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I am having the problem that most times that I plug in a USB device, my wi-fi in the Asus Zenbook UX31E will turn off (not disconnect, but turn off with the red x over the wireless icon in the task bar), as per the diagram after step 7 in the diagram below:

enter image description here

Another thing to note, the light on the F2 button (which has the wireless icon) is still lit when the wireless deactivates. I am always careful to not press Fn and F2 when inserting the USB device.

I reactivate it through right clicking the wireless icon and performing the troubleshooting steps - most of the time, this is quick.

Other information that may be relevant to this question:

  • Operating system: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1

  • Wireless adapter (internal): Atheros AR9485WB-EG Wireless Network Adapter

  • I have had the laptop for 2 years and have had no mishaps (drops etc).

I have checked the questions and answers to Wi-fi turns off randomly, Wi-Fi connection turns off all the time and Wi Fi keeps going on and off - but these do not address the problem I am having.

Community
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  • Does the adaptor do this on other computers or is the problem specific to this machine? – Mokubai Oct 04 '14 at 10:50
  • @Mokubai - it's an internal wireless adapter - I'll edit that in. –  Oct 04 '14 at 10:52
  • What is the USB device you are plugging in, or does it happen with any usb device, such as a USB mouse or USB keyboard? Is it port related, as in, does it also happen if you plug in this device into another port? What does device manager say? Any devices that suddenly stop working other than the wireless card? – LPChip Oct 04 '14 at 11:54
  • @LPChip any USB device - mouse, external CD player, USB storage, even a USB light. –  Oct 04 '14 at 11:56
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    If a USB light does it, the only thing being affected there is power draw. Wonder if the problem is power related (insufficient power for wifi). See if it makes a difference if you do it with the laptop plugged into AC. – fixer1234 Oct 04 '14 at 15:46
  • When you bought this laptop 2 years ago, did you use WiFi? If so, when you plugged in a USB device for the first time, did you notice the WiFi going off? If not, then this problem has occurred some time after you got the unit, which means it's either an onset hardware problem or a software problem related to some configuration change, Windows update, driver update, OS reinstall, or similar. – allquixotic Oct 04 '14 at 16:22
  • @fixer1234 yes, it happens whether plugged in or not –  Oct 04 '14 at 16:25
  • @allquixotic good point! The problems only started this year - I used the wireless initially, then used a broadband internet USB all last year. –  Oct 04 '14 at 16:27
  • This may have something to do with the wireless (possibly) being internally "plugged in" to the USB network. (Not clear what that knowledge might help with, though, or how to get it.) – Daniel R Hicks Oct 16 '14 at 01:04
  • One thing to try -- if your laptop has multiple USB ports, try them all, to see if they all provoke the same behavior. – Daniel R Hicks Oct 16 '14 at 01:05

4 Answers4

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As of this post, two people have posted some great possible solutions.

If those don't work, or you want to try something else first, try attaching only one very low power USB device into the port (such as a USB flash drive, but not a mechanical drive). See if your Wifi still works. If it does, that would indicate that it is a power issue, and that the power drain from your USB port is causing your Wifi adapter to fail. It's an easy-to-check possibility.

RockPaperLz- Mask it or Casket
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The root cause of the problem is as follows! Believe you are currently running Windows 7 64-Bit system on an Asus Zenbook UX31E .

On the ASUS download page for the UX31E their is a list of Utilities that comes installed on your computer. One of these is called "Wireless Console 3" here is a link to the utility download to fix the issue:

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/U32VM/Wireless_Console_3_Win7_64_Z3029.zip

Its pretty much a switch which I'm assuming is the "SW switch" that your diagnosis told me was off; that is just a graphical representation that shows up at the bottom of your screen telling you if your Blue Tooth and or LAN capabilities are enabled or not. You can access it by either holding the "FN" button and hitting F2 or turning your actual switch on or off located by your SD chip slot on the front left side of the UX31E .

So wrapping things up your Wireless Console 3 has some sort of glitch in it that tells you your LAN is off when you come out of sleep mode or when you start your computer but the graphical representation shows that its on. So all you need to do is UNINSTALL the Wireless Console 3 Utility and it seems to fix the issue.

From what I can tell you will still able to turn your wireless capabilities on and off, it just doesn't show a high resolution picture telling you what your settings are. (It shows a tower for LAN in the top left corner when you turn it on and off then disappears).

Hope this helps!

Martin

MartyP
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Had a very similar issue.
When I plugged in my phone through USB, the wifi would disable.
This issue was that the computer was detecting the phone as a network connection.
I disabled the "Disable Wireless when wired connection" and now no longer lose connection.
This or checking AutoPlay options may also work for other types of usb connections causing interference.

mic84
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Mike
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Update USB Drivers or reinstall , and uninstall the WiFi driver and reinstall it

at worst, it is just conflict between drivers in the registry. If it does not work, respond to me under this answer with more details about what happens and I will try to help you.

Kevin Panko
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itvsai
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