Intel PRO 3945ABG Randomly Dies

Question

Hi there,   I was planning to call Dell on Monday to try get my laptop picked up to fix this but figured I'd check to see there isn't something obvious I can do to fix my problem first.   Got my Inspiron 640m about a year ago now and ever since I got it randomly (maybe once a week or something the wireless would just die. The system would appear to be connected (i.e. icon in the systray still appeared to be connected) but the wireless LED would be out and nothing would work. I would switch the machine off and reboot... everything would work again, LED came on during the boot of windows.   However in the last 3 or 4 days it's been happening daily, sometimes as often as once an hour! The only cure I can find is a reboot. Any ideas? The drivers are the latest from the website... seems to be hardware rather than software but who knows. Also the hotkey to turn wireless on/off doesn't do anything either.   Would appreciate anyones suggestions before I send off my laptop.

radleiv · Answer

Hi.   Just bought an Inspiron 6400 with the Intel PRO 3945ABG. Also for me it went from a fairly stable (but not 100%) connection to being unstable all of the time. Finaly I uninstalled the driver/software and installed an older version (10.5.1.84) I downloaded of Intel's website (remeber to get both driver and software). Now it's back to fairly stable.   Many people seem to experience this problem with this particular network card. Personally I suspect som compability issue with a securityupdate from Microsoft. It's the only thing I can recall was installed at the time when the problem occurred.   I am using Window XP sp2.

KVL · Answer

Sorry I made an error in my previous post - my Proset wireless plug-in is 10.5.1.182 in Proset/Wireless 10.5.1.0

KVL · Answer

Hi same problem - this is described in the recent tech support 'Current issues' with a solution listed but DOES NOT WORK (at least not for me) Link to relevant support page (Australia): http://support.ap.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/ap/shared/support/dsn/en/document?c=au&docid=16332F52585B367AE0401E0A5517117B&l=en&s=gen Also went to Intel website and tried downloading the latest Proset and 3945 driver (was slightly more recent than that posted by Dell) but still doesn't help. I eventually re-installed older Proset and 3945 driver from the Drivers and Utilities CD which came with my laptop. Has now worked for 24 hours. Also emailed Dell support - will see what they say. Current working version Proset Wireless 10.5.1.0 package which includes the older driver 10.5.1.72 and Proset plug-in 10.5.1.84 My system: Latitude D620 purchased March 07 XP Pro 2 SP2 Hope that helps anyone else who's been frustrated.

McNopper · Answer

Hi,   do have the same problem.   Can you guys please post the solution to this problem?! Which driver (from where) to install and settings to make?!   Thanks, Norbert

Phil.Drysdale · Answer

Sorry no can do... installing older drivers didn't work for me... still doing it. Keen to see if there are any further ideas/solutions to this problem.

KVL · Answer

Sorry it doesn't work for you Phil. Here's exactly what I did (as best as I can remember)...

When it first happened, tried the Dell solution (Proset 11x versions)
Seemed to be OK for another 2 weeks then problem recurred.
Tried uninstalling Proset + drivers
This included uninstalling through Device manager - otherwise the card might roll back to the wrong drivers without you knowing.

I then found the suggestion of re-installing older drivers on THIS thread.
I did a complete uninstall of the existing Proset 11x version (whichever one Dell had posted most recently)
Installed off the original Dell Resource CD which came with the laptop.
Has been working fine ever since and even registers better signal strength. I wonder whether it's power management that's different?

I DID contact Dell tech support via email at the exact same time that I re-installed the Proset 10.5.1.0 who said "Oh if you've tried the online solution and it failed then we'll trying changing your 3945 card" but by then I'd solved my problem so I cancelled the onsite callout.

If it helps, I'm running ZoneAlarm, AVG Antispyware, PC Tools Spyware Doctor on XP Pro SP2... some security software might interfere. I do NOT allow Windows automatic updates - I choose which updates to allow because Windows updates has messed up my previous laptop (Acer TM 8204) drivers before...

Sorry this is long - I'm just trying to think of anything that might help. I realise it's frustrating!!

Phil.Drysdale · Answer

KVL,   Thanks for your comprehensive reply, i'd rather it was long and useful than short and useless.   It's certainly a pain, I'll maybe give it another bash... the time I got it working the longest without severe interuptions was when I installed the drivers from the dell cd and did not intsall the intel software.   I'm getitng myself a new laptop in a couple of weeks soon and will be giving this one to an employee who will mostly work in the office (which is wired/wireless) so he can probably just learn to live with it if it doesn't work.

Phil.Drysdale · Answer

Well we are Dell resellers so I'll be getting a Dell, probably a Lattitude D830 - but that has a a 3945 so now I'm not sure. Will have to give it a proper think as I don't want to have the same problem with my new one!

::edit::

I've also done a few formats over the year I've owned the laptop seems to get better for a while then the problem re-occurs.

Message Edited by Phil.Drysdale on 06-03-2007 08:12 AM

KVL · Answer

Hmm... well here's hoping same problem in my laptop doesn't rear it's ugly head again in that case. Latitude D820 (at the time) was my other choice but I needed something a bit lighter. Hopefull Dell will sort the 3945 issue by the time you buy the D830. Once again, all the best!!

KVL · Answer

Oh yes one more thing, this exact problem happened with an older laptop and older Intel (!!) inbuilt mini-PCI card. Couldn't get it working. Eventually, 2 laptops down the track, I went back to this old Asus laptop and did a clean XP factory re-install (using it's original XP Pro CDs, drivers etc etc). VOILA everything working perfectly. You might want to pass your CDs to your employee - spending a couple of hours at home restoring to factory OS / drivers / software can work wonders.

KVL · Answer

Most welcome Phil. I wish you all the best in your next choice. Time wasted is not good. I've read on other forums that the 3945 has issues on other systems as well so recommend you do a little homework (I'm sure you don't need me to say so). Beware Acer - I've just BOUGHT the Dell because my Acer Travelmate 8204 WLMi died and has been in for warranty repairs for about 2 months now. Long story I won't waste your time just not recommended.

Gina Q · Answer

Hi Everyone,   I don't know if you all know this but I've escalated this several weeks ago and it is being worked on. The other day I ran across a post where a user had called into tech support and they removed the adapter from Device Manager and reinstalled. The user reports that has continued to function since this was done. I've written some instructions on how to do this. You might try it to see if it works. If you decide to try it please post back if it worked or not. Also, if you choose to do the solution provided earlier in this thread and that works please tell me that. I'm capturing the information and forwarding it to those who are working on it. Here's the link.

KVL · Answer

Gina I had about a month without problems after my reinstallation (see my detailed post earlier). Then problems recurred about one week ago - used System Restore this time and went back one week. All good again. I have disabled Windows Updates to 'Notify Me' rather than install automatically. I suspect there may be an issue with Proset and WiFi driver and XP security updates? Hope that helps.

Bright Flange · Answer

I have had the same exact experience as many other posting to this group: My Intel 3945 A/B/G wireless router would randomly shut off after about 1 hour. The only way to revive it was to reboot my machine and wait for it to happen again. This behavior persisted regardless of whether the wireless connection was managed by Windows or by the Intel Pro-Set software.

I tried performing a complete system re-install (it was a new machine anyway), and installed the latest drivers from available from Dell. The problem persisted.

I then tried upgrading to the even more recent drivers available directly from the Intel website. Again, the problem persisted.

I can confirm that the following solution worked for me: After reading a little bit in some other newsgroups, I decided to downgrade to an earlier version of the driver. This fixed the problem. To get an earlier driver, you can go to Dell support and search for the file "R127811.EXE". This file contains version 10.1.1.7 of the Intel driver.

Before installing, make sure that you un-install the older driver. (You might need to manually delete the driver files to prevent Windows from automatically reinstalling.) Then, install version 10.1.1.7

Hint: To verify which driver version is being used by your card:

Start -> Settings -> Network Connections -> Wireless Network Connection Click "Properties"

Click "Configure"

Select "Driver" tab

My system: Dell Latitude D630 Windows XP Professional Intel 3945 A/B/G Wireless

Message Edited by Bright Flange on 07-21-2007 07:15 AM

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

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