Laptop wireless connection problems

I have an Advent 7103 laptop, I have had problems with it for ages, so last Monday I spent 12 hours reformatting(3 times as I made a quick format once, then had to full format, then messed up then again) anyway it was far faster to boot and open programs then as some wouldnt even open before

Anyway before the reformat and after my wireless card would often slow connection down to a crawl, at first I thought it was PC, but after reinstall, I noticed the 54mbps connection, went down to 24, then 12, then 5.5 then 1, then nothing for sometimes gaps of a minute, sometimes half a hour.

normally if I just disabled and renenabled it worked back up to 54.0 again. so whats up?

Impossible to say. If you get the same speeds when you are close to the wireless unit then one or the other of them would appear to be failing. Are the aerials plugged in properly?

Well I live in a small flat, Id say the router is 5-10 feet away from laptop, in fact my PC is in the room further from laptop, I even tried laptop standing next to router with same results.

Only difference is my laptop uses Windows for connecting not one that came with card.

And the signal comes through as Excellent or Verry good, and if I check stats it shows as 96-100% strength

Which is why my desktop connects fast, still dont understand whats wrong with laptop

Edited by gigoloGoku (Thu 26-Apr-07 23:33:32)

Is it just internet connectivity that's affected or is LAN traffic also affected?
What service pack level does the installation/XP CD include?
What troubles did you have in reinstalling the system?
What happens if you use the deicated wireless applet rather than the Windows applet?

Its XP Pro SP2 updated, the problems with reinstall were all my fault, I did a full install, but as it was boot from CD first, after it formatted HD, and restarted it did a second install, so I had to reformat, but I accidently did a quick one, which I then spent hours reinstalling software to find my HD about 16 gig full, and I realised what I done and reistalled yet again, now its fine, the laptop no longer freezes, just the internet connection keeps slowing down or dropping completly, and my new 3 day old vista desktop is fine, as is my old XP desktop which had the same wireless card in. and my desktops are furher away than laptop.

I dont have the dedicated wireless software for it, I just use windows and uninstalled the ones that came on disc.

Im not sure about LAN traffic, the wirelless says signal strength mainly excellent, sometimes its very good for a few seconds then excellent again.

I used to wonder why at certain points the balllon at bottom would suddenly say "wireless connection is now connected"

I thought the laptop was just slower than my desktop(since my desktop had a Athlon 3800+ processor and 2 gigs ram and a 7600GT) and my laptop just had 1 gig of ram I installed and 256 pre installed and a Pentium M processor.

As I say the speed is ok at 54 then drops to 24, then to 15, then to 5.5 then to 1, then off, over anything from a few minutes to at random.

But if I disable then reenable connection it goes right back up to 54 for a whille

As I understand it you have at least one other wireless system which is working fine. This would seem to indicate that the problem is local to your laptop.

Does your laptop have an internal wireless card and aerial? Have you tried to find out if there are any updated drivers available?

From what you say so far it sounds like your laptop wireless is faulty.

by any chance do you have an intel wireless card and if yes, are you using the latest available drivers?

Yep intel card, and no just drivers that came on disc.

You'll need to update those drivers. If your system manufacturer has no drivers available, try here.