Help, my laptop suddenly quit connecting to the internet.

Yes, Corrosion from Weather and Water Damage

Bob K.. I had the same thing happen to me on my hp pavilion laptop and somewhere I read about right clicking on the wi-fi icon that is located towards the bottom right of your screen. Right click and then click "Troubleshoot Problems" and give it a minute or so and it will do whatever it does and you will be back in business. (Maybe!? All I know for certain is that it worked for me. Also, which build are you on? Some of them are pretty shaky.

A similar problem occurred on my PC. I had sucess by un- installing and then re-installing my wi-fi adapter. (Linsky's)

My laptop did this too suddenly. I did the easy fix which I will list in steps below. Even after I did this it did it again several times before it finally stopped. No answer as to why but here is how I fixed it.
1. Go to Control panel (click on start most likely-it's how I get to it on mine)
2.Go to Internet Options
3.Click on the connections tab at the top
4.Click on LAN settings towards the bottom
5.Check thhe box for Automatically detect settings.....yada yada (if it's not checked)
6. UNCHECK the box for Use proxy server...yada yada
7. Click "apply" at the bottom if the option is there - or "save" or "OK"
Continue to click any "apply" "save" or "ok" options as they coe up till you are back to the original Internet options screen box.

It should now work.
Like I said, this happened to me randomly several times. I just kept repeating the fix and finally it stopped doing it ad hasn't for months now. I have Windows 8.1 on a Toshiba Satellite.
Good luck
Connie

I had the same issue when upgrading to Windows 10. My anti-virus software disabled the internet on my computer. I disabled the software and used Windows Defender. I was able to use the internet after that.

If you do not feel comfortable using Windows Defender just disable your anti-virus software momentarily to see if that is the issue.

I have experienced similar problems twice with my Lenovo laptop sunning W10 ( updated from W,. The symptoms were similar but the root causes were different.

The first time I suddenly lost contact with my WiFi router alltogether. The SSID was on the list, but Icould not connect. Windows automated fix tool did nothing. Nor did driver update. After days of trying various tricks and updates,
I started to try different parameters of the WiFi adapter properties/settings. Disabling the power saving option in device properties solved the problem. Apparently a Windows update had changed the default setting.

The second time, resolving was simplier. The WiFi connection occasionally worked, but mostly not. Removing the adapter and deleting the driver files, fixed the problem. I guess that Windows update "broke" the WiFi driver setup (maybe by installing an incompatible dll file). Anyway, uninstalling the Wifi adapter in device manager and checking the "delete driver files" option, did the job. The next boot re-installed the driver files in working condition.

Last week, the Dell 3330 laptop that I had upgraded from windows 7 to Windows 10 back in March pulled the same trick on me. Wifi just quit working altogether-- wifi and ethernet both quit (the 3330 has an ethernet port). I can't say for sure, but I believe that problem was caused when Windows 10 updates were applied a few days before. You don't mention any symptoms, but the 3330 started telling me it was connected to the wifi, but that there was no internet access. Anyway, the solution for the 3330 (after much jumping through hoops all to no avail!) was for me to go to another computer, download the Windows 10 driver for my adapter. Then I had to COMPLETELY UNINSTALL the adapter and all software for it, and then reinstall it. Suddenly, the wifi (and ethernet) worked again, better than before. I hope the same solution works for you.

I wanted to suggest to our friend (as someone else also did) that he check if the switch on the laptop has cut off WiFi connectivity. It may be as simple as that.


I have had my laptop, a Dell, for 8 years. A few weeks ago all of a sudden it would no longer connect by wifi. I think it still did by physical cable.

Windows 7 troubleshooting told me of a switch on the laptop I did not even know existed. At first I thought it could not possibly be.

I checked to see if I even had such a switch.

I found it, moved it where it was supposed to be and, voila', it worked again like a charm. No more problems.

(By the way, it's relatively easy to move that switch by mistake.)

Hope this helps.

Go to: AMPEDWIRELESS.COM

Click on: WI-FI ANALYTICS

Scroll down to: GET WI-FI ANALYTICS TOOL FOR YOUR PC

Click on: FOR WINDOWS

Then download and install the Wi-Fi tool that you can use to see your router assuming it is working. This tool also shows your signal strength. In addition, it can be used to resolve channel interference from other Wi-Fi users in your area. You did not specify what kind of router you are using or what kind of messages you are getting. If it is a dual-band router perhaps it is still set to 2.4 Ghz. Your W10 might be using 5 Ghz by default. BTW, I tried W10 and personally I am not too crazy about it. However, I had no problems with Wi-Fi. Maybe you have lost your router password and it needs to be reestablished. When I decided I did not like W10 I reloaded my laptop OS from a W8.1 DVD I purchased for $85. My laptop did not have a built-in DVD drive same as yours. I bought a stand-alone DVD from Amazon for about $30. If you can find somebody that knows what they are doing this should not be too hard to resolve.

Good luck. I hope this helps.

I had a problem when my Amazon fire stopped connecting to the net. After contacting everyone and his dog I was sent a new fire. Still no good! In the end all it took was to re-set the BT box with a pin. Once this was done all was OK.

Have you tried "Restore" and go back to the previous update.
Sometimes an update does not work well for some reason. Try that and reboot your computer.