We have a Dell Lattitude E5540 running Windows 8.1 Professional connected to an Active Directory domain. The laptop has the latest drivers and BIOS, including the driver for its Dell Wireless 1506 802.11b/g/n (2.4Ghz) adapter.
At the login screen, we can connect to our wireless network, which uses WPA2 with AES encryption, to allow loading roaming profiles. However, we have to type in the key for the network every time because clicking "Connect Automatically" doesn't
work before login. Upon logging in to the machine, the wifi connection is broken, and we have to manually reconnect even though the profile for the connection exists and it is not necessary to re-type the key for the connection. Again, "Connect Automatically"
does not work. In addition, the wireless connection cannot be shared; it's indicator for "Network Availability" is always "Me only". Also, the network status on the "View Network Settings" pop-out is always "Limited"
even though its status in the Network Connections window is "Internet Access" and "Domain Network", and the icon in the notification area is the one used for wired networks instead of the stair-step icon for wireless networks.
Things I have tried:
- Assuring that the WLAN AutoConfig service is running.
- Deleting the profile for the wireless network for all users of the machine and reconnecting.
- Updating the driver. (In fact, I updated several drivers and the BIOS.)
- Deleting the adapter from Device Manager and reinstalling it.
- Disabling all network devices in Device Manager except the wifi adapter.
- Deleting all profiles under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WcmSvc and HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\NetworkList\Profiles.
- Running SFC /SCANNOW and DISM.
- Disabling the wifi adapter's power management.
- Enabling the wifi adapter's power management.
- Resetting the TCP/IP stack.
I have not, as yet, tried dropping the notebook out of a 4th floor window, but I'm getting there.
Other Dell laptops, including one of the same model, do not have this problem. Once I set up a connection to the wifi network using an administrator account, the connection on those other machines is established before login.
I must solve this problem, since we don't give the wireless key to users, but they can't load their roaming profiles if they're not connected before logging in. If anyone has any ideas about how to fix this, I'll be grateful.