Win 10 ver 1511 (November update)

[sman]

For quite some time, I was forced to depend on 'Live-CD' for Wi-fi connectivity, which was not working in Win 10 (but which was fine in Win 8.1)..Then 2 days back Win 10 updated/upgraded to the 'November update' ver.1511 (it took quite a while, to download & then install/upgrade to), which has solved the Wi-fi issue and find many new features in place in Win 10 (like 'Find my device' options etc.).. Welcome any views on this. TIA..

[sman]

the wi-fi problem is back again albeit resolved with re-boot, disrupting sessions flow..it it keeps recurring will have to go back to 'live-cd' use only..the relief seems to be short-lived..

[John L. Galt]

The November update for Windows 10 (aka Windows 10 TH2) had a lot of fixes, but one of the main things that was not addressed at the time was that Windows would install drivers that it thought were the best for a lot of the hardware on your system - and sometimes these drivers were very, very outdated (to the tune of having driver release dates dating back to 2006).

The latest Insider Preview builds are much more savvy, in terms of the fact that as of 18 March 2016, the 14295 build and newer had drivers that were re-written (at least some - some were just assigned a new date) and show in device manager as having a release date of 18 March 2016.

One thing to note-  you can go to your hardware manufacturer's website and see if they have drivers for your specific module(s) that are designed for Window s10 - but you have to be careful, because sometimes Windows 10 will turn around and re-install the drivers that it thinks is best, and if that happens to be one from Windows Update, then unless you change a specific setting in Windows 10, on the next time that it runs Windows Update, your manufacturer's drive may again get replaced with a (potentially sub-optimal) driver from Windows Update.

Do you know the manufacturer of the Wi-Fi module installed in your system?  Is it a laptop?  Have you checked he manufacturer's website for the most current driver?

Check device manager and see which driver is installed.  Also, check the driver properties and see if the module is set to be controlled by Windows, so that Windows can turn it off to save power - something which I disable for both Wi-Fi as well as HDs in my system every time I take a Windows 10 update if it gets reset.

Let us know if you need help with any of these things and we'll be glad to post links and screenshots to help get this working as well as possible.

[sman]

Thanks for the response John.. 

As far as drivers are concerned, only Win 7 drivers are posted in Acer's website for the Laptop model 4736z..So stuck with what Windows decides for Win 10..and the present driver seems to be latest of Mar'2015 (Qualcomm Atheros AR5983 Wireless Network Adaptor).. so what causes the problem is un-clear? probably after the November update, I did run a WRSA optimize and may be this could have upset the function (maybe / maybe not)..

But the bottomline is problem is specific to Win 10, as Wi-fi is OK in Win 8.1, Live-CD run..and while it was not working at all pre-November update, with Nov. update, it happens sometime during the browsing session and back only after a re-boot, leaving me clueless..

[John L. Galt]

OK, got a question:  When the Wi-Fi connection stops responding, does Windows 10 still show you connected to the Wi-Fi?  And, more importantly, using another device, can you verify if the Wi-Fi device shows the laptop?

[sman]

the router is still on & working, while no network access in laptop ( no more connected by wi-fi..).. with the router still running, if i switch to win-8.1 or live-cd wi-fi gets established.. what i have not checked is 'wireless connections' going to the router page and i'm sure this will not show the win 10 connectivity (but i do have a doubt whether the mac address would be same for the laptop whether it's by win-10/ win 8.1/ live-cd)..

[John L. Galt]

Technically, it should show the same.  MAC will be related to your Wi-Fi module in your machine, and that will not change whether you live boot or boot from a hard drive.

 

The only ready I would see it changing would be in a VM.

[sman]

so, mac address will be unique to the device, then what is the cause of wi-fi connectivity problem under win 10 in my laptop?

btw, i'm now wi-fi connected with a fresh win 10 boot , with un-certainity about how long it will remain connected..

[John L. Galt]

More than likely, either

1. A driver issue
2. Aggressive system power saving features, which, for example, turn off the Wi-Fi when it is not in use.

Since you said that the manufacturer does not officially support Windows 10 on that machine, I'm inclined to believe it is a driver issue.  Believe it or not, Windows 8 could use Windows 7 drivers - they just had to be extracted from the regular .MSI / .EXE packages and used directly (.cat files, .inf files, etc.).  Windows 10 - eh, no.

But Windows 10 has a big advantage over Windows 8 - in Device manager, when you go to look at the details of any device that is currently connected to your computer, you can verify (and disable) the power saving features of the device if they are enabled, eliminating that as an issue, AND you can, from right there in that device's properties, view the last several Event Log entries for that specific device.

Care to start taking a deeper look at the device in DM (of course, if it happens again under this fresh install)?

In the  meantime, I'd go ahead and uncheck the power saving function in the device's property dialog from DM, and I'd also go ahead and set up your power profile as well....

Edited April 24, 2016 by John L. Galt

[sman]

At no point in time, the power plans were/are changed except for display brightness set for max/min w.r.t battery charging/discharging mode.. and things were fine until problems cropped up recently..and problem occuring only sometimes [twice over a period of 2 days)..occurence is uncertain..

As far as 'Acer' support is concerned, it is very disappointing . Acer customer service passing on responsibility to be addressed by service center and vice versa by the service center re-directing to Acer, leaving the user's high and dry..very frustrating response to go by..

so, a long road ahead to get issues resolved, meanwhile i will check if there are any event logs available to shed further light on this, but must say it is unlikely to be due power plans ..and still no clues to the issue.. 

[John L. Galt]

I had an inkling that that would be the case - and I've dealt with Acer staff before - with my Acer Tf700 tablet.  I know just how bad they are.

Let's monitor the situation and see if it recurs.  Since it is a fresh install, there should be nothing in the Event logs right now- you'll want to look at the logs then.

Worst case scenario, it could also be that the Wi-Fi card itself is going bad, but that is highly unlikely as it only happened in Windows 10.