Intel PRO Wireless 3945ABG WiFi Radio Adapter Shut Off Randomly
On laptop or notebook computers that use Intel PRO Wireless 3945ABG built-in Wi-Fi network adapter in Windows Vista, the WiFi radio signal may just suddenly turns off, shuts off or disable randomly, with the Internet or network cuts off. The wireless network connection may still appear as active and connected with Excellent signal strength in Network Center, but the network status will change to Limited Connectivity. If the system has LED indicator for Wi-Fi wireless radio signal status, the LED light also turns off (may also stays on) and Wi-Fi radio power cannot be toggled back on with Function hotkey (such as Dell QuickSet), even though the software detects the toggling or pressing of keys with WiFi and Bluetooth logo pop up. It looks like the Wireless adapter card loses its power and are completely shutdown and powered off.
Even when the problem happens, the network device appears working properly and normal in Device Manager. The IP address auto-discovered by DHCP may be lost or gone. And there is no way to recover the Wireless radio signal other than restart the system. But the problem will happen again. Even changing configuration settings of roaming aggressiveness, transmit power, wireless mode (between 892.11a/b/g) or power-saving mode does not permanently resolve the Wireless network adapter off problem.
The notebook or laptop computers that affected by the suddenly auto shutdown of Wireless signal adapter include Dell Inspiron E1505, Dell Inspiron E1705, Dell Inspiron 6400, Dell Inspiron 9400, Dell Latitude D830, Dell Latitude D630, Dell XPS M1210, Dell XPS M1710, Dell Precision M90, Sony VAIO VGN-SZ430NB, Acer, ASUS S6Fm, HP Pavilion dv9000, Alienware Area-51 M5790 and many other Vista system.
The issue with the WiFi adapter is caused by incompatible Vista driver, as the problem does not happen under Windows XP system. Previously, users have used two workarounds as a temporary solution – “XP Fix” which uses Intel PRO Wireless 3945ABG driver designed for Windows XP, or rollback and switch back to Microsoft driver comes with Vista for Intel PRO Wireless 3945ABG network card. However, these workarounds have an drawback and disadvantage that the Wireless network or LAN is not optimized for fastest possible speed, instead opt for lower reliable speed throughput, and also have poor radio signal level problem.
Luckily, Dell has released a new updated driver supporting Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection and Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN. The driver version 11.1.1.22 dated 08/08/2007 comes from provider Intel, is packaged as R164259 (11.1.1.3) – A05 – August 2007 release. It fixes the following bugs (changelog):
- Addresses 3945ABG radio disable seen with some systems running with Bluetooth modules
- Addresses 3945ABG radio disable seen in some 802.11a environments after Standby or Hibernate
- Addresses installer upgrade behavior where Windows Vista Preferred Networks would be lost
- Addresses installer interaction with InstallShield Update Manager causing an unwanted prompt during installation
The new driver will likely to solve the Wireless cuts off problem in Vista. Download the driver version 11.1.1.22 from ftp://ftp.dell.com/network/R164259.EXE. It’s a Dell installer package, which should works on other brands too. Otherwise, simply extract the driver by using WinRAR and manually update the driver for the network card from Device Manager.
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Entries (RSS)
December 4th, 2009 11:50
Same problem on Latitude D830 with Windows 7. When I was running on Windows Vista the 3945 card has problem connecting via wireless. Now with Windows 7 it connects fine but I get dropped randomly. The Microsoft driver drop the connection the least.
November 17th, 2009 23:01
Problem still not solved.
Latitude D830; built-in Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
Still using Dell BIOS rev A14 (Dec 2008).
Did update to newer Intel PROSet packages (11, 12, 13); never made the problem go away.
Most recently, I uninstalled Intel’s package, and installed Dell’s officially supported version which is
TIC157696, A08-1
Dell file i.d. 344323
The Intel application version in there is 12.4.3.
I wonder if that means that Dell only tested it using BIOS A08. I am not gonna downgrade this PC from A14 to A08.
I guess the main complaint is that every other day I come into work, and the Wi-Fi light is off (having previously been “on” i.e. lit). Neither the Windows WiFi application, nor PROSet can deal with the controller, after that.
But I have found one way to bring it back (without rebooting the system … which is difficult for me, I work on a lot of stuff at the same time). Put the PC into Standby i.e. tell it you want to Undock. This for me also isn’t so very easy, since I have files and connections open, over the LAN and that’s the other thing that’s such a pain, I have a hard time putting this computer to sleep. What it means now is that I have to close out a bunch of document windows, remote shells, command lines that have remote mounts, etc.
Why oh Why does the WiFi light go out …
I still suspect that this is more of a Dell issue, not an Intel issue. We’re still using Windows Xp SP2 … I dunno if that’s a factor.
Larry
August 4th, 2009 04:44
Note that I have XP with a Latitude D630 and this happens all the time – so it is NOT just a Vista problem.
July 3rd, 2009 13:58
Doesn’t support windows 7..
Big problem for me, there aren’t any available drivers compatible with windows 7.
My 3945 also has stopped working. As mentioned before, it shows in Device Manager, it is working fine, but shows limited connectivity or Unidentified network (mine is unidentified..)
Whoever is running windows 7 (my poor laptop, its already had enough changes with all the os’ I’ve had..)
Your only chance is to reinstall another os.. good luck to all out there.. (I knew Windows 7 was a bad idea.. imo, no offense to others)
May 29th, 2009 02:05
Im using a acer 5920g and non of the suggestions have worked on this website. Even the latest drivers from the intel website dont seem to solve this problem.
Im considering sending my laptop back, but i have a suspicion that they will return it stil having the problem.
May 3rd, 2009 07:32
PROBLEM SOLVED. The latest Intel drivers have fixed the random shutoffs. The newest version is 12.4.0.0, and you can download them here:
http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/pro3945abg/
Please spread the word before anyone wastes anymore time or money trying to fix this problem!
March 18th, 2009 03:01
I AM JUST TRYING TO FIND OUT IF I CAN GET THE TYPE FOR MY TOSHIBA? I AM USED TO THE INTEL PRO THAN THE NORMAL WIRELSS. PLS TRY AND REPLY. THANKS
February 18th, 2009 00:02
I upgraded windows XP to Service Pack 2 and it got resolved.
February 10th, 2009 17:56
[...] http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/09/15/intel-pro-wireless-3945abg-wifi-radio-adapter-shut-off-rand... [...]
January 31st, 2009 17:09
WOW – I just uninstalled silverlight and then reinstalled it and now my connection has been working for over 15 min streamming from Netflix. So I think my problem was Silverlight. I had UAC off in Vista when I installed Silverlight I believe. The 2nd time I had UAC on and it is working so far so good… I’ll update if this changes.
January 31st, 2009 16:44
I have a dv9200t and 3945abg – when streaming Netflix instant play movies my connection shuts off – orange light comes on. Tried the latest driver update – no dice. Strange I can download tons of stuff but only (so far from what I have seen) it is only when streaming silverlight video w/ netflix it shuts off my wireless connection until I reboot. Strange though I can go to abc.com and watch anything in their player (flash 10) and even in HD and no problems.
January 28th, 2009 08:40
the problem happens to me when i open many windows with online videos. I have all the latest drives, running vista on an inspiron E1705
December 23rd, 2008 18:54
Thanks. After reading this article i downloaded a new WLAN driver from the Dell website and the problem is solved.
November 14th, 2008 01:14
Actually, even latest 12.1 driver won’t help if you have hp dv9000 series. I noticed that it happens more often with Linksys APs and Linksys adapters working in ad-hoc mode. Mysterious.
October 20th, 2008 23:24
Actually, this problem does occur under Windows XP as described in:
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/document?c=us&l=en&s=gen&docid=16332F52585B367AE0401E0A5517117B&journalid=5998D465A33E38CFE040AE0AB7E14894&Query=Mzk0NUFCRytNaW5pQ2FyZCtSYWRpbytCZWNvbWVzK0Rpc2FibGVk&SystemID=INSPIRONI6400/E1505&ServiceTag=&contenttype=-1&os=-1&component=-1&lang=-1&doclang=en&toggle=false
September 24th, 2008 15:18
I tried to download and install the driver version 12.0.4.0 from intel, but the problem still happens. I’m using Dell Inspiron 6400 on XP Home Edition.
Any other possible solutions?