A Very Problematic Wi-Fi Issue

[azahara]

Hello,

I am using an HP Notebook - 15-f211wm (Touch) (ENERGY STAR), with Windows 10. It's now exactly a year old, as it was my Christmas gift last year.

My Wi-Fi fails at random every time I use this computer. Sometimes it's 20 minutes in, sometimes it's 2 minutes. This happens at school and at home, so I have ruled out my home router itself being faulty, or the possibility of too many devices being connected and used at once.

I get about a 5-second "warning" before I know it's about to happen. If I am browsing a web page, it will freeze. Then, my Wi-Fi indicator in the tray will display a yellow "!". Clicking on this will cause the computer to attempt to load the wireless network menu, but will not ever go past the blank rectangle (menu) showing the loading indicator (three glowing dots). Windows gives the option to troubleshoot the connectivity issues; when this is used, it never makes it past the initial scan for errors. The Network and Sharing Center is useless, and when going through the Control Panel, the "Wi-Fi" option on the menu completely disappears.

The only way I have found to fix this problem is to restart the computer. Even this has its issues. When shutting down normally, I can see the Wi-Fi indicator light on my keyboard go from white to orange and then off once the computer is fully shut down. When this problem occurs, however, the light never turns to orange. Unless I hold down the power button for about 5 seconds to force the computer to power off, it will stay like that (black screen, white indicator light showing) until the battery dies.

Clearly, this is a VERY annoying problem to deal with, especially when doing schoolwork. On average, I have to restart 3-4 times every time I use my computer. Considering it's fairly new and hardly gets used for anything besides essays and casual Internet browsing, I shouldn't be dealing with this problem. I'm hoping there's an easy fix, and I'm hoping you guys can help me with it!

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

The parts list for your notebook indicates that it comes with a Realtek RTL8188EE 802.11bg/n 1x1 WiFi adapter.

The most current wifi driver for that model card on your notebook's support page is from Oct 20, 2015.

However, there have been a few driver updates for that model wifi adapter since then.

This is the latest driver HP has for the RTL8188EE wifi adapter.

2023.42.831.2016 Rev.A (1 Dec 2016)

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp78501-79000/sp78515.exe

You may want to install the above driver and see if that resolves the problem.

That would be the only suggestion I can offer.

[azahara]

I think it worked! Ever since I installed that driver, the problem hasn't happened since. Thank you so much 🙂

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.