So I was going to place my wifes HP Pavilion a6010n onto wireless and found an interesting issue that i am trying to resolve. Her system is the same as this system http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883107360  , although I upgraded her to a Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4Ghz with 4MB Cache CPU a few years ago since the 1.8Ghz was laggy when gaming.

Up til now she has had no problems with this system and I also upgraded her to Windows 7 32-bit Home Premium about 2 years ago and installed 3GB of DDR2-667Mhz RAM as ( 2 x 1GB + 2 x 512MB )

I went to install this linksys USB wireless NIC http://support.linksys.com/en-us/support/adapters/wusb54gc and installed the driver before inserting this USB NIC, and all was looking good.

Within the first 5 minutes I noticed that there was a problem though as for I went to play World of Warcraft and I got disconnected from the server. So I tried again and got bumped off again. So I checked signal strength and its a solid 4 of 5 bars and claims to be communicating at 48mb/s with the wireless router. I then did a ping www.google.com -t to see what my latency looked like and most of the pings were 40 to 50ms although when moving the mouse around the latency would climb to around 100ms until i STOPPED moving the mouse around. I figured that the bandwidth of the USB port may be competing between the mouse and the NIC so I didnt think anything much about it, but with the ping running, I launched WoW and then noticed that the pings would cut out and then come back. With this game running it would have about 8 to 15 successful pings and then a delay and missed pings. When I closed the game, the issue just about went away.

So I figured it seems as though when the CPU is loaded up to about 60% for both cores or so, the wireless adapter is falling behind with its communications and dropping out.

- I went to see if there was an update to the USB driver for the motherboard and there is none for Windows 7 for this board.

- I checked the power supply voltage and all looks good.

- I ran a ping at the same time from a netbook to the router and that had no problems at all, so I know its not the router.

- I have no other wireless networks in range of my new home and so I know its not a radio frequency conflict

- I took out a spare computer running a Athlon II x2 215 2.7Ghz with 2GB RAM and Windows 7 64-bit and installed the drivers and this NIC and the communications have no problems although WoW lags on this system with the integrated AMD Radeon 3000 GPU, the CPU cores are around 50% with wow running and no lost pings.


So I know its something to do with my wifes computer, but not sure exactly what, other than it seems as though the system struggles to keep the handshake with the wireless through USB.

Anyone have any suggestions on what to check out to diagnose further?

In the meantime I have a Cat5 cable run across the floor to her computer, but she would like to be wireless. Also her system is free of malware/virus's and idles at like 3% to 6% CPU usage, also the CPU is set to speedstep throttling to run cooler at idle and be more green and so its a 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo E6600 that idles at 1500Mhz. Then when the system needs more processing power it ramps its CLOCK back to full speed at 2400Mhz. I dont think that this enabled would cause the problem as for if it needs more processing power to maintain the JUGGLE of keeping the handshake, it should run at 2400Mhz when needed etc.

This system runs flawlessly when connected hard wired to integrated NIC with Cat5 cable.

Here is a LINK to her motherboard: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00864946&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en



Have you tried a PCI or PCI-e wireless card in that PC ? ?

The issue sounds like the USB connection to me...have you tried it in the rear USB ports ? ?

Funky issue for sure.Wireless USB adapters are very low cost. If you want low speed.
The new ones are pricy. Here is a review of the new 'Gigabit'  devices.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2090556/tested-we-push-six-802-11ac-wi-fi-usb-adapters-to-the-limit.html
Tested: We push six 802.11ac Wi-Fi USB adapters to the limit

His tests gave mixed results.

EDIT:The new 'gigabit' Wi-Fi  is 802.11ac
Thats what he's currently using Geek...I inserted the USB NIC into the motherboard direct at the back of the computer. Its too wide to fit in the front slot with the way that HP made a I/O plastic door that can open/close access to the front ports. Tried a different USB port as well on the rear of the computer which is direct to the motherboard with same results with the drop outs.

I have a PCI Wireless G card in storage. I suppose I could try that and see if the problem goes away. Very strange though that everything ELSE works fine in USB ports both front and rear, and this Linksys USB NIC works fine in a different computer build. Kind of wish I had another Windows 7 32-bit build though to test to see if its something driver wise with regards to Windows 7 32-bit and the Linksys as for my comparison was a 64-bit Windows 7 system, but also the hardware was way different too. I suppose if I wanted to troubleshoot that advanced into this matter I could swap out the SSD that is in it with a 120GB IDE HDD that I have since this motherboard has a ATA100 for up to 2 drives and install Windows 7 64-bit to my wifes system on this 120GB drive and just dont activate the key since its trial basis only to test this NIC with 64 bit Win 7.

If I can find that Wireless G NIC that is PCI I will try that route to see if I can get it to behave I guess. I also have an oscilloscope and can look at the USB port to see how clean the 5V is etc.... maybe the 5V is dirty, although generally if you have issues with power and USB you will have devices disconnecting and reconnecting on their own with the da-dunk sound or a message about exceeding bus power etc.

The problem will go away when you use a different wireless adapter.