Venue 11 Pro: My WiFi adapter dies ever night!

This was the second Dell support rep who has told me that if I run into any problems with uninstalling and reinstalling drivers, all I have to do is a Windows Reset. These guys don't have any understanding of their customers. They don't realize how long it takes to re-install and configure 20+ real-world programs.

A "refresh" should (in theory at least) fix operating system problems while retaining your programs and settings.   A "reset" is destructive and takes the device back to an out of box state.   Did you try a refresh and experience otherwise?

I still haven't been able to duplicate this on any of my machines and it doesn't appear to be common, although some of you are clearly seeing an issue.   My guess is that this has something to do with how the Windows Updates came in and installed (possibly related to the issue where the Windows Update could completely kill WIFI).

If you are game, I'd like to get a unit that fails every time captured so that we can figure out why this is happening in house.    We can send you an airbill to ship your current system in (and then return it) or I can ask our support teams to create an exchange for a new one and then capture yours.   I know this will create additional work for you in setting up a new machine, so we could go either route.   If you are game, please "friend" me on these forums and then PM me your contact email and information.

Thanks.

A refresh should keep all of your personal settings and any apps installed from the store.    If you are installing a bunch of stuff from CDs or from other websites, agree that these will be removed.    This is certainly preferable to a full re-install in my opinion.

A "refresh" should (in theory at least) fix operating system problems while retaining your programs and settings.   A "reset" is destructive and takes the device back to an out of box state.   Did you try a refresh and experience otherwise?

But in fairness I should say that Microsoft is very culpable here. The Refresh button doesn't have to be so scary that knowledgeable people are afraid to touch it. Amazon could show Microsoft a thing or two about how to make people comfortable clicking along to the next step. Also, it should be pointed out that the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8 is considerably less destructive than the Refresh button. When I performed this upgrade on another computer nearly all of my Windows 7 apps were unscathed. Not so with the Refresh button, which really does wipe out all the desktop apps on the machine. I doubt such destruction is really necessary.

And in my opinion it is exactly the same, because none of the programs I have to use for business are in the WIndows Store. You make it sound like your customers must live in the dark ages because we use Microsoft Office and Adobe products and engineering design programs etc. etc. Like I said, Dell does not understand its customers.

Oh please, Brian. The most frustrating thing about this experience is how much I have to teach the people who are supposed to know more than I do. Have you ever done a refresh? The very first thing it does after you click the button is make a list for you of everything you will have to re-install. Try it!

I have the same problem. Most connectivity issues happen when I wake the DVP11 from sleep mode after a few hours.  No  problems when waking up  within 10 mins or so.

I found this link and I was wondering whether any one has tried to reset TCI/IP stack and stop auto tuning?  Here is the link  http://www.techswatch.com/2013/12/fix-limited-connectivity-problem-windows-8.html . I certainly dont have a WIFI adapter power management link. ( I think it was removed in win 8.1) .

Sounds like your tablet had a hardware problem and Dell is replacing the unit as it no longer works properly. 

V11P 5030 and a Tp-link C7 here.  Straight out of the box, it wouldn't connect to the 5GHz band period (iPads, Win 7 laptops, and Nexus devices connect fine).  Still won't after all the Windows updates and Dell Wireless driver update.   It sees the 5GHz SSID, it simply won't connect to it, or will only connect in the "Limited" no internet capacity.  It does connect to 2.4GHz and works fine the majority of the time, but will intermittently drop to "Limited" no internet connection during active use.  I have to toggle Wifi, or disconnect/reconnect in settings to get the connection working.  Again it does this during active actual use, I DO NOT use sleep--opting rather to just shut down/boot up.  I manually uninstalled ALL Windows updates and followed the recommended procedures on MS's Answers page about installing the precursor update, then subsequently installing the problematic pair of updates.  I thought that had fixed it, but just last night it once again dropped to Limited forcing me to toggle Wifi.

Between trying to trouble shoot this, the awful flickering/strobing effect of Intel's display power saving  "features", and the broken light-sensor/auto-brightness (both of which are 100% on dell for making them the default options), this could not have left an anymore negative impression short of being DoA.  I feel like I paid full retail to Alpha test some rushed HW and don't think I would ever recommend a Windows tablet or Dell product to anyone.

A progress report for Brian on the replacement 5130:

Dell sent me a replacement Venue 11 Pro 5130, so this gave me the opportunity to test two of them side-by-side. When I received the new tablet I checked all the driver versions (all were up-to-date from the factory except I wasn't sure about the touchpad firmware so I reapplied it to be sure) and installed a few software items to give me enough things to test. Here is what I found after 24 hours:

* The new tablet is able to play Netflix movies via Miracast. The old tablet has never been able to do that. So that's the good news.

* So far the new tablet has not had any display driver crashes, and has not powered itself down unilaterally. The old tablet does those things sporadically. It will take some more time to see if these problems really are solved, since they were intermittent.

* The new tablet's touch screen is much less sensitive to the stylus than the old one. The old tablet could detect a hover from an inch away (no hover clicks, though) - the new one is much better.

* The new tablet had exactly the same key bounce problems as the old one. This must be a problem with the keyboard rather than the tablet. There is a registry fix for this and it works on the new tablet just as it did on the old one.

* Sadly, the biggest problem I have been having is not fixed at all. The new tablet's wifi adapter goes to sleep when inactive for an extended period of time. If I set the sleep time to Never, one or both of the tablets will lose their wifi connection within a few hours, but not at the same time. If I set the sleep time to 30 minutes, both tablets lose their wifi connection after about 30 minutes (give or take a few minutes). In both cases the connection does not awaken on its own when I try to load a web page, and does not awaken if I try to access the device over the network. It requires that I manually toggle the wifi switch in the charms bar to get the wifi connection back.

I've been keeping both tablets side-by-side and mostly testing them about 5 feet away from the wifi router. So signal strength isn't an issue. I have a trip planned on Saturday so I'll take both tablets with me to see if the same behavior occurs on other wifi routers.

I've been keeping both tablets side-by-side and mostly testing them about 5 feet away from the wifi router. So signal strength isn't an issue. I have a trip planned on Saturday so I'll take both tablets with me to see if the same behavior occurs on other wifi routers.

I have the same problem with the Wifi adapter going to sleep when inactive for an extended period of time.  I've had my Venue 8 Pro since Dec. 30.  I've applied all firmware and driver updates from the Dell web site.  

Regarding the possibility of router compatibility.....  My router is Cisco/Linksys EA4500, connected at 5 GHz.

Adding to the list... but I have exactly the same wifi failure after sleeping, with my Venue 8 Pro. (I need the services of an editor too... or should I say the problem is when the Venue 8 Pro has been sleeping. The wifi problem also always happens after I wake from sleeping with my wife!)