Lenovo B5400 Laptops -WiFi Keeps Dropping

[mickeyh080]

We purchased 30+ Lenovo B5400 laptops over the summer and as always with new equipment wiped the drives removing the bloat ware and installed our own software and then imaged the remainder so all our identical. We obviously used the manufacturer's drivers from the Lenovo website to configure and presumed all was well initially. Unfortunately now we have discovered that the Broadcom WiFi cards seem to be frequently although randomly if that makes sense dropping there connection. Initially I presumed we had an access point issue but via support and swapping the arrays internally the problem has not gone away. The laptops show a strong connection but then just drop the connection sometimes reconnecting automatically and other times requiring manual intervention. We have looked at the WiFi settings and ensured that there are no power settings switching off the device or card and looked at roaming settings which are set to conservative. The issue happens both on mains power and running just on batteries. Now after flashing the latest Bios for the chipset we have come to a point where I've kind of run out of ideas. It seems Lenovo support are very quite and have only suggested returning the device to factory settings which of course cannot be done on site as the drives have been wiped. Anybody else had similar issues or possible ideas or suggestions

[Chrisbf1]

We had a similiar issue with a load of Fujitsu a544. Fujitsu were not much help. Ending up going to the intel site and picking up the latest driver. This will probably not help you though. Are they 64 bit machines

[nicholab]

Hi I got Lenovo public account manager details I could PM them to you.

[mickeyh080]

Hi I got Lenovo public account manager details I could PM them to you.

 

That would be most useful if you wouldn't mind. I could give him a bell in the morning a at present returning the complete batch is preferable if unlikely under the remit of not fit for purpose.

[mickeyh080]

We had a similiar issue with a load of Fujitsu a544. Fujitsu were not much help. Ending up going to the intel site and picking up the latest driver. This will probably not help you though. Are they 64 bit machines

 

Have looked both at Lenovo site and Broadcom site tried all the latest drivers and no change. Yes they are all 64 bit machines and to be honest if the Wi-Fi worked correctly I would be suitably impressed as the build quality is good !!!

[robjduk]

I have a B5400 and yes I have the same issue. No fix as yet because I only have one and just use it for tests but may be nice to know you are not alone!

[mac_shinobi]

What model of broadcomm wifi card ?

[Gaz]

Did you resolve the issue? I was looking a getting a few of these laptops.

[mickeyh080]

Did you resolve the issue? I was looking a getting a few of these laptops.

 

Currently waiting for more info from Lenovo support. My initial enquiry fell on deaf ears so had to make enquiries through my supplier Misco who helped raise the priority. We have had a case reference raised and an idea from Lenovo to possible return the laptops but not quite sure how well that would work with 35 units and no original packaging. My obvious concern due to the random nature of the Wi-Fi dropping is that Lenovo support will find them all serviceable and return them all in factory default format ready for me to have to reimage the lot and have the same issue. I suggested a possible Wi-Fi card swap for maybe Intel but have not had a reply yet.

[habz99uk]

I had a very similar issue with 10 new Toshiba satellite pro c50 laptops a few weeks ago, i updated the wireless card drivers and anything else you can think off and had no luck, it would drop connection all the time, to cut the long story short, it turns out it was an issue with our wireless settings, i managed to sort the issue by disabling the setting "Fast BSS Transition" and now i have no more issues. So i suggest you look for something similar in you wifi settings.

 

[Wilderbeest]

A general point about the B5400's. Nothing impressive about the wireless performance on these. Probably slightly below average, but not a "problem". Biggest problem is the touchpad, which fails on over half the units we have. Lenovo are particularly helpful about this (haha - that was a joke). Lenovo continue to sell this shockingly poor quality stock, knowing the high failure rates and expecting customers to put up with the several week delay while they are being reworked. I often think the true worth of a company is shown in their response to problems. Lenovo's is WOEFUL!