LENOVO E530C laptop

[10101010]

hi

 

Recently purchased a number of Lenovo E530C laptops and installed windows 7 pro. We are randomly getting users losing their wifi connection. Upon investigation it's always the same problem - the wifi is being switching off in the bios. Once we re enable it everything is ok again.

 

We have a Aruba network and the bios is on version 2.54 which is the latest version available, users are unable to access the bios.

 

has anyone had a similar problem or know what might be causing it?

[pooley]

I have a few of these, Wifi drops out regularly, not off in Bios just decides to stop connecting. Still not got to the bottom of it yet, have wiped them, updated/downgraded drivers, different, SSID, networth auth, no auth and all the same.

 

Gave up and hard wired them for now. Back to Tosh or HP for me.

[3s-gtech]

Hmm - we have one of these, not encountered that problem or heard about any issues from the user. Is there a hardware wifi switch which is toggling the state?

[10101010]

when the bios setting is enabled we've had no wifi dropouts, infact I've been quite pleased with them, it's just for what ever reason something is triggering the laptop to change the bios wireless setting to off.

 

There is no hard switch, only a software switch using F9, but we've tested that and it does nothing - it doesn't even turn the wireless off in windows. (Probably to do with our custom windows 7 build)

[3s-gtech]

Does changing the option in Device Manager to stop Windows from being able to turn off the device to save power help? I've used that a few times on hardware that's playing up with good results.

[10101010]

never bothered unticking that one before, but worth a go for sure, I'll see if it makes a difference.

[Nibiru]

Does changing the option in Device Manager to stop Windows from being able to turn off the device to save power help? I've used that a few times on hardware that's playing up with good results.

 

Same here - win7 turning the usb ports off & disabling the keyboards & mice!

 

Turn off power saving and the problems go away.

[10101010]

Ok, turning the power saving mode on the wifi card off has made no difference, another one just lost it's bios wifi settings since making the change looks like it's time to ring lenovo

[3s-gtech]

Perhaps also try re-seating the mini PCIe wifi card (though they're usually screwed in anyway).

 

This any help? Ethernet turns off Wifi permanently

[mac_shinobi]

Quick guide that I made for our Lenovo laptop users ( not sure how much help this is but the Lenovo Power manager has settings in it that I think over ride windows power settings, also if you have any group policies that relate to power save settings then those may over ride both power manager and windows power save settings ). Lenovo's depending on software installed may also have an additional power setting that you can access by FN and F5

 

At least on most of the laptops - see attached guide ( ignore the REWLAN part )

 

I also ensure to use system updater and update all the drivers and some bits of software so Power Manager , UltraNav Utility, On Screen Display , etc. Activ Protection software and other bits of additional software I do not install as pointless backing up to the same hard drive using software.

 

Be worth while updating bios, wireless and wired network connection drivers and most of the other items to see if this helps, also I think in access connections and power manager there are options to stop the wireless devices going off.

REWLAN Power Settings.pdf

Edited January 14, 2014 by mac_shinobi

[10101010]

Perhaps also try re-seating the mini PCIe wifi card (though they're usually screwed in anyway).

 

This any help? Ethernet turns off Wifi permanently

 

thanks for the link, but no sign of the switch setting.

[10101010]

Nice guide, but everything you mention is OS related, I don't see anything that could influence the bios. Bios and driver up to date, I'll try using the lenovo wireless software to see if that improves things.

[mac_shinobi]

Nice guide, but everything you mention is OS related, I don't see anything that could influence the bios. Bios and driver up to date, I'll try using the lenovo wireless software to see if that improves things.

 

With the Lenovo laptops I have come across at my work place, I have seen power options but nothing I can see that mentions or relates to ( as far as I am aware ) to the powering of network devices on or off.

 

Whenever I set the BIOS up before imaging I ensure

 

1. Under power settings they are all set to maximum performance

2. The SATA ( Serial ATA ) Mode is set to AHCI ( as NCQ helps performance to some degree )

3. The boot order is set correctly for the enviroment they will be used in so if you use PXE Booting then leaving this enabled however we do not use any PXE booting so I disable that and set the hard drive as first boot device, optical drive as 2nd and USB HDD as 3rd and get it to ignore other boot devices

 

4. If the laptop in question will get used for virtual machines then I ensure that the relevant visualization options are enabled for the CPU etc

5. As we use bitlocker for encryption I ensure to at least make the security chip enabled.

 

Only option I have seen with regards to wireless devices within the BIOS is to ensure that Wireless radios and WiMax are on or off ( and you can set specific devices to be on / enabled or off / disabled, however this won't help with the issue you are having

 

Otherwise only things I have seen regards to keeping network devices powered on are ( possibly mentioned above )

 

1. Within device manager --> Properties of the wifi card --> power managements tab --> un-checking / un-ticking the power save tick boxes

2. Access connections as per the guide ref the tick box(s) whilst in the advanced view to stop access connections from powering off wireless devices whilst they are in use and also the wireless device manager regards to ensuring that the 802.11 device is powered on

3. Power manager with regards to setting this to max performance ( I have not seen any options to power down or off wireless devices within power manager but if the laptop is running in max performance mode then it shouldn't be powering off the devices as it is not trying to save on power etc , at least that is my thinking )

 

Lenovo have seemed to gone towards software even with the numlock type indicators as they use there on screen display software ( OSD ) to show the status of caps lock / num lock etc instead of having what they used to have or do with regards to having an LED near the hard drive / power LED's on or near the screen ( generally at the bottom )

[10101010]

Thanks mac_shinobi - yeah we always set bios up before imaging, fairly similar to what you do, accept we use pxe but not bit locker.

 

'Only option I have seen with regards to wireless devices within the BIOS is to ensure that Wireless radios and WiMax are on or off ( and you can set specific devices to be on / enabled or off / disabled, however this won't help with the issue you are having'

Yep and this this is my problem, we set the wireless bios setting to ON, something intermittingly is switching it off again and the problem is hard to replicate. I think it could be a 'sleep' issue, the only time it appears to happen is when laptops are carried between lessons with the lid closed sending the laptop to sleep. I may try changing the power management to 'do nothing' when lid closed as a test.

 

+ just found a later driver on the intel website rather than lenovos - will try that too.

[mac_shinobi]

Thanks mac_shinobi - yeah we always set bios up before imaging, fairly similar to what you do, accept we use pxe but not bit locker.

 

'Only option I have seen with regards to wireless devices within the BIOS is to ensure that Wireless radios and WiMax are on or off ( and you can set specific devices to be on / enabled or off / disabled, however this won't help with the issue you are having'

Yep and this this is my problem, we set the wireless bios setting to ON, something intermittingly is switching it off again and the problem is hard to replicate. I think it could be a 'sleep' issue, the only time it appears to happen is when laptops are carried between lessons with the lid closed sending the laptop to sleep. I may try changing the power management to 'do nothing' when lid closed as a test.

 

+ just found a later driver on the intel website rather than lenovos - will try that too.

 

Yes that is a good point regards to power manager ( Lenovo software ) there is an option to do nothing when the LID is closed

 

Also as you stated and something that I sometimes do is to go to the manufacturer of the device in question ( so for the wireless card ) is to go to the Intel website to get the driver from them to see if that helps at all.

 

Be good to know how you get on