HP Spectre 360 - repeated disconnection from WAN needing system restore every time

[Mow2017]

Hi. Since last Friday, I've had the following, frustrating, issue with my HP Spectre 360 (two years old; now out of warranty) and wondered if anyone else has experienced the same, or similar. Everything had been working fine on Friday morning - no indication of looming issues - when it suddenly stopped connecting to any websites, first saying the DNS server couldn't be reached but then saying 'no internet', though it was showing a full WiFi connection and the indicator icon for our VPN was still on green (i.e. connected). So LAN but no WAN. Flushing the DNS etc did nothing - the only thing that worked was carrying out a system restore to the day before, after which everything was okay for a couple of days, so I'd hoped that had resolved whatever the issue was. However, it then happened again, so another restore needed, and then two days later, yet again, after functioning totally okay in the interim. My work CTO (we're all home workers, so he can't actually look at it while it's down), but did remote in when I'd got it back up and running) has fed back the following: 

• The laptop seems to be in good shape, good mem usage, CPU usage etc, not too many programs installed that may hamper performance or cause issues.
• Windows updates are up to date.
• No recent updates installed recently that would appear to have affected anything.
• There are a few errors in the logs that indicate DNS issues - but 99% of the time these are red herrings, and would be fixed by a reboot or DNS flush (which you have tried, and the former will do the latter too).
• The DNS servers are Virgin's own (Virgin are my ISP), so if the other laptop is not experiencing issues (my old laptop is working fine) - it wont be that.
• Its likely to be hardware (wireless network device, or driver), or an errant piece of software. Both could be fixed by a restore to point in time (as this will revert recent drivers and may revert software installation), but its very difficult to work out which, when its working fine….
• If it were me, I would opt to backup all data, stick it in the cloud, then restore to factory defaults and do all the windows updates, then install only the absolutely necessary applications, then take a backup, so you can restore to this clean point in time.. Then… keep installing until it breaks…. 

Before I look at clearing everything off the laptop and restoring factory settings, however, I just wondered if anyone else had experienced the same and, if so, whether you achieved a resolution without starting over. As I say, when it's back up and running it's still performing really well - it just keeps falling out with the net, for some unknown reason! 

[Garp_senchau]

@Mow2017, Welcome to HP Support Community,

Thank you for posting your query; I’m here to help by guiding you through steps to resolve this issue

It sounds like you've been dealing with a pretty frustrating issue, especially since it's intermittent and works fine when it's not down. From what you’ve described, it sounds like it could be a conflict with either software or a driver issue, most likely with the wireless network adapter or the VPN (since it's still showing as connected to the VPN while the internet isn't working).

Update/Reinstall Wi-Fi Drivers

Go to Device Manager > Network Adapters and update your Wi-Fi driver.

If that doesn't work, uninstall the driver and restart your laptop. Windows will reinstall it.

Test Without VPN

Disconnect the VPN and see if the issue still happens. Sometimes the VPN can cause connectivity problems.

Change DNS Servers

Change your DNS to Google’s (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) or Cloudflare’s (1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1). This can fix DNS-related issues.

I hope this helps.

Please feel free to reply here if you have any questions or if you need further clarification on any of the steps. 

Take care and have a good day. 

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Regards,