Sony Vaio Duo13 (SVD1321M2EW) poor wifi

[deejohnny]

Hi i'm Currently having issues with the wifi in my vaio duo 13 (SVD1321M2EW) the wifi recepion is so poor i can hardly get 3 bars and lucky to get 20Mbsdownload speed, my surface rt in the same room picks up full bars and nearly 150Mbs!!!!! also the connection randomly drops to nothing leaving me with no connection!.I know this is a new machine but this is very poor for a machine that costs nearly £1.5k and getting out gunned by a rt device, even the built in vodaphone modem can pick up full bars from a mast god knows were but the vaio cant even connect to a router in the room below.anyone else having problems?

[SHumayun]

Tried that, but I'm afraid it didn't help me. Some users on the US forum have reported improvements after getting rid of mcafee though.

[ewoksco]

Yep got rid of Mcafee and back to full speed. Bit annoyed at sony for not knowing this would cause so much hassle

[Gomjaba2013]

This is a known issue with the Vaio in general - see here :
http://community.sony.com/t5/VAIO-Hardware-Networking/VAIO-Fit-slow-wifi/td-p/143697

Annoyingly a mod said that a temporary fix is only available to the US - their temporary fix ? Issuing a USB dongle ... Pathetic ...

[samitchell78]

I have the VAIO Duo 13 SVD1321Z9E and also have been experienceing severe problems with impaired WIFI range.

There are multiple threads on the US site not only with this model but with the Pro and fit models as well.

My model uses a Broadcom card so if Intel cards are problematic as well there must be a common issue ? antenna.

How come this wasn't apparent during beta testing and why is Sony taking so lony to issue a fix?

Talk of issuing USB adaptors as a solution whether temporary or not is ridiculous. 

Sony must know the cause of the issue by now so why not tell their customers what is going on?

[deejohnny]

Seems Sony cant fix the WIFI issues with a driver update as ive just recieved a email from sony requesting i send my vaio duo in for repair.

[jitshah58]

I just received my vaio pro 13 and experienced the same issue. Called sony and they are useless, and dont even want to aknowledge the issue. I complained to WATCHDOG !!! I suggest you guys do the same.

[stredula]

Hi guys!

I've called to Sony Support in my country (Czech rep.) on friday 27th Sept. and they sent me a messenger with a box and now my Duo is on the way to Alsace France. I hope they fix it, 'cos it's really great device.

Anyway, just call to your Sony Support and tell them about your problems with Duo 13/Pro. They have a report in their system that these models have WiFi issues and they will send your VAIO to repair or they do some magic with that. 😉

[rooster12]

Yep, I have been suffering for 2 months with this on my Duo 11. It used to be perfect then the ethernet driver failed first running from 39mps down to between .5 - 1.5

I then started using the wireless only, which worked fine, then went the same way.

I have done everything to rectify it, but was advised back in August by Sony that there had been an issue with a Windows 8 update around the time and the driver was not able to cope, so they were writing a fix. I was told this would be done by the end of August, but that wasn't the case. I phoned support again two weeks ago after getting frustrated with waiting and was told they are working on it and would be released at the end of the month. Well it's the end of the month and I have just checked for updates in Vaio care and nada!! If this prolongs I will also concider returning it and posting my displeasure where I can. I am a massive Sony fan (computer, phone, amp, gaming, camera etc) usually, but this has gone beyond the joke. Currently Vaio products are not fit for purpose. I was going to pre-order a PS4 and get a Smart Watch 2, but my current disatisfaction has caused me to reconcider both. Maybe I will chop it in for an Acer and used the saved money for an xbox one....

[jitshah58]

The issue has been summarised in the USA blog regarding the WIFI ISSUES with Vaio Pro/Duo 13 niceley by @scatter as follows;

issue has been discussed in great detail over the 90 pages of this forum. Let's recap:

1) The issue shows up in the area of the weak signal (below -65 dBm) or as typically described "far away from the router" and manifests itself initially as slow downloads and if the signal gets weaker - connection dropouts.

2) Such behaviour is more prevalent in the 2.4 Ghz wireless band.

3) The problem was initially exacerbated by poor drivers supplied at launch for the Intel WiFi N7260 adapter, responsible for the wireless connectivity of the Pro.  As Intel gradually improved the drivers, the wireless connectivity improved and now the Pro may function normally, but only in the strong WiFI signal zones (above -65 dbm).

4) People who have strong wireless signals in all locations, where they operate the Pro, happily report "no wifi issue" and confuse the rest.

5) From my personal experience, even small modificaton of the wireless AP location or position changes connectiivity /  download rates dramatically. 

6) Community members (darck) opened the laptop up and showed that pulling antennas out of the case returns the wireless behaviour to normal (or close to normal) independently of the AP location.

7) Same wireless adaptor (Intel N7260) with updated drivers functions normally in Lenovo, Acer and Dell laptops

All the above quite clearly points to the following:

This is a hardware issue related to signal strength received by the wireless card and therefore can not be fixed in software. It is not an inherent problem of the Intel N7260 adapter, but a problem with the way it is integrated in the laptop.

One strong hypothesis is: as wifi antennas are located in the body of the laptop, rather than the screen bezel (as usual), the signal is reduced by carbon fibre body and therefore becomes insufficient for the card to function properly.

Hence a significant hardware revision will be needed to "fix" the performance of the internal wireless in the Pro.

Why Sony is taking so long to come to this is beyond me, as the issue is easy to reproduce and should affect all units.  

Im returning my product tomorrow as no software revsion will give a solid solution.

[rooster12]

It looks like the latest Vaio care update has fixed the internet driver issue!! 

The update was called VAIO Control Center Updater.

I'm back upto speed on wireless and ethernet.

Fingers crossed this fix lasts.

Should not have taken 2 months +