WiFi Keeps disconnecting

[Bigdp123]

Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions. Hopefully that's it working now.

[atagunov]

I think two antennas are used either alternatively e.g. whichever achieves better signal is used or perhaps simultaneously for higher bandwidth. It totally makes sense that with only one antenna it worked but less reliably. Good find! Hope it works now. The other part of the original suggestion was to disconnect 1st antenna too, do some IPA cleaning - both on socket and cable and connect it back. Well if things work without it - so much the better. I may need to attempt this myself on this Samsung Note 3 - works but isn't as good as other phones at connecting to cellular network.. Or maybe I just need to flash a fresher "baseband" - firmware for cellular part of the phone..

[RealBlackStuff]

Unless it's an engineering sample, all wifi cards should use 2 (some even 3) antenna wires.
One method that helped my AC-7260 disconnecting at random was:
go into Device Manager, rightclick your wifi-card, select Properties, select Advanced tab,
and set ARP offload for WoWLAN to Disabled.

[Bigdp123]

Hi
It seems to be working fine now. The link to the video I posted showed that when the guy was changing his WiFi adapter the 2 wires were connected when he opened the laptop up. Surely that means that 2 wires are meant to be connected. Thanks again for all your help and suggestions.

[Ianski]

I have one of these G50 laptops (mine's a G50-45) and the wi-fi periodically disconnects. I looked in the HMM and there's 5 possible replacement parts:
Description FRU Brand
WirelessLan_Non_Intel, Ltn NFA335 1x1BN+BT4.0 PCIE M.2 WLAN 20200558 Atheros NFA335 M.2 NGFF Wireless Card QCNFA335
WirelessLan_Non_Intel, Cbt BCM43142 1x1BN+BT4.0 PCIE M.2 WLAN 20200557 Broadcom BCM43142 1x1BN+BT4.0 PCIE M.2 WLAN
WirelessLan_Non_Intel, Cbt RTL8723BE 1x1BN+BT4.0 PCIE M.2 WLAN 20200570 RealTek RTL8723BE NGFF
WirelessLan_Non_Intel, Ltn NFA345 1x1AC+BT4.0 PCIE M.2 WLAN 20200579 Atheros? NFA345 AC+BT4.0 PCIE M.2 WLAN
WirelessLan_Non_Intel, Cbt BCM43162 1x1AC+BT4.0 PCIE M.2 WLAN 20200573 Broadcom BCM43162 1x1ac+BT4.0 V2 M.2 Combo Card

Mine has one of the Atheros cards in it. (Windows detects it as Qualcomm AR956x in Device Manager.) I can likely buy a replacement online. Is there a particular card the good people on this forum would recommend?

I also read on a Lenovo forum that one person simply switched the main and aux antenna lines and that fixed their problem. Is that something I could try, or will it fry things?

I'm comfortable with making the actual swap, it's a daughtercard with two (or possibly three) antenna leads and a simple M.2 slot, and these machines are simple to open.

Update - I opened it up and had a look. My card's definitely the NFA335. I can see the 20200558 part number right on it, too. There's a black antenna on main and a grey one on aux. I took the card out, unplugged the antennae, then reconnected them and put the card back in. Will see if it improves matters or not. I was careful not to swap them.

[RealBlackStuff]

AFAIK that laptop has a wifi-whitelist, so until you remove it you are 'stuck' with one of those cards mentioned.
Stay away from Realtek, fastest one is BCM43162.
Why not try and swap antenna wires, doesn't do any harm.

[Ianski]

Thanks. I have ordered the same daughtercard as the one I've got. I found out on another forum about the BIOS whitelisting of parts. Sneaky sneaky. And apparently even some parts from the same manufacturer that are otherwise identical, won't work unless they're specifically *Lenovo* approved parts. I'll take a chance on that - the supplier (aliexpress) claims they're compatible with this make and model, and it was only 10 dollars. But it'll take a month to get the part. Good to know I can safely try the antenna swap if the wi-fi keeps acting up.

I need to update my signature block. I've been retrieving old Thinkpads out of the landfill drop-off and from people throwing them away, so I have a few more now! I picked up a perfectly good Z61m the other day, and an Edge E530 a few months ago. Yes, it's a bit of an illness. Not sure if there is a cure.