IT Professionals

Sony Vaio Wireless Woes

Posted by on Apr 10, 2008 | 6 Comments

Today, Nicks asks:

I have a PC running Windows XP SP2. It is managing my Linksys WRT150N router (wireless network). Yesterday, I bought a Sony Vaio laptop with WLAN. I entered manually all the info to setup network connection between my laptop and my router (SSID, WPA, key, etc). It just doesn’t work. The computer recognize the network and the signal is very good but it just doesn’t work. I receive some kind of message telling me that there’s some kind of delay or user’s manual action. I’ve herd there might be a problem with registry for Vista (something set disable on XP but not on Vista). But since I’m an average user, I don’t understand what it means. And I don’t really want to mess things up in the registry if it’s not even the problem to my solution.

Ouch, been there. Perhaps not with Windows, but with other operating systems. Now understanding that a fix may already be out there, you might want to consider trying some of the following:

  • Connect without security in place to determine if the issues is with WPA or the wifi device/driver.
  • Check Windows Vista updates, there may be a patch or driver upgrade for this.
  • From the device manager, determine which wireless device you are using and Google for any driver updates this way. Better yet, with the Vaio model you have, goto the Sony Support site to see if there is any help there.
  • Try setting things up with a static IP. It’s a trick I used to have to use with Linux, so being as you are at the same disadvantage here, it might be worth trying.

Do you have an IT-related question? Perhaps you are just burnt out on writing on the walls with crayons? Whatever the comments may be, drop me a line, and you too can “Just Ask Matt!” Please address comments to the comments section above, my email address is for questions – thanks!

  • Jeff Schnell

    I just had this problem this weekend at my father inlaw’s house. he has a rangemaz router which works fine with his laptop and netgear wireless card running xp. We just bought my mother inlaw a new vista computer(acer), my wifes gateway, and my sony does not connect to it. I played with some XR settings and still nother. I put a access point into the router and all computers can connect now.

  • http://www.justcallmatt.net/ Matt Wilkinson

    Matt, Nick, et al.

    I have a post going up about a strikingly similar experience I had with a Dell Latitude D430 equipped with an Intel 4965 802.11a/g/n Dual Band Wireless NIC and a Netgear router. The Dell “saw” the wireless LAN created by the Netgear WRG614v5 router, but couldn’t connect to it no matter what I did. I even temporarily turned off the router’s wireless security, and it still couldn’t connect. My iPod touch also wouldn’t connect. But, an older Dell Latitude D410 would connect, it had a Dell WLAN adapter.

    Although it didn’t help in my case, make sure the router in question is running the latest firmware for that specific model.

    All this goes to show you, while IEEE standards make most things work well together, there’s still a lot of interoperability issues. This despite most IEEE 802.11a/b/g, etc standards being out there for years and years.

  • DaveN

    In addition to the other excellent suggestions, I would make sure you’re letting Windows manage the wireless rather than the Sony app. Try changing the wireless channel on the router. Make sure the router’s firmware is up to date, and reboot (power cycle) it. Power off any devices that could be interfering, such as cordless phones, microwaves, or other electronics. See if a different laptop can connect to your router, and see if your laptop can connect to someone else’s known working router.

    If the laptop is running XP and you’re trying to use WPA2, get the patch from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917021.

  • bjmc

    Get a Mac – they all come with the faster 802.11n.

    Also get a new inexpensive Airport Express or Airport Extreme if you also want an Ethernet network.

    Plug your ADSL or Cable modem into AIrport. Your Mac will work out the rest. If you must run Windows alongside OS X, I think just about everyone knows how to do this now. Windows XP or Vista will also have its Wi-Fi courtesy of OS X.

  • http://www.shiftyroast.com Roast

    Excellent advice, “Get a Mac”. Way to address his real world problem of internet connection by suggesting a $2,000 fix.

    I’ve also had a problem with my Sony Vaio. And while I certainly am not enthusiastic about buying any more Vaios, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to throw away a new computer because I have to search on the internet for a new driver.

  • Aaron

    Two things:
    First, the Vaio comes with a bad WLAN driver that has to be updated before it will register a strong enough signal top connect.

    Second, the signal will drop out occasionally even though the WLAN switch is on. I fixed it, too: In Control panel, uninstall the Sony Vaio Wireless thingy. Problem solved. Windows Wireless will config everything for you.

    My wife’s laptop was having this problem. It stopped for a while and started again. We reinstalled the driver, contacted support, everything. The problem was so intermittent that we would just restart the computer after it happened. The problem came back a week ago with a vengeance. I began working on it, saw some issues in the error log and began uninstalling the Vaio bloatware. When I accidentally opened the Vaio wireless thing, the network dropped out but the light stayed on. I uninstalled it 2 days ago and the computer is much faster than it was. Also, I just woke it from hibernation and everything is perfectly fine.

    For the record, I don’t recommend this computer to anyone. Since we’ve had it, we’ve had to 2 system restores, send it back for repair, and the track-pad quit after 2 weeks (Sony said it was our fault).

    I also own a couple Macs, they are not without issue. There is far more support out there for PCs with problems than there are for Macs. Unless you want to stand in ‘line’ at your nearest Apple store.