Win8 not managing well enabling/disabling network adapters

cognus

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Friends I have a Gateway NV52L15U amd a8-based 15" laptop with win 8.
it works pretty well except for a few things that I suspect are related, and I suspect all three are due to how 8 is managing the drivers of the devices
- Network performance, in terms of starting up, latching the WIFI AP successfully, and getting online, is unreliable. oddly, it seems that it does not like disabling the Ethernet [CAT5] device, leaving the WIFI enabled. If I leave both enabled, wifi performance seems more stable [gaining and holding the connection]

- When I disable the CAT5 connection using the windows 8 adapter settings pane, the utility will hang, but not consistently. sometimes it hangs until it is forced to stop via taskmanager or restart, but not always. sometimes it merely takes a VERY long time - showing the hated hourglass while it takes as long as 7-8 minutes.

- Shutdowns and/or restarts can take an extremely long time. However, it seems again that if both network adapters are enabled [builtin wifi and builtin Ethernet] the reboot or shutdown seems to go a bit more normally.

- Sometimes the WIFI will not actually connect, as evidenced by IE and/or Chrome being unable to access the network. if I check windows using the taskbar widget, it will show the system "Connected to .." the AP and having "Internet Access". That little utility is mis-reporting. When I DISABLE the WIFI adapter via control panel util, the little taskbar widget may, or may not, still show the WIFI Device as "Connected".... I assume that the adjustment of that feedback mechanism is caught waiting for something, so slow to respond to the disabling of the device

Yes, I have uninstalled via windows both devices AND their drivers, and reinstalled each using fresh, checked driver files from Gateway/Acer. all the issues were there before and after.

all tips/advice/helps appreciated.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1, Win 10P, Win7-all, RIP XPP, 'droid 2.2, 2.3,4.x, 5..IOS,
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    many: E5440, 430 G1, E45, G4-1117DX, X120E, DC7600, X83VB-X2, NC10, Droids, Galaxy,
    CPU
    too many
    Motherboard
    ditto
    Memory
    ditto
    Graphics Card(s)
    ditto
    Internet Speed
    30mbps
Hi cognus,

You seem pretty well versed in troubleshooting so I doubt that I can help you; however, I will make the following statements based on my experience with Windows 8 and this experience comes from using a desktop and Laptop on a daily basis:

Win 8 is the fastest starting OS I've ever used - 6 second boot to desktop
Win 8 has the fastest shutdown times I've ever experienced - desktop about 1-2 seconds, laptop about 3-5 seconds
My laptop has no wifi connectivity issues under Win 8 - in fact, I could almost swear that it is running faster than Win 7

Now, if I were you, and I were starting to troubleshoot this issue, I would be focusing on the connectivity to the router, the protocols being used by your desktop and laptop, and the capabilities of the router. So, is the router Win 8 Ready. Can it handle both IPV4 and IPV6? The reason I'm focusing my attention in that area is because I had an old router when I first installed Win 8 and my connection speeds seemed to be suffering a bit; however, once I upgraded my router to one with 10/100/1000 ports that was IPV4 and IPV6 capable (eg Win 8 ready), everything improved immensely. Please understand that I am just generalizing here so take the information for what it might be worth. Good luck.

Oh, one more thing. Did you do a clean install of Win 8? If so, what partition structure did you end up with? 350MB system reserved + the rest to C: (for a legacy install)? If not, and you somehow did a Win 8 install, using the original Gateway partition structure, I can almost guarantee you that this would cause some issues.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Preview
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
This may not help, but...

I had similar issues with my Dell D630 laptop with physical wireless switch. I've set the switch in the BIOS to handle Wi-Fi only and in addition set the "auto-switch" feature to enabled. The latter one basically disables the wireless card when wired connection is made.

Check the Gateway BIOS, if it has similar features....
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Latitude
    CPU
    Intel i5-3350P (3.1 GHz)
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte
    Memory
    16 GBs
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon HD7850
    Sound Card
    Built-in to MB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x 24" Dell
    Screen Resolution
    3,840 x1,200
    Hard Drives
    128 GBs, OCZ Vertex, SATA III SSD
    256 GBs Intel SATA III SSD
    3 x Seagate 1 TBs HDD
    PSU
    Antec 750W
    Case
    Antec P185
    Internet Speed
    50 Gb/s
    Browser
    IE11, Firefox22.0
    Antivirus
    Vipre
    Other Info
    Works, most of the times unless Microsoft patches decide otherwise...
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