Intel 3945 Driver Tweaks
In some cases, customers have experienced connectivity issues when using the Intel 3945 wireless card. This is due to driver related features. The symptoms described below are sometimes related to the power save features associated with the driver.
Common Symptoms:
- Connectivity issues
- Wireless Radio Shuts Off
- Poor performance
- High use of Memory
- Excessive Scanning
In order to prevent the above listed symptoms some changes are required on your device manager profile for the wireless card.
The procedure below walks you through on how to make these changed in your device manager.
It is important to note your PC should not be rebooted during this process. A reboot is not required for these changes to take effect. However, it is necessary to restart the radio. This procedure walks you through this process.
Step1.
- Go to Start Settings Control Panel and double click on the System icon. The following window will appear. Click on the Hardware Tab and select Device Manager.
Step 2
- From the Device Manager window, Scroll down click on Network adapters, select and right click on the 3945ABG adapter and select properties.
Step 3
- From the adapter properties window select the Advanced Tab and under the “Property:” window scroll and select “Power Management.” This will change the window to look similar to the one shown below. To set the default value for Power manager to high you must move the slider all the way to the right. (This sets the preference to maximuNow click on the power management TAB.
Step 4
- From the Power Management tab you must make sure there is no check in the box that indicates, “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.” Then Click Ok
Note: It is important to note these changes will not take effect until the wireless radio is reset by turning it off and then on again. This can be done in different ways. Some Laptops like IBMs for example have a switch that enables and disables the radio. However, this can also be done via the device properties as the example below describes.
Step 5
- To reset your wireless device go back to the Device Manager window. This window should have remained open.
- From the Device Manager window click on Network adapters, select and right click on the 3945ABG adapter and select properties.
Step 6
- From the connection properties select the Advanced Tab. Click on the “Wireless On” button and select the Wireless Off option and click Ok. This will turn your radio off.
Step 7
- Once your radio has been turned off you will need restart the radio.
- You will need to go to the Device Manager window once again, Right click on the 3945 adapter and select properties (Step 5).
- Once you’re in the device properties page under the advanced tab click on “Wireless Off” Button and select the Wireless On option and click OK. You settings have now taken affect.
- You may now close any windows that have remained open.
This change should help mitigate the symptoms described above.
An unsupported suggestion is to visit Intel's Drivers and Updates web site to see if they have an updated driver. Click here for Intel's Download Site.
