Iconia W700 unique WiFi Adapter issue

Hi,

I bought a tablet "Acer Iconia Tab W700-53334G12as" few days ago and I have a big problem with Wi-Fi.

I know that tons of people had issues with this tablets Wi-Fi but after spending hours by reading many discussions and articles I figured that I have a kinda unique problem.

When I try to connect to ANY Wi-Fi I get just "Cant connect to this network".

First I was like "Dah thats drivers issue thats ok." but I tried at least 12 different drivers from old ones to newest ones and nothing worked.. I tried all the ways to update that drivers from "just install them" to "uninstall drivers, restart pc, install new ones, restart pc" I even try to update BIOS to see if that will affect anthyhing and I tried to do that driver thing on Windows 8 (defaultly installed system) and again after I upgraded to Windows 8.1 on fully updated system.. WiFi still showing "Cant connect to this network"..

Then I tried to connect to my router and I removed the password and any security on that network.. Still nothing..

Then I change my channel width from 20/40 MHz to just 20 MHz and here it comes... IT WORKED!! (i still get random internet connection disconnects but that is a known issue here and can be fixed with different drivers i guess)

BUT the biggest problem is that NOONE I know have theyr router set just to 20 MHz so I still cant connect to others Wi-Fi.

So I tried to change settings on adapter itself in hope that there will be option to change cahnnel width but there is almost nothing.. at least nothing that will change anything in this situation.. (on my laptops i can change channel width in adapter settings/properties)

So now I am wandering if I should try some of your advices (i really hope you guys will have some smart ideas) or just send that tablet back and enter complaint about broken Wi-Fi adapter.

For those who will ask:

- yes I tried USB Wi-Fi and it worked like a charm.

- yes I checked Event Log and there wasnt anything "super special" (I can send some events from there about wifi when I will came home from work)

btw sorry for my horrible English or if I forgot to mention something important Man Happy

Accepted answers

All comments

autotraker

From what I have been able to put together it seems the new drivers for Win8.1/8.2 no longer support 802.11a or some other features correctly. This means that if your network is an Adhoc or running old Wifi, you may never get your W700 to connect or if you do, not reliably. I've gone back to Win8.0 and will just go to another brand than Acer when I want to experiance Win8.1/8.2. Maybe I'll wait and hope the next version of Windows again properly supports 802.11a Adhoc networks.

padgett

Most 802.11 networks operate in the 2.5GHZ band but "a" is in the 5GHZ band. Often disconnects are caused by something stronger on the same frequency. Like other WiFi systems "a" has multiple channels.

I use InSSIDer from MetaGeek to get a picture of the surrounding spectrum. That is where I would start.

ryanouno

I have tried things like that but nothing special couse we live in area of few older houses and there are just 2 more wifi connections available and as i wrote before with Tenda usb wifi (cant remmember the exact product name) everything works as charm.

Edit: without my usb wifi card my w700 easily connect to wifi now but it reconnects by itself every few minutes.. I changes wifi settings on my mikrotik router so i can connect now but keeps disconnecting

padgett

That says one of three things:

1) the signal is weak and keeps dropping

2) the dhcp lease is set waaaay too short

3) Something else is periodically walking on you (does not need to be a router, just something strong like a telephone).

ryanouno

Trust me i have tried everything you wrote here.. Im working as it administrator so I kinda have experiences with those kinds of problems but this one is really too much for me..

Signal is 4/5
I will check dhcp lease but if tablet on usb wifi works well then why not on builtin adapter?
Nothing is walking on me im sure about that.

I will try to create live bootable usb of linux mint and try wifi there and if that will work then its almost for sure fault of drivers then.. I will let you know guys and thx for your advices. Smiley Happy

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