Wireless Adapter Connects and Disconnects Repeatedly

[TechnicGeek]

I have an old HP Pavilion dv5000 series laptop with its native Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG adapter. When trying to connect to any wireless access point it takes longer time to connect and when it connects, it stays connected for short time before it loses connection. It tries to reconnect, connects and disconnects. It happens repeatedly. See my video:

When it disconnects its wireless connection indicator turns off and after it turns on again it tries to reconnect. This laptop has Windows XP with latest service pack and latest wireless adapter drivers.

 

[Rei]

Do you have Bluetooth on or near a microwave? Those give constant connection drops.

 

[Gamelistiq]

First things first.
Upgrade your windows to windows 7 or 10.
Try uninstalling your drivers and then reinstalling them

 

[Rei]

First things first.
Upgrade your windows to windows 7 or 10.
Try uninstalling your drivers and then reinstalling them

There is a reason OP chose to keep WinXP, one of them likely cuz laptop is not powerful enough, even though I dunno it's spec. All my laptop/nettop runs on WinXP while this desktop I'm on dual-boot Win10 & WinXP.
Let not go down the road of needing to upgrade OS just yet for connection drops & take things slower & finding simpler solutions first.

 

[TechnicGeek]

Do you have Bluetooth on or near a microwave? Those give constant connection drops.

I do not have Bluetooth activated and microwave I have but it's 8 meters away in the kitchen. I have no Wi-Fi problems with other laptops.

I think the problem is hardware-based because that blue indicator of wireless connection should not blink at all. It is constant when W-Fi is on but as soon as it blinks, laptop loses Wi-Fi.

 

[newtekie1]

I've seen this all the time with these HP laptops. I guarantee the chipset is on the way out and one day soon you'll try to turn it on and just get a black screen. This problem is a cancer with this era of HP laptops and it always starts with flakey wireless. It's also why I won't buy HP laptops to this day.

 

[Rei]

I do not have Bluetooth activated and microwave I have but it's 8 meters away in the kitchen. I have no Wi-Fi problems with other laptops.

I think the problem is hardware-based because that blue indicator of wireless connection should not blink at all. It is constant when W-Fi is on but as soon as it blinks, laptop loses Wi-Fi.

If it's hardware-based, you could try using a USB WiFi adaptor dongle to make sure & find out if the issue lies with the laptop itself or the built-in WiFi adapter. They should be cheap, mine cost $8. You could also use it as a backup WiFi adapter. You might also want to invest in WiFi range extender for clean & stable WiFi connection. This one for me cost $10.

I've seen this all the time with these HP laptops. I guarantee the chipset is on the way out and one day soon you'll try to turn it on and just get a black screen. This problem is a cancer with this era of HP laptops and it always starts with flakey wireless. It's also why I won't buy HP laptops to this day.

If what @newtekie1 says is true, then OP might want to prepare for the worst for that laptop & backup all possible settings & data & hope that expiration day won't come anytime soon.

 

[TechnicGeek]

I've seen this all the time with these HP laptops. I guarantee the chipset is on the way out and one day soon you'll try to turn it on and just get a black screen. This problem is a cancer with this era of HP laptops and it always starts with flakey wireless. It's also why I won't buy HP laptops to this day.

Mine was bought 16 years ago but you sound like this problem still haunts HP laptops these days.

 

[newtekie1]

Mine was bought 16 years ago but you sound like this problem still haunts HP laptops these days.

No, they fixed it. I won't buy their laptops because how how they handled the problem. They initially tried to say the problem could be solved by a firmware fix. But all the firmware fix did was crank the fan up to try to keep the chipset cooler. This made the laptops loud and didn't fix the problem, it only prolonged it long enough to get the laptops out of the warranty period. They quietly issues a recall on the laptops that was buried on their website only after losing a lawsuit about the problem. The recall was only offered for a year, then they erased any mention of it from the website. But in 2005-2010 I probably saw 4 or 5 of these laptops come in my shop a week dying or dead from this problem. The problem was caused by the same issue nVidia had at the time with their BGA chips. The heat cycles would cause the solder to begin to fail.

 

[TechnicGeek]

@newtekie1 That's interesting. Did not think HP can be that sneaky. They also removed drivers and software for their legacy products.

My laptop still has it's original firmware and I managed to find a few firmware updates on the internet. I wonder if I should take a shot at updating.

 

[Caring1]

I do not have Bluetooth activated and microwave I have but it's 8 meters away in the kitchen. I have no Wi-Fi problems with other laptops.

I think the problem is hardware-based because that blue indicator of wireless connection should not blink at all. It is constant when W-Fi is on but as soon as it blinks, laptop loses Wi-Fi.

Are those other Laptops newer models?
Remember old Wi-Fi cards had much less range than modern versions.
You could try updating the Wi-Fi card in that laptop for an improved version, the issue then would be finding one with the correct slot.
How far away from the source is it, is there any walls in the way that might interfere with the signal etc?

 

[TechnicGeek]

@Caring1 The other two are lenovo G560 from 2010 and Dell Latitude E6420 from 2011-2012.

The laptop in question is 2 meters from wireless router.

 

[oobymach]

Can you update the driver for the wifi? A cheap solution if that isn't possible would be a usb wifi adapter.

buy usb wifi adapter - Google Search