Router may be failing - Connection goes out randomly and stays off until I restart

I'm almost 100% certain my router needs to be replaced, but I wanted to be sure by asking here and checking if there's anything else I can do first.

So, for the past week or so my internet connection has been getting progressively worse. It randomly disconnects at any point for any reason and takes with it my wi-fi signal despite all lights on both my modem and router working properly. Power cycling both of them wouldn't bring back the connection. The only thing that would fix it is power cycling and then restarting my computer. My initial thought was that my PCI-e card might be failing, but if that was the case I thought it was strange that my wi-fi signal would die out with it.

So I went with simple process of elimination. The next time the connection cut out, I power cycled only the modem - nothing. I then restarted and power cycled only the modem - still nothing. After the connection cut out again, I tried the same process with just the router and after restarting and power cycling the router, the connection came back. Again, all signs point to the router being at fault.

I have tried the following:
- Using Windows to troubleshoot problems with the connection
- Changing hardware settings to disable Windows from putting the PCI-e card into sleep mode
- Changing the router's MTU to 1492
- Updating my PCI-e card driver
- Upgrading the firmware of the router (there is no update for the modem)
- Scanned computer with MalwareBytes
- Disabling my firewall

My computer specs are listed below. Again, I'm wondering if there's anything further that I can try either as a diagnostic tool or as a solution. Any help in with this issue would be very appreciated, especially before I decide to go out and buy a new router which may not be necessary! Thank you.

My computer specs:
Processor: INTEL I5-3570K 3.4 GHZ
Hard Drive: WD 2 TB CAVIAR BLACK SATA III 6.0 GB/ 7200 RPM
RAM: 2x 4GB CORSAIR VENGEANCE 1600MHZ DDR3
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z77-D3H CROSSFIRE SATA 3 USB 3 LGA 1155
Sound Card: ASUS XONAR DG 5.1 CHANNELS PCI XONAR DG
Graphics: NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX750 TI 2GB OC
Power Supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX V2
Modem: Motorola SURFboard SB6121
Router: Medialink/Mediabridge MWN-WAPR150N
Windows 7 Ultimate SP1

 

Re: Router may be failing - Connection goes out randomly and stays off until I restar

I assume a direct connect to the Motorola Surfboard works perfectly.
Mediabridge MWN-WAPR150N power supply? Any chance you can change it out?

 

Re: Router may be failing - Connection goes out randomly and stays off until I restar

You keep saying PCI-e card. What card? The Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H is the exact same motherboard I have and I connect via one of its two integrated Ethernet ports. How are you connecting to your network with this computer? Have you tried Ethernet?

If you connect via a PCIe wireless "adapter" card you added and you think that is failing, then I am confused why you would say "if that was the case I thought it was strange that my wi-fi signal would die out with it."

Typically if the router or modem lose connection, you can see it in the status lights - or rather the status lights go out.

Do you have any other devices you can try? These can include a smart phone set to use wifi, a smart TV or Blu-ray player, game console, or tablet. Or better yet, another computer to see if they lose connection.

 

Re: Router may be failing - Connection goes out randomly and stays off until I restar

Well I was going to hold off on this issue because it wasn't happening and the connection was good for a few days. However, now it's back to forcing me to restart the PC about once an hour because of how frequently the connection keeps dropping.

Actually, the modem never seems to connect to the internet when connected directly to the PCI-e. It remains stuck on a blue connection light rather than the typical 'working' orange one. The modem only ever works when connected through the router and has been that way for the 3 years I've had both.

Here's a picture I took of the router's power supply: http://i.imgur.com/GQ6KHBH.jpg

Perhaps I misspoke then when I said PCI-e card -- I always assumed it was one. And yes, I am connecting via Ethernet. Again, that's why I said "I thought it was strange" because I can't be sure if it's the router, modem or ethernet port failing. The part that's confusing is that I'm unable to regain an internet connection until I restart the computer, but when powercycling the router before that I am able to regain the Wi-Fi signal. The status lights do not go out when the internet connection is interrupted.

As I said, I have tried with my phone to connect to Wi-Fi and have used my Nintendo Wii U as well. When the connection cuts out, I lose both the PC's internet connectivity as well as all Wi-Fi connectivity. Only after I powercycle the router do I get the Wi-Fi connection back. Only after I restart my PC do I get the PC internet connectivity back.

I hope this clarifies my original post better. Thank you for your help so far.

 

Re: Router may be failing - Connection goes out randomly and stays off until I restar

And of course I messed up in my previous post. I'm unable to edit it because it wasn't approved before the 30-minute window to edit a post expired.

Disregard what I said about my confusion concerning having a PCI-e card or not. As far as I know it actually it a PCI-e card. Belarc reports it's an Atheros AR8151 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller. My apologies for not adding that in the original post.

 

Re: Router may be failing - Connection goes out randomly and stays off until I restar

Still having this issue, unfortunately. My apologies for the late update on this. The reason for the delay is because it was working fine for a couple of days. The only thing is when it can hold a steady connection, I have to keep it connected 24/7. Disconnecting it will cause the connection to eventually drop again unless it holds a steady connection again. If the connection drops, sometimes I can manage to get it back by unplugging the router for just a few seconds and plugging it back in. Basically it's a crapshoot at this point whether or not the connection stays online. I also notice that my ping gets progressively worse and worse before it eventually disconnects completely.

I decided to also reset the router to factory default settings and after a period of time, the connection cut out yet again. I changed the default wifi channel, but the wifi itself isn't the main problem - it's keeping the connection steady that is.

After it lost connection again, I went ahead and connected the router into another computer. The other computer also did not find an internet connection.