HP Envy - Wifi Randomly Drops

[ZHEnvy]

I have an HP Envy 15 running Windows 10. For awhile now (at least the past 6-8 months), the wifi has been randomly cutting out with no discernable pattern. It has happened on multiple networks and no other devices are affected, so it seems to be the computer itself.

What is especially weird is that, when this occurs, it will appear to still be connected to my usual Wifi network but no others will be available. Eventually it says it is still connected to the network but the internet is not available. And if I disconnect from the network I was connected to, it says that no networks are available.

I'm wondering if it's a problem with the Network Adapter. When the problem arose the last time, I went into my Device Manager and the network adapter didn't appear there.

Thanks for the help.

[DavidSMP]

Hi @ZHEnvy,

Thanks for stopping by the HP Support Forums!  🙂 Good day.  I read the post about the computer dropping Wi-Fi connectivity randomly. I will be delighted to assist you here. 🙂

Stupendous diagnosis and spectacular analysis of the issue before posting.  Kudos to you on that score. It is always a privilege to work with technical specialists like you. 🙂

We greatly value your relationship with HP. You are a valued HP customer and we appreciate you greatly for doing business with HP. I take it as a privilege to share this platform with you.:)

For better clarity, I would require more information regarding this.

• Have you performed a complete reinstallation of windows and checked if the issue persists?
• Have you tried a hard-wired Ethernet connection to check if that does not drop internet connection?

For starters please perform these steps. Use service.msc command to restart the wireless service.

) Start Menu > Control Panel > Administrative Tools for the Classic View (long list of items) or Start Menu > Control Panel > > Performance and Maintenace > Administrative Tools for Category View (colorful, big icons).

2) Double-click Services.

3) In this window, click the Name column header (where is says “Name”) to sort by the service name.

4) Scroll down to find WLAN AutoConfig service. Stop the service first. Then restart it and make sure that it runs automatically.

5) Make sure that dependency services are also stopped and restarted.

Then uninstall the network adapter drivers from device manager using these steps:

• Right-Click on start button> click device manager> expand Network adapters>then select the wifi adapter listed and click on uninstall.
• Then restart the computer and update the bios, chipset and Wi-Fi adapter drivers from this link: http://hp.com/drivers and follow the on-screen instructions.
• Please check if it continues to drop the network connection. If it does not, it is fixed.
• If the issue continues, please follow the steps from this link: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Wireless-and-Networking/Common-fixes-for-wireless-connectivity...

If the issue continues, please perform a system recovery to factory settings after backing up all your files.

Link for system recovery: http://support.hp.com/in-en/document/c04758961 and follow the option “Recovery when Windows 10 does not start correctly”

Then check again. Ideally, it should do the trick for you. If it does not, there may be a hardware issue with the wireless card and you may need to replace it.

If the issue persists, a good workaround is to procure a Wi-Fi USB dongle and plug it to one of the USB ports. Then connect to the router with it. It is extremely cost effective and economical. You could get it for a song from a local Best Buy or Staples location.

Hope this helps.  Let me know how this goes. I genuinely hope the issue gets resolved without hassles and the unit works great. 🙂  Please reach out for any issues and I'll be there to assist you. 🙂

To simply say thanks, please click the "Thumbs Up" button to give me a Kudos to appreciate my efforts to help.

If this helps, please mark this as “Accepted Solution” as it will help several others with the same issue to get it resolved without hassles. 🙂

T

ake care now and have a splendid week ahead. 🙂

[ZHEnvy]

So neither of these things helped and it has gotten significantly worse since trying. I have tried to post this twice already and each time the wifi has gone out in the short amount of time it takes to type this message. I've spent the last two hours restarting my computer because the wifi won't connect. The longest I've had internet access (the nigh-sole responsibility of computers in the modern age) has been under ten minutes. This is absolutely ridiculous.

I need something to fix this. This isn't an old computer; I got it last year. Literally the most basic and important of all functions of a laptop in 2017 is to grant access to the internet and if it can't do that, it's worthless. This needs to be fixed and not through some additional thing for me to buy, even if it’s “cost effective”. It’s a computer. It should be able to stay online.

As you can probably tell, I am irate at this **bleep** machine. It literally can't do its most important task. Figure it out, HP.

[DavidSMP]

Hi @ZHEnvy,

I reviewed the post comprehensively. I thank you for the reply. Great troubleshooting also. However, to isolate the issue to not being hardware related, Please backup your files and restore the computer to factory settings from this link: http://support.hp.com/in-en/document/c04758961 and follow the option "Recovery when Windows 10 does not start correctly"

If this does not do the trick for you, I request you to contact HP phone support in this regard for further assistance.

Step 1. Open link: www.hp.com/contacthp/

Step 2. Enter Product number or select to auto detect

Step 3. Scroll down to "Still need help? Complete the form to select your contact options"

Step 4. Scroll down and click: HP contact options - click on Get phone number, Case number and phone number appear.

They will be happy to assist you immediately.

Please keep me posted.

To simply say thanks, please click the "Thumbs Up" button to give me a Kudos to appreciate my efforts to help.

If this helps, please mark this as “Accepted Solution” as it will help several others with the same issue to get it resolved without hassles. 🙂

T

ake care now and have a splendid week ahead. 🙂

[ZHEnvy]

OK, now we're down the rabbit hole of problems. I restored to factory settings like you told me to, only now, I'm stuck back on Windows 8.1 when I had upgraded to Windows 10. I was going to call the help line like you suggested but there is no way I'm paying HP $60 for this.

How is this all this complicated? I went from having a working computer, to having a computer that occassionally dropped wifi, and then after posting on here and following your advice, I had a computer that dropped wifi CONSTANTLY, and now I have a computer that (so far) has survived without dropping wifi for a whopping 47 minutes but is also a generation old in terms of system. There needs to be a way that I have a working computer that has full access to wifi on Windows 10, like I had before all of this started, without paying an exorbinant price for simple support.

[ZHEnvy]

Aaaaand I spoke too soon. The wifi connectivity problem is still there, now on a significantly worse operating system. Yippee.

[ZHEnvy]

I'm sorry, that was inappropriate. I know it's not either of your faults; you've both simply been trying to help. But this problem has been going on for awhile and right now I am worse off than when I began.

I will say, I spoke prematurely on speaking prematurely. While I am still having some random disconnections from wifi after restoring to factory settings, it is less frequent and restarting the computer has had more success in reconnecting than previously. Before, like I said, it would disconnect after about ten minutes of connectivity and then take about 30-45 minutes of restarting to get it reconnected. Now I've only had two disconnects since restoring at about 6:30 and both times, restarting the computer reconnected it to wifi. While not perfect, it is better.

However, I would like Windows 10 back as my operating system. Going back to Windows 8.1, even for this short amount of time, has reminded me just how frustrating and backwards it was.

Thanks for your help and once again, I apologize for my outburst.

[Jeet_singh]

Hi @ZHEnvy,

Thank you for posting on the HP Support Forums,

I have brought your issue to the attention of an appropriate team within HP. 

They will contact you shortly and likely request information from you in order to look up your case details or product serial number. 

Please look for a private message from an identified HP contact. 

Additionally, keep in mind not to publicly post personal information (such as serial numbers and case details).

If you wish to show appreciation for my efforts to help you out, mark my post as Accepted Solution.

And click on the Purple Thumbs up icon at the bottom of my comment.

Regards,

[Gaurav0071]

Hi, were you able to get the issue resolved? I am also facing exactly the same issue and it is really annoying. My laptop is just 4 months old.

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[AndriyZ]

It seems to be the problem with the driver. I tried to play with driver settings, but was unable to resolve this issue in full.