screen goes black. tablet makes the noise it makes when connected and if you swipe from right and hit devices, project, it shows it is connected and mirroring-but nothing seen on tv
hdfan23
1 Rookie
•
29 Posts
0
October 14th, 2015 16:00
Ah I see, are you running Windows 8.1 or 10? Could be a video driver issue. If not Windows 10, 10 seems to play better with Miracast overall, I used to have weird issues like instead of mirroring, the tablet would only do extended desktop, but with Windows 10 fully updated, latest Dell drivers and firmware, miracast works great. Took some time to get to this point because when miracast first came out was pretty much useless.