Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG Disconnects on Apple Airport

I’ve had my laptop (a Dell XPS Inspiron Generation 2) for almost three years now. It’s still running strong, and overall I’ve been pretty happy with it. However, since day one I’ve had one majorly aggravating issue with it: the Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG card disconnects. Like, a lot. Frequently. Several dozen times a day. I called Dell support on several occasions, and they were never able to really help. They replaced the card once to no avail. Now that it’s out of warranty, I kind of gave up on making the stupid thing work.

Then I decided to Google one day… go figure.

So it turns out the Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG (and, I presume, other Intel wireless products) has a feature called PSP, or “Power-Save Polling”. Essentially the technique causes the wireless card to switch between an active and low power passive operating state, reducing power consumption and boosting battery life for your laptop. That’s all well and good, but the technology requires that the router you’re using supports this feature, as both sides of the process must cooperate in a unique manner to keep the connection alive during the lower power phases.

Surprise, surprise: Apple’s Airport line (Airport Extreme, Airport Express, etc.) doesn’t support PSP.

The worst part of this situation is that Intel’s wireless drivers come with this feature enabled by default. It seems to me that if I was in charge of a company that delivered millions of wireless products to customers, I’d err on the side of safety and ensure that my product was as compatible as possible. Maybe Intel just enjoys sinking their cash into handling tech support calls.

At any rate, here’s the simple fix to the insanely aggravating issue:

Go to Start.
Right click My Computer and choose Manage.
In the left-hand list, pick Device Manager.
Expand Network Adapters, right click your wireless device and choose Properties.
Go to the Advanced tab and choose Power Management from the list.
You should see a slider now. Ensure that “Auto” is unchecked, and move the slider all the way to Maximum Performance. This will disable PSP entirely.

Reboot, and you’re gold. No more random disconnect. No more swearing at your laptop… well, at least for wireless issues. Remember that disabling PSP will likely have an impact on your battery usage; you should always disable your wireless adapter when you’re mobile and not using wifi. More information on this issue can be found at Intel’s wireless support page.