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Hi Ben,

Which adapters are you currently using?  

(probably the Ekahau 300, the Proxim WD8484 USA or WW version  and/or Ubiquity SR71-USB? 

They are all the same with the chipsets,  SR71 has the external antennas)

Check adapters:

WikiDevi  and the FCCID  websites are always good to find the details and photos about the internals of the adapters:

https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Ubiquiti_Networks_SR71-USB

https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Proxim_8494-WD

(I think the info below you know it already as you are an expert in this field,  but it is a summary for the community and typically we need

to go through this in classes as everyone is using different dongles, different drivers, etc. and we need to enable them to do protocol analysis)

...Drivers are typically the issue. 

It is also important (in Windows) to push the driver  (not many people know this), but when you do a driver update,

select always the bottom option  (thus  1x  "Browse My Computer for Driver Software"  and 1x  "Let Me Pick from a list of Device Drivers on my Computer"

(now it either list drivers on your computer you can select from, otherwise click  "Next" and "Have Disk" to locate the driver.

This is important otherwise the driver is not pushed to the system   (windows will use another driver automatically or mentions it is already using a good

driver).

Also I noted that sometimes drivers hang-up. 

Then go to the adapters and "disable" and "enable" it,  so that the drivers are loaded from scratch into the system.

Last but not least - Wireless Security and drivers.  Maybe you have heard about a program called  "WiFi Denum"  (Joshua Wright)

to list vulnerabilities in drivers.   I am not sure in the latest Windows Systems  (like Windows 8, 10, etc.)  how secure wireless drivers are.

(as drivers use to communicate directly with the kernel of the OS).  

Of-course there are driver signing signatures, but these can be ignored or bypassed in Windows.

1. Run  
2. (Command Prompt in "Administrator mode"  (make sure it is Admin, in Windows 8, I use swipe from right to left, type cmd  (select Run as Administrator)bcdedit.exe -set TESTSIGNING ON
3. Reboot the computer

** probably you will see on the right bottom corner that Windows is in "Test mode",

(then reverse the bcdedit command to get it back to normal).