2013 Archives

[SonnyT2]

Same here. Broadcom 802.11n adapter, same date, same version.

[LR78]

Ditto, drops when not within 10 feet of router and signal strength basically has to be at full bars to work or I get disconnected on and off with virtually no download speed.

Broadcom 802.11n. 

Most up to date driver. 

Driver Date 3/29/2013.

Driver Version: 6.30.59.144

[Smurk]

R7-571G-73538G25
P/N NX.MA5EG.001
RMN V5MM1

Broadcom 802.11n Network adapter

To reproduce the error, the router signal must be max 70% and there has to be interference from other routers fx. one with 50% and lower.

First when using windows 8 and the latest driver it was receiving worse than another acer ultrathin notebook. With windows 7 and this driver 

oem14.inf:BROADCOM.NTamd64.6.1:BCM43XNM_NT61:5.100.82.112ci\ven_14e4&dev_4359 it´s exactly the same.

Maybe interference is caused by an internal device, so the wifi receiver "can´t hear" because of noise.

[qxlb3r]

By the way, when I use the USB Wlan Adapter for a longer time, the connection speed gets muuuuuch slower, too. Then I need to restart and the connection is good again.

But I'm not sure whether I'm the only one with that happening...

[b9chris]

Within my apartment I had issues until I shifted my router over to using a completely unused piece of 5Ghz spectrum. Notably my Android phone and previous laptop had no problem connecting on the 2.4GHz band despite the crowded space. Further, I still have the 2.4Ghz band open on a separate SSID on my router (using DD-WRT so I can open multiple SSIDs on it). The Android continues to connect just fine to this crammed 2.4Ghz channel, while the Acer needs to stick to the completely uncontested 5Ghz channel to work reliably.

Likewise, I find that visiting coffee shops I can connect OK until things become crowded - then my Android phone connects fine, but the Acer Aspire R7 struggles. It either fails to connect, or connects but can't complete any connections to sites via the browser. Often it can't even complete DNS lookups to get basic things like a ping out.

It would seem something is flawed with the Aspire R7's handling of crowded 2.4Ghz wifi areas where other devices have done things better. I'm worried this might be a simple hardware failure and not something that can be fixed in software, but we'll see.

I have the same Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter in Device Manager. Driver 3/29/2013 v6.30.59.144. Windows 8 x64.

[RannyGutierrez]

I have the same problem.  Here's my driver details:

[JBB]

I also have the same problems with poor wifi reception with the Aspire R7 Broadcom 802.11n Network Adaptor and the same driver listed above by RannyGutierres.  Since this was a known problem - at least within the Acer Community - I didn't take it back for service to the Geek Squad.  I ordered a Best Buy 'Amped Wireless - Wireless-N USB 2.0 Adapter' which was designed for Windows 8:

• Model: TAN1
• SKU: 8912283

Perhaps not the most elegant solution - but it works great - simple plug and play! 

[b9chris]

A couple more details that may help in diagnosing the issue:

I find that my wifi adapter sometimes drops out while I'm at home on that completely clean 5Ghz channel. To fix it I right-click the connection, hit Troubleshoot, and let Windows notice it can't access any sites and reset the wifi adapter. Once it's reset things work again for a while. Sometimes it will go down again in as little as 10 minutes since the last reset. During this time other devices stay connected to the same router just fine.

This appears to happen more frequently after the machine has been slept.

Update: I'm maintaining a log of wifi failures, when the machine is restarted/slept, and public wifi vs home clear signal wifi here, in case it helps diagnosis:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlGXt-ELbjTQdE9oaWZFOFBZSEZ5WkFJelJZWWVBMkE&usp=sharing

[kwg]

I just bought my R7 2 days ago.  I have been talking to Acer Support for the last 2 days about this problem.  They have no clue how to fix it.  I had to google this problem to discover that this is a widepread problem.  My network adapter is

broadcom

driver date 2013-03-29

driver version 6.30.59.144

I like the R7 but I am going to return it if a solution doesn't come soon.

[qxlb3r]

Yes I noticed too that the connection is worse after sleep mode, I think even when I use my USB WLAN connector. And Bluetooth connection is always bad when I download something. I have bluetooth speakers and notice it immediately. If I don't download anything or just load a simple website there are no problems.

I thought Bluetooth and WLAN are 2 different systems that don't have anything to do with each other...