Unable to connect to internet - Atheros AR9485WB-EG

[LaytonJnr]

Hello,

So I am trying to fix this laptop for a friend. The problem they're having is that they are unable to connect to the internet, after recently restoring their laptop to factory default settings. Hence, my obvious first move was to update the drivers, including the wireless network adapter. Did that, and nothing.

So I then did a quick internet search, and found a setting to prevent software turning the wireless adapter off. That seemed to fix the problem. Until I did a restart. I then resorted to Windows' Network troubleshooting utility, and found out the adapter keeps turning off.

So every time I turn the thing off, restart, or it sleeps, the wireless adapter turns off. This is extremely annoying - what should I do?

System specs:
ASUS A55V series, Intel Core i5 3210M (2.5GHz, quad core), 8.0GB RAM, NVIDIA GT 630M 2GB

EDIT: The OS is Windows 7 Home Premium

And the network adapter is an Atheros AR9485WB-EG

So help would be great. Thanks,

Layton

 

[Ferrum Master]

what OS?

 

[LaytonJnr]

what OS?

Oh yes! Windows 7 Home Premium.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Oh yes! Windows 7 Home Premium.

i had a bit of pain with qualcomm. They are so rubbish, that they even do not have their own driver site... use this one for latest.

http://www.atheros.cz

A. Update BIOS and drivers. Or try downgrading them, use older from other manufacturer sites.
B. Try disabling power save features in device manager in this cards properties.
C. Try another OS if you can, kernel behavior seriously changed between NT6.2 and NT6.3

 

[LaytonJnr]

i had a bit of pain with qualcomm. They are so rubbish, that they even do not have their own driver site... use this one for latest.

http://www.atheros.cz

A. Update BIOS and drivers. Or try downgrading them, use older from other manufacturer sites.
B. Try disabling power save features in device manager in this cards properties.
C. Try another OS if you can, kernel behavior seriously changed between NT6.2 and NT6.3

Update the adapter BIOS (if that exists), or mobo BIOS?

I've already disabled its power save features, and because I do not own the laptop, I would rather not install a different OS.

Layton

 

[Ferrum Master]

Update the adapter BIOS (if that exists), or mobo BIOS?

I've already disabled its power save features, and because I do not own the laptop, I would rather not install a different OS.

Layton

Laptop bios as it may fix some PCI-E power state features connecting with CPU states etc things. I haven't seen upgradeable Atheros firmwares.

Then the last thing is driver mishmash... try using all versions you can get your hands on, till it works.

 

[LaytonJnr]

Laptop bios as it may fix some PCI-E power state features connecting with CPU states etc things. I haven't seen upgradeable Atheros firmwares.

Then the last thing is driver mishmash... try using all versions you can get your hands on, till it works.

http://www.atheros.cz

I used that website before to update the drivers, however I am a little confused how I use the file that has been downloaded to update the driver. There isn't an executable file. And when I tried to use the browse for drivers in the Device Manager, it didn't seem to work with the downloaded driver files.

 

[Ferrum Master]

I used that website before to update the drivers, however I am a little confused how I use the file that has been downloaded to update the driver. There isn't an executable file. And when I tried to use the browse for drivers in the Device Manager, it didn't seem to work with the downloaded driver files.

You did it right... uninstall old and tick delete the old one using driver manager. And then have disk and show the inf file and select your card.

 

[95Viper]

Try uninstalling ASUS Power4Gear Hybrid software and testing.

 

[Constantine Yevseyev]

i had a bit of pain with qualcomm. They are so rubbish, that they even do not have their own driver site... use this one for latest.

Here we go again... They had a page dedicated to drivers (before that deal with Qualcomm, now it's back, but only contains Ethernet NIC software). I personally have never had any sort of problems with Atheros products, since the very first AR5000 Series hardware many years ago (2004), and that's not the first time I hear people are going rough on Atheros, while praising Intel for... For... Um. I don't know. Because the brand name is cooler, I guess? Their hardware makes its job, the software's being updated monthly (you can always get the recent version on Station-Drivers).
I believe that there's a problem with PCI-E Port used for connecting your WLAN adapter to PCI-E Root. It might be fixed "playing" w/ your ACPI software: try to uninstall every single bit of ASUS's crap (i. e. everything from "Uninstall a program" that starts with ASUS), including "ASUS ATK Software", then reboot, download the latest ATK package (go http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=3&m=ATK Package&hashedid=n/a, select "Windows 8.1 64bit" and get the 1.0.0033 package from "Global" source link), install it and reboot again.

 

[LaytonJnr]

Thanks for the suggestions. Can't uninstall anything at the moments because Windows has 1GB of updates to deal with....

 

[eidairaman1]

Idk ive had customers come to me where their lan or wifi adapters suddenly just quit working and they were atheros units. The drivers were in but a driver removal and installation would restore the functionality of the unit

 

[Ferrum Master]

Here we go again... They had a page dedicated to drivers (before that deal with Qualcomm, now it's back, but only contains Ethernet NIC software). I personally have never had any sort of problems with Atheros products, since the very first AR5000 Series hardware many years ago (2004), and that's not the first time I hear people are going rough on Atheros, while praising Intel for... For... Um. I don't know. Because the brand name is cooler, I guess? Their hardware makes its job, the software's being updated monthly (you can always get the recent version on Station-Drivers).
I believe that there's a problem with PCI-E Port used for connecting your WLAN adapter to PCI-E Root. It might be fixed "playing" w/ your ACPI software: try to uninstall every single bit of ASUS's crap (i. e. everything from "Uninstall a program" that starts with ASUS), including "ASUS ATK Software", then reboot, download the latest ATK package (go http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=3&m=ATK Package&hashedid=n/a, select "Windows 8.1 64bit" and get the 1.0.0033 package from "Global" source link), install it and reboot again.

Atheros is known for its lack of documentation for many kind of products. Especially industrial ARM CPU designs. If there is, it is only available in mandarin(But yeah, but on the other hand that is why they are the cheapest).

I had numerous problems in linux with them, they refuse to work in N mode and loose ability to see networks. I gave up(btw yes the same AR5000)

Their WLAN tend to work, but are very capricious with routers also. Biggest LOL is the bluetooth driver... ~500MB, have one in my mobo, even with that it works worse than 1$ CSR china dongle, as it has disconnects and stalls the USB port.

And the last thing, I also had pain with Intel WLAN... I don't praise anyone. But they fail many many times less, as in most cases they just work, without a hassle...

 

[LaytonJnr]

Thanks for the suggestions. Can't uninstall anything at the moments because Windows has 1GB of updates to deal with....

3 hours of Windows updates. Why.

 

[Constantine Yevseyev]

Atheros is known for its lack of documentation for many kind of products. Especially industrial ARM CPU designs. If there is, it is only available in mandarin(But yeah, but on the other hand that is why they are the cheapest).

I had numerous problems in linux with them, they refuse to work in N mode and loose ability to see networks. I gave up(btw yes the same AR5000)

Their WLAN tend to work, but are very capricious with routers also. Biggest LOL is the bluetooth driver... ~500MB, have one in my mobo, even with that it works worse than 1$ CSR china dongle, as it has disconnects and stalls the USB port.

And the last thing, I also had pain with Intel WLAN... I don't praise anyone. But they fail many many times less, as in most cases they just work, without a hassle...

The documentation might be a problem, but not for the end-user (for developers, yes): they don't get such thing as documentation in first place. Laptop manufacturers don't provide any sort of "help links" for parts they use, and you won't get anything but a passport for your WLAN adapter. They can even rename it to something like Dell 1705, so you'll never know that there's an actual AR9485 inside. Want some help with it? Qualcomm, you say? No, never heard of these guys, why don't you try to install Dell-bloody-whatever-package Version <Useless Number Instead of Regular 10.0.0.268 or Something Like That>?

I also think that you can't blame Atheros for how their hardware works on Linux. They don't make any products for enterprise use, simply because WLAN is not being used on server side for any purpose, you know, I've never even seen a server running a process/daemon for maintaining WLAN connection. So I'm not trying to say that *NIX is uncommon, it's just not being used for providing WLAN in enterprise area. The drivers/firmwares should be extremely raw and terribad in most "home use" scenarios, that's just the way 90% of hardware work in GNU/Linux. Surprisingly, my machines (equipped w/ AR5000-something, AR6000-something and a bunch of 9000 Series products) worked pretty well on, what were they, Scientific 6.4, Ubuntu 12.04 and Fedora 18. I have had only one single bug with my AR9485 in 12.04.3 (pre-installed OS on my Dell 3537), when Network Manager will "forget" my adapter, and integrated Bluetooth, too, but it's just a problem of old kernel I believe.

Most Bluetooth drivers are LARGE, not only because of tons of *.sys libraries (10-11 compared to 1-2 per "usual" device), but because of the fact that there's no unified driver model for Bluetooth software in Windows (like NDIS): they need to make separate files for every NT flavor, they can't just bundle everything needed into one *inf or whatever. I might be mistaking, though, never had a situation when Windows can't identify a Bluetooth device.

 

[LaytonJnr]

I believe that there's a problem with PCI-E Port used for connecting your WLAN adapter to PCI-E Root. It might be fixed "playing" w/ your ACPI software: try to uninstall every single bit of ASUS's crap (i. e. everything from "Uninstall a program" that starts with ASUS), including "ASUS ATK Software", then reboot, download the latest ATK package (go http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=3&m=ATK Package&hashedid=n/a, select "Windows 8.1 64bit" and get the 1.0.0033 package from "Global" source link), install it and reboot again.

Any reason why the Windows 8 version? The laptop is using Windows 7.


EDIT: Okay, I tried what you said, but it hasn't solved my problem. I can access the internet but only through the Network Diagnostics troubleshooter. My thoughts is that something is still auto-disabling the adapter, even though I deleted all the bloatware and other ASUS software.

I will try updating the laptop BIOS tomorrow, and if need be, various different drivers. Any tips or advice for updating the BIOS? Never done a laptop BIOS update.

 

[95Viper]

Just a little info for those that do not know... You can find the latest WHQL driver for Windows in the "Windows Update Catalog".
You will probably have to use Internet Explorer to make the site work properly.
In case anyone wants to know some specs on the chipset AR9485, here is a pdf on it at Qualcomm: AR9485 Specs/Details PDF

@LaytonJnr: Here is latest drivers listed in the Update catalog for the WiFi card you have: Windows Update Catalog Search for Atheros AR9485WB-EG

 

[LaytonJnr]

@LaytonJnr: Here is latest drivers listed in the Update catalog for the WiFi card you have: Windows Update Catalog Search for Atheros AR9485WB-EG

That link won't work for me. On any of my three browsers (including.... gasp... Internet Explorer).

Bumping before I update the BIOS. Any tips? Advice? Stuff to do in case the whole thing goes wrong?

 

[MartinNixon0422]

well, windows 7 should install the wireless driver automatic(it works for my 5-years laptop)
sometime the new driver may not workable for the old pc, try the previous version then

 

[LaytonJnr]

well, windows 7 should install the wireless driver automatic(it works for my 5-years laptop)
sometime the new driver may not workable for the old pc, try the previous version then

Windows doesn't always find the latest driver. This method has never worked for my graphics driver updates, and Windows was claiming it couldn't find an update for the extremely out-of-date adpater driver on this laptop. I had to update it manually.

 

[Jetster]

Right click on the Network icon in the system tray. Open network and sharing. Change adapter settings. Right click and disable the wireless connection. Wait 10 seconds and enable it. Then try it

your welcome

 

[Steve Mylroie]

Just a little info for those that do not know... You can find the latest WHQL driver for Windows in the "Windows Update Catalog".
You will probably have to use Internet Explorer to make the site work properly.
In case anyone wants to know some specs on the chipset AR9485, here is a pdf on it at Qualcomm: AR9485 Specs/Details PDF

@LaytonJnr: Here is latest drivers listed in the Update catalog for the WiFi card you have: Windows Update Catalog Search for Atheros AR9485WB-EG

The Windows Catalog service needs to install a browser extension and the installation will fail is Internet Explorer is not started with administrative privileges. With the extension one can not access the catalog information.
Note this site (Catalog) was created by Microsoft to provide corporate customer with downloadable access to software update for distribution over their private internal networks and has all the update distributed to retail customers via the auto update service

 

[95Viper]

The Windows Catalog service needs to install a browser extension and the installation will fail is Internet Explorer is not started with administrative privileges. With the extension one can not access the catalog information.
Note this site (Catalog) was created by Microsoft to provide corporate customer with downloadable access to software update for distribution over their private internal networks and has all the update distributed to retail customers via the auto update service

1. You Necroed a two year old thread to post, what amounts to trivia.

2. Yes, That website does use a Active X web tool.

3. No, I do not start IE with Admin Privileges and have no trouble using the site or downloading.

4. Your statement that

The Windows Catalog service needs to install a browser extension and the installation will fail is Internet Explorer is not started with administrative privileges. With the extension one can not access the catalog information.

makes no sense... first you state you need the extension and then you state, you cannot access it with the extension. You may have OS problems... you may wish to start your own thread, in the General Software section, for help with troubles.