Connection Dropout!
With the exact settings for the wireless card and router settings as in post 964, I had the first dropout today (5 days after I reset everything to defaults on the card and the router). I did capture screenshots while in the dropout state, while repairing and windows event logs that looked relevant.
symptom was the same as before. Yellow explanation point "!" over the signal strength tray icon when clicked, displays only one connection (even though more should be shown) with "limited" sub text.
Checking the status and wifi properties of the connection while it was still "Limited" with yellow !:
right clicking on signal strength to troubleshoot problems lead to "Reset the "Wi-Fi" adapter" :
which successfully resolved the problem (this time, past experience is that this does not always work)
After the wi-fi adapter was reset, it connected back to the router, and all other network connections were viewable:
Digging into the logs, there were a few events that looked relevant and occurred near the time I think the dropout occurred..
After connecting, I see this in the log:
I hope this is useful information for the team that is investigating this.
My next plan is to try these settings for a week.
Preferred Band: 1. Prefer 5.2 GHz band (have it try staying connected to only one band?)
Roaming Aggressiveness: 1. Lowest (it is a fixed location computer - no need for it to hunt for other networks)
All the rest the same.