Aspire v5-121 fails to boot with Intel wifi cards

I've been having some bluescreens and compatibility problems with the Broadcom-based wifi card in my Aspire v5-121-C72G32nbb so I'm trying to upgrade to Intel wifi.

Strangely enough, upon inserting an Intel wifi card (Centrino Advanced-N 6230), the computer takes a very long time to boot. There is a 10-20 second delay even before the Acer logo appears. Pressing F2 does not let me enter the BIOS as it does normally, it is as if the keypress is ignored. Windows eventually starts to boot, but then bluescreens, reboots, bluescreens, reboots, then launches an "Automatic repair" wizard, but the mouse and keyboard don't work.

Everything is back to normal if I disconnect the wifi card.

I have updated to the latest BIOS v2.12.

I tried with a second Intel wifi card (Wireless-N 7260), same problem.

I tried both Intel wifi cards in another laptop and they work fine.

I tried a 3rd wifi card that I have lying around, its a Realtek-based one, and it does not suffer from this problem, but I really want to use the Intel ones...

Any ideas/suggestions?

Thanks

Accepted answers

All comments

JackE

>>>I've been having some bluescreens and compatibility problems with the Broadcom-based wifi card >>>

Back up to here a bit. I'm assuming this was an annoying intermittant issue. Did it start before or after the bios update? What measures did you try to fix this with the original card?

Jack E/NJ

dbrown4

With the standard driver that comes with windows, that old card bluescreens a lot.

With the latest version of the driver, the bluescreens are gone but I can no longer connect to the wifi network at my university.

I confirmed the same behaviour occurs when putting that wifi card in a non-Acer laptop.

So with that in mind I would really like to use an Intel card, I've had better experience with those...

JackE

Sorry to keep backing up. But does device mgr show any issues with the old card/new driver in either the V-5 and/or the non-Acer laptop? Does device mgr even see the card?

Jack E/NJ

dbrown4

Device manager sees the old card and doesn't report any errors. On the updated driver, it works just fine on my home network and also other networks I have tried, but it doesn't work at university until I downgrade to the older, unstable driver.

JackE

You probably won't like this. But I'm gonna suggest that you try a usb microwifi adapter for less than $20 from Amazon with free shipping to resolve the university wifi issue --- rather than try to mess with replacing a card that seems to work with anything other than the university's router so far. Have you tried to contact the school's IT staff about this issue? Seems like the school's frequency settings can't resonate with whatever settings your card is tuned to.

Jack E/NJ

fjesufikayo

I have had this issue in the past. Did you install a fresh Operating system on your PC???.

[edited for privacy-please do not post personal or unique information such as but not limited to full names, email addresses, phone numbers, full serial numbers, etc.]

Quick Links

Top Members

Weekly

Puraw 70

CommandoMerw 35

Jack22 30

Thys 20

Kno63 15

Swift Series Intel^® Evo™

Game Pass

Acer Corner

Gaming on Chromebook

Swift Series Intel® Evo™

Game Pass

Acer Corner

Gaming on Chromebook

Swift Series Intel^® Evo™