Intermittent WIFI connection?

Got the "Venue 11" 2 or 3 weeks ago and just used at home and office.  Starting yesterday used it at a number of other locations and experienced the same symptoms described in this post: "richstant on 3 Sep 2014 6:53 AM".  Lost wifi and wifi toggle would not toggle.  Had to restart or go into control panel and troubleshoot/restart the wifi NIC.  Also, same sleep problem, plus the computer just won't start at all for a while even if holding down the power button, then suddenly starts up.  This has severely limited the mobile use of the computer, which is the main point of this type of device.  I have been a happy an loyal Dell owner for over a decade, and this is my first bad experience.  I hope that it's not foreshadowing the future of Dell.  While I was writing this on my desktop computer (also a Dell) I tried to use the Venue and it was dead; wouldn't turn on at all' tried holding down the power button and nothing; then ~5 mintues later it suddenly turned on; this is not acceptable.

Venue 11 Pro 5130, Windows 8.1 Pro (32Bit), 2GB DDR3 Memory, 64GB Mobility Solid State Drive, Dell Wireless 1538 Dual-Band 2x2 802.11n WiFi + Bluetooth® 4.0, Intel® Atom™ processor Z3775 (2MB Cache, up to 2.4GHz Quad-Core), 10.8 inch IPS Display with FHD (1920 x 1080), Plus attached almost all of the time: Dell Tablet Keyboard - Mobile (Dell Part# 332-2365)

I am having the same connectivity trouble as everyone else with my Venue 8 Pro 64G.  I listen to audiobooks and once every day or two, the Dell portable bluetooth speaker loses connection and stops.  I can turn off the speaker and go to reconnect bluetooth devices and it will reconnect but it is a real pain.  I have tried every fix mentioned including spending hours on the phone with Dell and researching on the net.  After a mild confrontation, Dell has arranged for me to send the device to the 'depot' but as you say, I don't trust it will come back fixed because it happens intermittently.  Unless they have a new, updated adapter not just a software update, I fear I'm wasting my time.  Again, as you say, let's wait and see...

My symptoms have improved since the latest BIOS update - I no longer see the full hangs when roaming between access points. However I do still see that sometime I have to manually force it to connect to a new AP while roaming, and it still sometimes loses the ability to connect to any wireless point at all, requiring a complete reboot (again, this only happens while roaming).

It appears that we just keep hoping that Dell really hasn't let us down.  Unfortunately... 

I have an XPS 15 touch screen laptop and it is lovely so I haven't given up completely.  Their problem seems to be is with the wifi/bluetooth adapters they chose for their tablets as both the Venue Pro 8 and 11 have similar troubles. 

If nothing else, I've learned a lot about the device, updating, drivers and connectivity  :)

Hi, Fabri91.  You obviously know much more than I do but my biggest trouble was constantly losing bluetooth as well as wifi connection and this seemed to be an adapter problem.  Anyway, I sent my Venue 8 Pro away on Thursday and it's back in town, supposedly repaired and ready for delivery at this time, Saturday morning.  (I am in Canada.) I'm anxious to see how it works and will post results after a few days.

I am experiencing this problem with my Venue 11 Pro 7130 (Core i3) on which I swapped the Dell 1537 network adapter for the Intel 7260 one, trying to resolve an issue that was in the end unrelated to this (extremely slow network connection to our TP-Link TD-W8980 router, got fixed with last UEFI update).

Security protocol is WPA2, a D-Link DSL-2740B is setup to work as a second access point for our home network.

Mine actually stayed connected for a couple of days at a time but seemed to be getting worse.  I specifically wrote in my directives that I wanted a new adapter or it would be going back to them for a refund.  I'm hopeful and trying to think positively but not holding my breath :)

Hi Arvida66. Yes, please post your experience after the repair. I still have to send mine in, but just can't bring myself to do so because of the expected negative outcome. I just can't see how they can repair the device without the availability of decent drivers.

For me it is still Bluetooth and WiFi that just quit (which can happen at any point, completely unpredictable) sudden freezes of the whole device and in some cases refusing to (re)boot, even when holding down the power button for a very long time. In short: the same issues as reported by many people.

The frustrating thing is that it can sometimes work uninterrupted for up to an hour, which is probably way longer than a Dell repair person will test it. I assume that they will switch it on, run a few tests, find that WiFi and Bluetooth work and will that say that it is 'repaired'. If they at least experienced some of the issues that would be great. Without proper drivers they will not be able to repair it, but at least they would have to admit that the device is just working properly. Unfortunately I don't see that happening. Admitting that they can't get it to work could lead to a recall of all the devices they have shipped so far, and that is something they will want to avoid. Hence they just keep on pretending that there is no problem and hope that people will give up complaining

You may want to have a look at this thread although none of the suggestions helped me at all:

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/mobile-devices/f/4586/p/19542019/20685494#20685494

Tonight for the X th time, I had to deal with wi-fi not working.

*AGAIN*, I had to remove the Windows Update KB2903939.

Somebody is not doing his job.

Would NEVER happen in an iOS environment.

Is Dell just giving up with W8.1?

This is the impression that I can't help having.

The fact that I haven't been posting for a while is that after turning off many Windows notifications in different screens I haven't had a single issue with limited wifi. Compare this with having issues every second day. So I'm very happy that at least for me it worked out greatly. I just have to remember to update my software ane check for viruses manually. I hope this "solution" works for at least one other person!

drftr

Good news so far :) After sending my Venue 8 Pro to the depot, it came back really quickly and has now been 'trouble free' for a whole 48 hours!  Dell replaced the system board and reinstalled OS and drivers.  The first time I set everything up, (it took hours with all the Windows updates) I went into Drivers and Downloads and started doing 'stuff'.  I managed to mess a few things up so reset to factory and began again.  Since then I have not touched the 'analyze system' or updated anything but Windows and so far so good.  A Dell tech actually told me not to update drivers unless there was a problem and I'll be calling them if anything happens.

So, there is hope with the Venue :)  I'm keeping my fingers crossed and will post in a while with an update.

So very glad to hear this news :)

I wonder that too.  Please try calling Dell and have them arrange to send it to the repair depot at their expense, etc. and hopefully that will solve the problem.  Good luck.

I regret to say that I just lost bluetooth and wifi.  Although it was 48 hours after first connecting, it was only 34 hours after resetting it to factory again  and actually using it for any length of time. It seems that even with a new system board there is still a problem and all the wishing and hoping won't fix it  :(  I'll give it a few more days and then see what Dell says about refunding for it and the case and keyboard.