Sony Vaio svF15A1C5E "Limited Connection"

[Last Koala King]

Hi guys,

New here so hi

I'm having problems with my sony vaio connecting to the internet. For one thing it doesn't pick up wireless signal as far away as the other laptops in the house. The main problem though, is that often the bars will be lit up as if it is connected but there will be a little yellow warning triangle saying limited.

When it happens, I try disconnecting/reconnecting and turning the router on and off but most of the time I just have to wait until it comes back. Once it is connected it works fine. It is fairly a fairly common occurence and happens every day.

I've looked this up and it seems that a large amount of these laptops have the same problem however I've yet to find a fix (I'm not a very techy person so don't understand much technical jargon). None of the other laptops/phones/ipad have this problem.

We have an Eircom router and the wireless card (according to the outside of the box) is: Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11bgn)

Unfortunately the laptop is outside its warranty and I will need this to last me through college (starting next year) so I really do need to find a fix for this. Any help would be appreciated and if you need more info just ask although you may have to explain how i get it

Thanks very much.

 

[my2cents]

Just a few things for you to try until a wifi guru can respond:

Switch to a high performance power plan to see if that helps your issue.
Uncheck the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" option (if checked) under the Power Management Tab in device manager for the wifi adapter. Go to:

Contriol Panel> device manager> network adapters> wifi adapter> power management tab> see the option above

Good luck.

 

[Last Koala King]

Ok I've done that but I've only just got home and the internet is working at the moment so I'll let you know if it goes down again at some stage.

 

[my2cents]

OK, great LKK. Let us know.

 

[Last Koala King]

Said I'd wait a couple of days and see how it went... It's happened less but is still happening unfortunately. Would other computers being on at the same time have anything to do with it? Thanks for the replies

 

[2xg]

Hi there,

In addition, there might be interference with your nearby wireless networks using the same Channel as yours. We can find that out if you can provide us a snip of the Xirrus Wi-Fi Inspector.

 

[Last Koala King]

View attachment Xirrus Wifi Inspector Picture.docx

Hopefully this comes out correctly. Had real trouble downloading Xirrus as every time I tried my connection would change to limited in the middle and cancel it -_- . If this isn't what you meant let me know. Thanks.

 

[2xg]

It looks good, thanks for posting the Xirrus snip.

What's your signed up Speed with your ISP? You may post your Speedtest. Would you happen to know if there are heavy gamers or video streamers in your household?

Have you tried a wired connection?

 

[Last Koala King]

Our signed up speed is 3mb/sec, congested (I think). I've tried the wired connection for a few days now and have no problems so its only the wireless that is having problems.

The only game that is played online in the house is minecraft on other computers. I have Medieval 2 Total War installed on this laptop and also minecraft but don't play it online.

I used to do a good bit of streaming of movies and tv shows on the other laptop mainly and sometimes the PC but I've hardly done this at all since I got the laptop because of study/school etc.

Here is the speedtest: View attachment Speedtest.docx

 

[2xg]

Your Speetest from your wireless connection doesn't look good at all. Try posting a Speedtest again and this time use a wired connection.

Also, please try connecting when others are not using it. Do another Speedtest, I bet your speed would bump up.

 

[Last Koala King]

That speed test was done with the wired connection. I'll try it later again to see if there's any change but I've done speed tests before on other computers and they've all been about the same.

I don't think the speed of the internet is what is causing the problems though as all the other computers in the house use the wifi and don't have the "limited" problem that mine does.

Any more suggestions :/

Thanks for the help so far

 

[2xg]

When I used to live in my other home about 6 mos ago, I've been getting disconnected every day and other wireless devices weren't having any issues and came into my conclusion that my Wi-Fi adapter isn't compatible with the router as I'm not having any issues at all with my wireless connectivity in my new place using a different router with the same ISP.

You may try using a different Wi-Fi adapter and see if that helps or fiddle with the wireless security setting of your router although it's not advisable to change WPA2 to a lower security level (WEP and WPA).

Have you updated your router's firmware to the latest? It may or may not help.

Edit: Another thing, have you tried connecting your laptop to a Hotspot or open public Wi-Fi networks?

 

[heatherh]

Dear Koala--

I had the exact same issues on a brand new Samsung and a brand new Dell. Samsung tried to fix, had me send my laptop in, sent it back, told me it was fixed, NOPE. BestBuy let me return it. Got a Dell. Same issues. Have had Geek Squad try to fix for one year. Over 20 hours logged attempting to fix-- viruses, settings, drivers, new modems, etc. The problem still exists. The common denominator is Windows 8. I am furthest thing from techie, but I have had the problem reoccur on this machine at a coffee shop, vacation, home. My other family members are running Windows 7--no issues. All Apple products connect perfectly. MS and Intel need to come up with a fix.