What's up with Intel Wireless cards? Intermittent Connection?

Question

My friend just got a 600m with an Intel 2915ABG wireless card, and my 600m with an Intel 2200BG wireless card is in the mail to me right now. I've heard nothing but problems with the Intel cards. My friend's laptop has intermittent wireless connectivity. I've tried the drivers on Dell's website, the latest drivers on Intel's website (which are newer) and even older drivers. They all don't have very good wireless stability. I'm not the only one with issues. This thread has 23 pages of people with the same problems: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=11402. What's the deal with this, and how can two large companies (dell and intel) allow these wireless cards to continue to be shipped with such flagrant problems? Thanks for any and all replies.

Jerry Park · Answer

The cards are not bad cards. They have bad drivers.

Change the Transmit Power settings everytime you use the card (login on, restart, reboot, etc.) and they perform well.

The real question is why Intel doesn't fix this bug.

NemesisDB · Answer

I think it's a combo of a less than good card coupled with terrible drivers.  even if i tweak the transmit power everytime, it's still less stable than my other clients.  come on intel, you can make this work -- although the fact that the transmit power setting hasn't been sticky since version 7 isn't encouraging

CompMan86 · Answer

It's like buying a new car with an oil leak and them saying 'it runs fine, just add oil every 50 miles.' That's unacceptable. If I call tech support, will they trade me for a Broadcom wireless card or something?

bacillus · Answer

IMO tech support would probably ask you to first reinstall the operating system!

CompMan86 · Answer

I can't believe they can sell such shoddy products and not correct the issue when made aware of it. I definitely don't want something sticking out of my laptop that is just going to get broken off, and I don't want to spend any extra money beyond what I already paid dell. I paid them for a wireless card, and I want one that works!

NemesisDB · Answer

they might eventually, but they're definitely going to try everything under the sun first, including a new intel card.  in all honesty, if you can live without it being completely internal, buy a pcmcia card for $20 and be done with it.

NemesisDB · Answer

yeah ...  try the 9.0.2.25 drivers.  they do work better.

4fluke · Answer

Bad drivers?  That's putting it mildly.  I've been bouncing around trying different intel drivers for the 2200 card in my IBM R51.  Right now I'm trying the 9.0.21 driver to try and keep a connection for longer that a few minutes.  It certainly can be frustrating....

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

What's up with Intel Wireless cards? Intermittent Connection?

Was this post helpful?