Strange Wireless/crash problem

[LeMarchand]

Got a teacher who is reporting that her laptop crashes - but only at home. I have got her to narrow this down to it only crashing when her wireless is turned on. Other wireless-enabled machines are fine in the same location.

 

There are no problems with the school's wireless network. Has anyone got any ideas?

[plexer]

Only does it at home not your problem then

 

Ben

[SYNACK]

Suggest to the teacher that they upgrade the firmware on the obviously dodgy wireless ap that they have at home and if that does not resolve it recommend they aquire a different AP. As plexer says it is by the sounds of it their own personal gear that is causing the laptop to crash so it is not really on the school to invest major resources replace staffs personal gear.

 

I would also update the BIOS and drivers on the wireless laptop and make sure that it is using the windows wireless zero configuration stuff not some dodgy unstable manufacturer supplied utility that came with either the card or the offending AP.

[LeMarchand]

Cheers, it's an HP with built-in wireless - I'd already checked the drivers on her laptop and they seemed to be more up-to-date than the ones on the HP site. She is (thankfully) using WZC (stares pointedly at British Telecom). Will check the BIOS tomorrow.

 

I do feel that as they are supposed to be work machines and as (so far) I have yet to see loads of "iffy" programs and files appear on her machine, she is using it as such and so there is some duty to try to get it to work. On the other hand, I don't particularly want to encourage "house calls" to sort out school-related problems. (Private work is fine as long as it's paid ).

[7andY]

If you have one, you could loan her a working spare AP. I've done this, and proved the problem to a dodgy AP at the home end! It was replaced and the problem went away...

 

Cheers, Andy E.

[LeMarchand]

If you have one, you could loan her a working spare AP. I've done this, and proved the problem to a dodgy AP at the home end! It was replaced and the problem went away...

 

Good thinking! I could spare her one over the weekend.

[Michael]

I've never known an access point to crash a laptop. You sure she's not using differently applications or possibly visiting different websites at home?

 

You could try updating the router firmware, but I still have my reservations whether an AP can crash a laptop.

[LeMarchand]

I've never known an access point to crash a laptop. You sure she's not using differently applications or possibly visiting different websites at home?

 

The machine crashes as soon as the wireless is turned on (or on boot if the wireless is already on), so I don't think it's an application problem.