Venue 11 Pro: My WiFi adapter dies ever night!

I can't believe this isn't fixed yet. Two months. I've tried the windows update fixes on my 5130 with no luck. I've tried connecting to a Linksys ea4500 on both 2.4ghz and 5ghz. Every time my venue sleeps for more than a few minutes I have a limited connection upon waking. This is completely degrading the experience of an otherwise amazing tablet. A lack of response to this problem is the worst part. The issue is obviously widespread and extremely reproducible. The wifi drivers have not been updated since the tablets release. Having to disconnect and reconnect to wifi every time I pick up my tablet is unacceptable in a world of sleek and competent devices.

I can't reproduce this on any device that I have here at Dell, but the good news is that we have captures en route.   As soon as they get here, failure analysis will begin.   I'm assuming you have already upgraded your router firmware to the latest available version, but if not, please do so as this often helps with dropped WIFI connections.  

@Brian Thank you for the quick response. Excuse my venting on the earlier post. Indeed my router is updated, and the router does seem to be a common link. All other wifi devices connected to my router behave normally. It is unfortunate that this is not reproducible in your lab as I can rely on my wifi being 'limited' anytime I pick up my tablet. I'm using a Linksys ea4500 router Dual-band 2.4 and 5ghz (both with the issue) with firmware 2.0.37.131047, my security is wpa2 and the network mode is set to mixed mode (these I believe are standard settings).

V8P with the same problem.....  FYI - I just checked the firmware on both of my wireless routers (Linksys E4200 and EA4500) and they're at the latest version.

@Brian Thank you for the quick response. Excuse my venting on the earlier post. Indeed my router is updated, and the router does seem to be a common link. All other wifi devices connected to my router behave normally. It is unfortunate that this is not reproducible in your lab as I can rely on my wifi being 'limited' anytime I pick up my tablet. I'm using a Linksys ea4500 router Dual-band 2.4 and 5ghz (both with the issue) with firmware 2.0.37.131047, my security is wpa2 and the network mode is set to mixed mode (these I believe are standard settings).

Adding to info from gphrost...

I doubt that it is related to the router. I am using a Linksys ea3500 with similar settings, and I have the same problem with the Venue 8 Pro. The problem was present from the first day and continues now nearly a month later. Everything in the house is connected consistently and without complaint with the router. This includes an android phone, a windows phone, a very old Ipod touch, a Logitech Squeezebox internet radio, my HP laptop, my Blackberry Playbook!!!!, my Sonos sound system.... and my <ADMIN NOTE: Substitute character removed as per TOU> childrens' Iphones and a resident Apple TV. All of this gear connects and re-connects with my router.

I found 'event messages' stored on the tablet... a new error message everytime the connection fails. But I don't have the technical expertise to make sense of these messages.

Adding to info from gphrost... I doubt that it is related to the router. I am using a Linksys ea3500 with similar settings, and I have the same problem with the Venue 8 Pro. The problem was present from the first day and continues now nearly a month later. Everything in the house is connected consistently and without complaint with the router. This includes an android phone, a windows phone, a very old Ipod touch, a Logitech Squeezebox internet radio, my HP laptop, my Blackberry Playbook!!!!, my Sonos sound system.... and my *** childrens' Iphones and a resident Apple TV. All of this gear connects and re-connects with my router. I found 'event messages' stored on the tablet... a new error message everytime the connection fails. But I don't have the technical expertise to make sense of these messages.

I am also frustrated with this issue . It happens whenever I put the Pro 11 into sleep mode for a period longer than  15 mins or so.  I am so fed up with it that the first thing I do when I want to use the  computer after sleep mode is to reconnect with the E4200 before doing anything else.

I am however surprised that when it boots from cold , it connects fine.

The other laptops connect fine upon waking from sleep .   Its just the DVP that has the problem. 

Final 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. Tomorrow I'll send my older tablet back to Dell. Here is my experience comparing the old and new tablets over 11 days:

* 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.

* Both tablets have occasional display driver crashes, about once a day on average. The screen goes black, then after an interval of anywhere from 10 to 100 seconds it comes back, with a message saying that the display driver has stopped working and has been restarted.

* Both tablets spontaneously shut themselves down once during the period: one shutdown was during the night, and one was while I was typing in Microsoft Outlook.

* 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. There is a registry fix which completely cured the problem on the older tablet but only partially cured it on the new tablet. This is rather frustrating but there are still some remedies I can try.

* The biggest problem is the wifi adapter going to sleep after being idle for at least a half hour. I've reported details earlier in this tread. Both tablets do this but the older one is worse. On my Linksys E4200 router at home, both tablets always go into a coma after sitting overnight with nothing using the wifi. If I set the sleep time to 30 minutes both tablets' wifi adapters go to sleep after about 30 minutes idle and will not wake up unless I turn the wireless off and on. The wifi router has about 20 devices connected to it, but this is the only one with a problem. The router firmware is up-to-date. I tried one test at a Starbucks and both tablets failed. I also tested this at a Marriott Hotel using the hotel's wifi. In this case the old tablet failed 9 out of 10 tests over 5 days. The new tablet failed only 2 times in 10. So this suggests there might be some router incompatibility as Brian has suggested. Finally I tested this at National Airport in the Delta Airlines club room. In this case the older tablet failed but the new one did not.

So I conclude that the new tablet is better than the old one but both have the same unsolved problems. So I'll send the old one back for Brian's crew to analyze. If this tablet didn't have these problems I would be very happy with it, especially the battery life. As it is, I will be cursing Dell each time I have to correct double-typed letters or have to reset the wifi, until finally Dell fixes the problems or another company (Lenovo, Samsung, Toshiba, Microsoft) produces a comparable device.

Final 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. Tomorrow I'll send my older tablet back to Dell. Here is my experience comparing the old and new tablets over 11 days: * 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. * Both tablets have occasional display driver crashes, about once a day on average. The screen goes black, then after an interval of anywhere from 10 to 100 seconds it comes back, with a message saying that the display driver has stopped working and has been restarted. * Both tablets spontaneously shut themselves down once during the period: one shutdown was during the night, and one was while I was typing in Microsoft Outlook. * 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. There is a registry fix which completely cured the problem on the older tablet but only partially cured it on the new tablet. This is rather frustrating but there are still some remedies I can try. * The biggest problem is the wifi adapter going to sleep after being idle for at least a half hour. I've reported details earlier in this tread. Both tablets do this but the older one is worse. On my Linksys E4200 router at home, both tablets always go into a coma after sitting overnight with nothing using the wifi. If I set the sleep time to 30 minutes both tablets' wifi adapters go to sleep after about 30 minutes idle and will not wake up unless I turn the wireless off and on. The wifi router has about 20 devices connected to it, but this is the only one with a problem. The router firmware is up-to-date. I tried one test at a Starbucks and both tablets failed. I also tested this at a Marriott Hotel using the hotel's wifi. In this case the old tablet failed 9 out of 10 tests over 5 days. The new tablet failed only 2 times in 10. So this suggests there might be some router incompatibility as Brian has suggested. Finally I tested this at National Airport in the Delta Airlines club room. In this case the older tablet failed but the new one did not. So I conclude that the new tablet is better than the old one but both have the same unsolved problems. So I'll send the old one back for Brian's crew to analyze. If this tablet didn't have these problems I would be very happy with it, especially the battery life. As it is, I will be cursing Dell each time I have to correct double-typed letters or have to reset the wifi, until finally Dell fixes the problems or another company (Lenovo, Samsung, Toshiba, Microsoft) produces a comparable device.

having to disable and enable the card is not a fix, it's a workaround.

Add me to the list with my new 7130 8gb/256gb. Have had it less than a week. Ran through all the updates. Updated bios to A11. Updated the network card driver to the latest.

I get the limited connectivity. Then after turning things on and off from win8 I get the red x over the wifi. Then the whole system can freeze up, and I get the blue screen of death. Then upon reboot I get black screen of death with a little paragraph in the top left telling me I have no bootable drive.

My luck with the Venue 11 Pro just stinks.

1st one. a 7130 vPro 4gb/128gb. The top part of the bezel pulls away from the screen. Dell is sending me a new one.

2nd one. a 5130 thinks it's a 7130 in the dell system based on the service tag. Still no word from Dell about how to fix it or what to do about it.

3rd one. 7130 8gb/256gb. The wifi issues mentioned above. And this is the one that's replacing my XPS12Duo which I just reset to sell. So I have no real working portable solution at the moment. Thanks Dell. And I also have a 11z and Precision M6500. No wifi issues whatsoever. My Galaxy S4 and Tab 3 have no issues either. Actually, I lied, I have a Surface RT for portable solution, but that can't sync my dropbox so it's a poor work tool and is generally used for consumption. But again, no wifi issues on any of my other devices.

Not to mention I have to deal with ESL support reps which is just frustrating as can be. Everything has to be deciphered, and you can tell they're reading from scripted answers and replies and can't have a "conversation". When you're trying to solve problems and are already annoyed, it does not make for a good combination, especially when you have countless hours invested with the problems from the other two devices.

We posted new drivers a couple weeks ago that should resolve the intermittent WIFI disconnects.   Have you already installed these and are still having problems?

I've watching thread and dealing with this issue(5130 Atom) for some time now and finally decided to chime in.

I get the red X after coming out of standby and the only fix is to reboot. It happens randomly whether i'm on my netgear or on a enterprise grade cisco wifi infrastructure.

One workaround is to disable power management under Device Manager>Bluetooth>Bluetooth Radio>Power Management. Uncheck the "Allow the computer.." option. However, this will kill the battery during connected standby and a fully charged battery will go from 100% to 20% or less overnight. Running a powercfg /sleepstudy  will confirm this by showing the UART Controller at 100% for the duration.

I've uninstalled, reboot, re-installed the latest wi-fi driver A02(version number doesn't change)with no luck.

I've had my tablet since December, My coworker bought his 2 weeks ago and experiences the same issue. I currently run BIOS A7.