Intel Centrino Advanced N6200 AGN wifi locks up Envy 17 whenever I try to download large files.

[Voyager-2]

After the 13.1.1 started producing freezes on my laptop I decided to go ahead and reinstall a clean Windows 7. But after all efforts the freezes keep occuring. Strangely, there seems to be a pattern to it: When I shut down the laptop and start it again, it freezes right after booting into Windows, forcing me to hard power off. When I start it again, suddenly everything works fine.

I'm starting to think it might be a hardware problem..

[mmccadden]

>so installed a modded bios which worked ok for a few days >Reverted back to supported BIOS How to do these 2 steps please?

[Voyager-2]

Just for the record, I ended up replacing my wireless card with a used Intel N6250agn card from a local store. Cost me ~20€ and works like a charm!

[grafals]

UPDATE!

I previously posted that reverting back to the 13.1 driver fixed the problem.  Well, it didn't.

I went to download several movies from iTunes last weekend and the darn thing locked up again.

The interesting thing is that I can almost predict exactly where it is going to lock up.  With the 13.1 driver, I was able to get through about 600MB to 1.2 GB without a lock up.  WIth the later versions, somewhere around 100MB was the limit (plus or minus 10% or 20%). 

The consistency of the lockups in a certain range makes me think there is some sort of cache or register issue going on.  I'm totally convinced the issue is linked to the wifi card and driver.  I don't have problems with wired downloads at all.  And, I took someone else's advice and bought a nano USB adapter and it works like a charm.  In fact, I finished downloading all my movies with that.  I ended up buying two, however, because the nano is limited to 150MBps.  So, I also bought a 300 which is only slightly larger, for when I need to download a lot of information.

By the way, I just bought my sister a $349 Toshiba AMD laptop at Best Buy for a present.  She needed a laptop for school and this was the cheapest one I could find with all the features she needed.  Strangely , everything on that machine works perfectly, including the wifi.  I would have thought spending 5 times that much for this HP would have at least bought a computer that worked without having to buy usb cards to replace their garbage parts.

My conclusions are:

1. The Intel N6200 AGN is a piece of junk.

2. The Envy 17 is a hugely overpriced piece of junk

3. HP has horrible service since they seem content to let people continue to buy their junk at inflated prices and do nothing about it, but let users try to solve their own problems at great additional expense and trouble.

4. I will not ever buy another product with HP stamped on the side, computer, printer or otherwise.

5. From now on, I will always look for the "Intel Inside" logo to help me determine WHAT NOT TO BUY!

I only wish I could justify buying a MacBook and kicking the PC habit.  But for $2G's, I don't see any reason to buy something that has to translate everything I bring home from my work PC; and besides, I can buy a $350 AMD Toshiba and expect it to actually work.  Next time, I'm going cheap.

[GimpsUnlimited]

 But I don't think 6200 is entirely to blame.  I had the same chip in 2 other laptops without any issues.  

Try 13.5.0.6 driver.  When  installing, try this:

1.  delete current driver and shut down.

2.  install new driver.  

[mmccadden]

I agree the 6200 isn't to blame, it is HP ENVY 17 that is crashing so that is the problem. I have recently installed a 6300 wifi card off Ebay since the 6200 was locking up the ENVY *but* the 6300 is no different. Using 14.3.0.6 drivers - it locks up the laptop as well. The thing is this usually only happens when using torrents. (It did happen once on Skype video) but 99.9% of lock ups on torrent. I now have to switch to a USB wifi (generic Asus brand in my case) just when I do torrents. All other wifi stuff seems to be ok. Not impressed with a high end laptop!

[ChypherG]

The problem is not solved. The solution that it refers to, does not solve the problem.

I have already tried it and it is not working.

My Envy 17 3D, will be sent tomorrow again to HP.

The first time they replaced the entire motherboard, but not the Intel Centrino Advanced N6200 AGN module and it took them a month to bring it back.

The problem persists and i am 100% sure that it is the wifi module as i have tried downloading large file with an atheros usb wifi module, and it works like a charm.

But the most surprising thing of all is that although there is so much talk going around regarding this issue, HP officials are not providing any solution and declare not aware of such hardware problem.

If that time they return it back to me and the problem persists, i will ask for a refund and i will never ever ever buy anything with an HP logo.

[mmccadden]

Has anyone here clarified what programs were running when ENVY froze? In my case it was 99.9% of time using either uTorrent or BitTorrent with a 6200 Intel wifi card. A workaround was to use a USB wifi stick. No way am I bothering with HP support, as they ignore issue and besides I am living overseas. My solution to avoid using a USB wifi stick, replace 6200 card with 6300 card I found on Ebay, turn off N mode since router doesn't support it. (I must turn off N mode or I get occasional freeze). Do not use uTorrent or BitTorrent clients. I now exclusively use Vuze for all torrents. Solution: No more problems for over two weeks with the ENVY freeze ups - 100% good to date.

[ChypherG]

It does not only occur during use of torrent, it also happened during restoring the machine to its original factory settings and while downloading updates through HP Support assistance.

It also occurred during receiving 74 updates from Microsoft through windows update.

Yes the solution of using a USB wifi adapter and disabling internal wifi works, but that is not what i paid for!

I paid for a machine with an internal wifi adapter in working condition and not for a machine with a USB adapter sticking out on its side.

Yesterday HP picked up the machine. Lets see what happens this time!

[AXG2012]

Has anyone found a resolution? I have had the problem ever since I bought HP Envy 17 3D last year in October. I have tried everything suggested in this thread. I even restored the laptop to factory settings. The problem happened right away after factory restore.

After much testing, I have come to the conclusion that the freeze is caused by the KB/MB/GB of data transfer through the card. Once a certain limit has been reached, no matter what driver you are using, no matter whether you are using G or N, the laptop will freeze. If you are doing normal web surfing, e-mail etc., the freeze will not happen for days as the limit is reached after many days. Once you start downloading large file, the freeze will happen right away. I have not been able to figure out what the limit is.

Can someone please let me know of a way to contact HP support by phone? I cannot find any way to contact HP support. I am so disappointed in this top of line laptop that I will never ever buy HP again.

Thanks...

Arun Gupta