[SOLVED]: Wi-Fi not working on laptop-How to fix

A troubleshoot should help you discover and rectify the problems arising from your electronic devices. Sometimes, Wi-Fi may not be working on your laptop but you still need to continue using it. What should you do? Let us take a look at a few steps you can take to fix this connection problem in your PC.

Sometimes you could be working from your laptop, watching a movie or even just downloading files and your network connection disappears. When you check your network settings, your Wi-Fi reads ‘connected, but no internet’. Other times, your laptop may not even be able to connect to the internet when you need it to.

Most times, when this happens it could be temporary and running your devices through a few troubleshooting steps should be able to fix connectivity issues. However, there are times where you may need to contact your manufacturer and consider a replacement for your device.

When Wi-Fi doesn’t work on your laptop,you can fix it by confirming whether your laptop is the only device that is unable to connect to the internet which would guide you to:  rebooting your network devices or laptop, run your laptop through its network troubleshooter, reconfigure your IP address and temporarily disable your antivirus protection.

To begin, what would be the potential causes of Wi-Fi not working on your laptop?

In as much as wireless is vulnerable to connectivity issues, different factors such as an incompatible IP address; problems with the internet service provider (ISP), router or modem; or a problem could arise from corrupt drivers such as third party antivirus protection could tamper with the network efficiency of your laptop.

How can you fix your internet settings when Wi-Fi is not working on your laptop?

The following steps should help you fix your network connection when connectivity issues arise in your laptop;

Cross check the internet connection in your other devices

Sometimes when Wi-Fi isn’t working on your laptop, it could be a problem with the internet connection and not only your PC. The first thing in this case, is to check through your phone or any other devices within your household to confirm whether Wi-Fi is properly working on them.

Alternatively, if your laptop uses and Ethernet cable to access Wi-Fi, then you need to change the Ethernet cable to cross check whether it isn’t the problem that’s causing your connectivity issue.

In the event that, Wi-Fi works on your other devices but nor on your laptop, then you would assume test threes a misconfigured setting on your PC only. You can fix this by connecting your PC directly to your router using an Ethernet cable and your Wi-Fi should be able to connect to your laptop.

Try rebooting your laptop, router and modem

When you have already established that your laptop is the only device within your entire household with a connection problem, it would be advisable to reboot it. Rebooting simply means that you need to shut down your laptop and then restart it. Maybe your PC is experiencing a slight hang, therefore, rebooting it would bring it back to its normal working capacities.

There are times where your modem and router may be the cause of your laptop not being able to connect to Wi-Fi. This would need you to reboot both your router and modem by unplugging them from your power source and allowing them and then allowing them to start up again once you plug them back in.However, when plugging them back in, your modem should be plugged in before your router.

After doing this, your modem and router should be showing internet lights and your laptop should be able to easily connect to the Wi-Fi.

Run your laptop through its network troubleshooter

The troubleshooter in your laptop will identify the in-built problems in your computer network settings. However, you should only proceed to this step when rebooting your devices does not give positive results.

If you are using a laptop powered by windows then you should run it through the Windows Network troubleshooter. Alternatively, if your laptop is powered by IOS, you should run it through the Wireless Diagnostics app.

Depending on your device, you should follow the steps that your network troubleshooter suggests and this should work out your Wi-Fi connection problem.

Verify your IP address and check your Internet Service Providers’ status

A possible reason as to why your laptop is not connecting to Wi-Fi would because it does not have a valid IP address. When you check your settings and your laptop confirms so, you may need to reconfigure your IP address.

Additionally, it is important to keep tabs on your internet service provider because at times the problem with your Wi-Fi may be coming from their end and not yours. This way you are able to know how to deal with the connectivity issue; either by contacting them or by waiting for the connection to come back.

A summary of the built-in set up screens and IP addresses of different routers

Router Model	IP Address	Default user name	Default password
NETGEAR	192.168.0.1	Admin	Password
Linksys	192.168.1.1	Admin	Admin
D-Link	192.168.0.1	Admin	Password
3Com	192.168.1.1	Admin	Admin
Microsoft	192.168.2.1	Admin	Admin

Try to temporarily disable your antivirus

Sometimes your antivirus may be causing navigation problems and may even cause your laptop to hang if it is not updated. Because of this, you should try to temporarily disable your antivirus protection on your laptop and continuously check whether your Wi-Fi connection comes back.

Reset your network settings

There are times where your laptop would not connect to the internet even after following all the possible troubleshooting steps. The last resort would be to factory set your network settings and start afresh both on your router and laptop depending on the nature of the problem.

Conclusion

When you have tried all the steps mentioned in this article and your laptop is still unable to connect to the internet, the problem could be the device itself. In such cases, it is advisable that you take your laptop to your manufacturer’s service center for it to be checked, diagnosed and fixed so that you will not have to deal with the same problem again.

FAQs

What should I do when my laptop does nor connect to the Wi-Fi but all my other devices do?

You should reboot your laptop and try running it through its network troubleshooter then follow the troubleshooting instructions to revive it. Or, you can factory set it and restart it to check whether you are able to reconnect successfully.

Would the Anti-virus protection on my laptop cause network problems on my laptop?

Yes. At times this can happen which is why you would need to temporarily disable the anti-virus protection as a troubleshooting step.