[Q] A500 3.2 loses WiFi connection

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I've always experienced more or less problems with WiFi connectivity on my A500, on vanilla 3.0, 3.1, 3.2 and now, 3.2 Lightspeed 1.0.4 mod.

The tablet loses WiFi connection (with "(No service)"), then either reconnects in a second or stays with "connecting" message for several seconds and re-tries again and again, losing connectivity for 5-15 minutes. The problem is unrelated to DHCP (i.e. tablet never gets to "obtaining IP address" phase). The problem is quite frequent and persistent - short-time disconnections happen up to several times per minute.

I'm using self-built WiFi router, based on Atheros 2413 PCI card and GNU/Linux system (hostapd), WPA+WPA2-PSK. All devices (phones, notebooks) I've encountered worked fine for years, so the problem seem to be with tablet, not access point.

logcat gives me story like this:

I/wpa_supplicant(20318): CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED - Disconnect event - remove keys
V/WifiMonitor(19967): Event [CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED - Disconnect event - remove keys]
D/WifiStateMachine(19967): Network connection lost
D/WifiStateMachine(19967): Reset connections and stopping DHCP
I/wpa_supplicant(20318): CTRL-EVENT-STATE-CHANGE id=0 state=0 BSSID=00:00:00:00:00:00
V/WifiMonitor(19967): Event [CTRL-EVENT-STATE-CHANGE id=0 state=0 BSSID=00:00:00:00:00:00]
D/WifiStateMachine(19967): setDetailed state, old =CONNECTED and new state=DISCONNECTED
D/WifiStateMachine(19967): setDetailed state, old =DISCONNECTED and new state=DISCONNECTED
I/wpa_supplicant(20318): CTRL-EVENT-STATE-CHANGE id=0 state=2 BSSID=00:00:00:00:00:00
V/WifiMonitor(19967): Event [CTRL-EVENT-STATE-CHANGE id=0 state=2 BSSID=00:00:00:00:00:00]
D/WifiStateMachine(19967): setDetailed state, old =DISCONNECTED and new state=SCANNING
I/wpa_supplicant(20318): Trying to associate with 00:13:46:xx:xx:xx (SSID='drdaeman's home network' freq=2412 MHz)
V/WifiMonitor(19967): Event [Trying to associate with 00:13:46:xx:xx:xx (SSID='drdaeman's home network' freq=2412 MHz)]
I/wpa_supplicant(20318): CTRL-EVENT-STATE-CHANGE id=0 state=3 BSSID=00:13:46:xx:xx:xx
V/WifiMonitor(19967): Event [CTRL-EVENT-STATE-CHANGE id=0 state=3 BSSID=00:13:46:xx:xx:xx]
D/WifiStateMachine(19967): setDetailed state, old =SCANNING and new state=CONNECTING
I/wpa_supplicant(20318): Authentication with 00:13:46:xx:xx:xx timed out.
I/wpa_supplicant(20318): CTRL-EVENT-STATE-CHANGE id=0 state=0 BSSID=00:13:46:xx:xx:xx
I/wpa_supplicant(20318): CTRL-EVENT-STATE-CHANGE id=-1 state=2 BSSID=00:00:00:00:00:00
V/WifiMonitor(19967): Event [Authentication with 00:13:46:xx:xx:xx timed out.]
V/WifiMonitor(19967): Event [CTRL-EVENT-STATE-CHANGE id=0 state=0 BSSID=00:13:46:xx:xx:xx]
V/WifiMonitor(19967): Event [CTRL-EVENT-STATE-CHANGE id=-1 state=2 BSSID=00:00:00:00:00:00]
D/WifiStateMachine(19967): setDetailed state, old =CONNECTING and new state=DISCONNECTED
D/WifiStateMachine(19967): setDetailed state, old =DISCONNECTED and new state=SCANNING

Then it repeats for some time. At the same time, hostapd_cli all_sta on the router says that tablet is considered associated (i.e. it never sent disassociation packet, and not yet timed out).

It seems that the problem is related to background AP scanning. If I run ping using ConnectBot or adb shell, I get lots of the following messages:

E/wpa_supplicant(20318): ioctl[SIOCSIWPRIV] (cscan): -1
W/wpa_supplicant(20318): Failed to initiate AP scan.

And connectivity seem to stay better. It may accidentaly go down, but that's relatively rare. So, my guess is, the problem is caused by bcm4329 not properly restoring its state after scan.

(Unfortunately, I'm not experienced enough to recompile bcm4329 module with WL_TRACE enabled to see what's going on inside the kernel. If there are some sort of tutorial on how to set up build environment - I'd be grateful if someone would give a link.)

Does anyone experience similar problem or has any idea or suggestion on how to solve it?

on the androidtablet forum several people have wifi dropout, including myself, after the 3.2 update.
Someone said if you do a static connection it solves it.
Problem is you can only connect through that router.

I had been doing a poke around with my DHCP server settings and the two tablets that use my wifi connection..

I found that if the DHCP lease time was any more than 24 hours, the tablet would re-lease about every 3 minutes which would cause a drop out of internet connection.

I found even INFINITE lease didnt work, so check the lease time on the dhcp server on your network..

My issue is certainly not related to DHCP, although, there are similarly-looking issues with DHCP (but connection hangs on "obtaining IP address", not "connecting" phase).

Reasons:
- No DHCP activity happen on tablet or router (I've checked this with tcpdump)
- Logs indicate that wpa_supplicant does not enter "connected" state, but hangs with

I/wpa_supplicant(20318): Authentication with 00:13:46:xx:xx:xx timed out.

Obviously, static IP address assignment did not help.

However, I've temporarily disabled WPA/WPA2 (leaving network completely unsecured) and WiFi stayed connected for about an hour without glitches. As I've said, disconnections usually happen every minute. What really puzzles me though, is that after reverting the configuration disconnections did not start again. I don't get it.

Update: Nope, it still disconnects, although way less frequently (like once in 5-10 minutes). Still wonder why.

I never had to install the wifi patch for the last release. After the update, I had wifi dropout and installed the patch, then edited the lease time on the router. No problems since. Hth.

I, too, have Iconia A500 problems w/ Wifi. I have a Cisco router, works fine, all other wireless devices work (PS3, Samsung Vibrant, Ipads) but the A500 dumps Wifi every 3-4 mins... down for 15-30 seconds, then springs back up to life. I updated to 3.2 in HOPES to fix this but sadly, no luck yet... It's quite upsetting because I love the tablet but really regret purchasing... Acer's tech support is TERRIBLE at best, and have been no help. Factory resets, wifi analyzers, nothing helps... I could root/rom this thing but what if that does not work?

Can I open this f'er up and fix something hardware related? Why doesnt the Asus Tab drop out where my Acer does??

All this is really strange. I had the wifi drop out on the 2 roms I tried, tabbonay and HV. So went back to stock 3.1 rooted and no wifi drop out, went to 3.2 stock rooted and no problems either. The other day, I wanted to try the latest tabboonay again, love the rom but the problem started again. Back to 3.2 stock.

I know other said they have the problem with stock 3.1 and 3.2 so I wonder what the common element is.

I have responded to a similar "wifi"disconnected thread with my solution.I basically flashed the villain kernel 3.7 on top of taboonay 2.2 and my problem went away. Ymmv, I guess....

Sent from my A500 using xda premium

I just bought an A500 Iconia, it worked very well until asked to update. He upgraded from 3.0 to 3.1 and then the problems started. He is not even connected for 1 minute.

It is brand new, unrooted, stockrom.
please help. Does anyone knows how to fix this problem?

Originally Posted by dnail

I just bought an A500 Iconia, it worked very well until asked to update. He upgraded from 3.0 to 3.1 and then the problems started. He is not even connected for 1 minute.

It is brand new, unrooted, stockrom.
please help. Does anyone knows how to fix this problem?

I don't think there is a definite answer. From what I can tell, there are probably several problems with the same type of symptoms.

But here are a few pointers that I have been able to gather:

-3.1 seems to be the worst. 3.01 or 3.2 work better. So either downgrade or upgrade. Please be aware that a 3.2 upgrade make rooting harder if you choose to do so.

-Setting the router and/or the tablet to static IP seems to work better than
DHCP.

-Rooting and upgrading to 3.2 ROMS (Taboonay 2.2) with the Wifi fix AND the VillainKernel 3.7 fixed everything for me, but I still don't have confirmation from somebody else that this is a general solution.

-Switching to no security instead of WPA2 seems to help with the symptoms.