Wifi cuts out when laptop power cable is unplugged

hansolo128 · 2013-12-07 14:36:35

Not every time, but often if I pull the power cable from my laptop (dell xps15), the wireless network will disconnect. Not only this, but the router drops out completely and I have to wait a couple of minutes for the router to reconfigure itself and set up the network/wireless.

I'm a relative newbie so please give any instructions/questions with that in mind. Thanks for any and all help.

ewaller · 2013-12-07 19:42:23

What do you mean by, "The router drops out"?

You are saying that unplugging the power cable causes your router to reboot? What kind of router? Are you plugged into the same power outlet as the router? Any chance you are upsetting the power to the router?

The reason I ask is that there is little chance that a wireless client can upset a well designed router by doing anything over the air. Obviously, if the router reboots, your client will disconnect.

hansolo128 · 2013-12-08 02:08:56

Yes, i'm saying that unplugging the power cable on the laptop causes the router to reboot, and no it's not connected to the same power outlet. It seems completely weird, agreed, but I genuinely assure you that this is happening. The only reason I can think of that would cause this to be the case is that when the laptop wireless cuts out as a result of some power management script that is running (based on whether the laptop is on AC/battery), it tries to reassign an IP address to the laptop, realises it cant, and reboots to reassign IP addresses to all the devices on the network.

The router is a plusnet branded one (cheap and cheerful) with plusnet branded firmware, which i've updated.

Max-P · 2013-12-08 10:35:17

Are you sure the router is actually rebooting and it's not the laptop that disconnects and waits for a while before re-launching?

How do you check that the router is rebooting? Are all other computers/phones kicked from the network as well when you unplug your laptop?

Does it make any difference if you use wired network instead of WiFi and unplug the laptop from the outlet?

hansolo128 · 2013-12-08 10:58:28

Yes, all the other computers are kicked from the network. If I go down to the router, only the power light is on, and after a minute or so, the internet/wifi lights start flashing as though they are reconnecting. I haven't got an ethernet cable but I'll buy one today and give that a go

Thanks

hansolo128 · 2013-12-09 21:45:12

It doesn't happen when the ethernet cable is used, so it must be a wireless issue. Anyone come across this before? Worth trying a new router? It's a Thompson 585.

Max-P · 2013-12-09 21:59:56

That's definitely a really strange issue. It's definitely a bug with the firmware of the router, as nothing over the air should be able to ever make a router reboot for no reason like that.

Unplugging the laptop might trigger some power saving that have side effects to the data rate and the router gets confused by it and restarts, or something similar. I have no idea how useful this would be, but you could try disabling all power management on that card using iwconfig and see if that still makes the router reboot (I don't remember the exact command, I'm now using a wired desktop). That's unfortunately the only thing that comes to my mind for now, hope this helps.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-12-07 14:36:35

Wifi cuts out when laptop power cable is unplugged

#2 2013-12-07 19:42:23

Re: Wifi cuts out when laptop power cable is unplugged

#3 2013-12-08 02:08:56

Re: Wifi cuts out when laptop power cable is unplugged

#4 2013-12-08 10:35:17

Re: Wifi cuts out when laptop power cable is unplugged

#5 2013-12-08 10:58:28

Re: Wifi cuts out when laptop power cable is unplugged

#6 2013-12-09 21:45:12

Re: Wifi cuts out when laptop power cable is unplugged

#7 2013-12-09 21:59:56

Re: Wifi cuts out when laptop power cable is unplugged

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