Wireless Signal Strength Issues

Hi Everybody,
I'm trying to help out a friend with a wireless issue. He has a Dlink DWL-650 PCMCIA wirless card in his laptop. The problem is his signal strength jumps around continously between one and four (out of five) bars and sometimes drops the connection altogether. This happens when the laptop is just sitting on a desk and also when it's moving. I had my laptop right next to his on the desk using the same wireless connection and mine stays steady at 4-5 bars (using the Windows wireless app). We just rebuilt his pc (format and new OS). And for the first two days he said his connection worked fine. I already got the newest drivers from Dlinks site but that didn't help. I'm still pretty new at wireless stuff so any help would be appreciated. He has an HP latop running XP pro SP2. If you need any more info let me know.
Thanks!

-SiM

I had this problem once. Called their tech support and we spent like 2hrs trying to figure it out and came to the conclusion that the card was bad. Got a new one and worked fine.

Sorry couldn't help beyond this.

Oh yea my card was dlink too.

Bumpety Bump Bump Bump

Are you using the Wireless utilities that came with the card or the windows XP one? The Windows XP utility is a piece of crap that causes fluctuations and drops because it's always scanning.

Try using the Utility that came with the card.

Ok, He is using the Windows XP utility. I'll try the Dlink one and see if that helps.

Make sure you have the most recent drivers on the card and your wireless route has the latest firmware update.

I had the same problem on my dad's computer. I was just using the windows wireless software, and always got disconnects. One min the strength was excellent. next it was low, disconnect, reconnect... pain in the ***, and dad was always bitchin about it. I read this thread and tried the software that came with the nic, and now he gets a low signal strengh, but the connection has been stable and staying connected.