My HP laptop is unable to maintain a stable connection to our home Wi‑Fi or its extender. It may connect with full signal strength, then disconnect after a few minutes and drop to almost no signal. Every other device in the house works normally. I've restarted the laptop, power-cycled the router, adjusted adapter settings such as HT mode, preferred band, roaming aggressiveness, and power management, and updated the wireless driver. I also checked the IP configuration and router address, but I still can't access the router's local settings page. The laptop connects reliably to my phone's hotspot, so the problem seems limited to the home network. What should I try next?
4 Answers
The extender may be causing the instability, especially if the laptop is switching between the main router and the extender. Try shutting the extender down temporarily and test the laptop near the main router. If possible, also test the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks separately instead of using one combined network name.
You can use `netsh wlan show interfaces` in Command Prompt to see the actual connection percentage, channel, radio type, and other details instead of relying on the Wi‑Fi bars. Compare those details when connected to the router and when connected through the extender. If the connection is weak only in one location, the extender may be poorly placed or failing.
If the extender is an older or inexpensive model, it could be losing its connection or confusing the laptop during handoffs. After testing without it, consider updating the router and extender firmware or replacing the extender. Reseating the laptop’s internal Wi‑Fi card and checking its antenna leads is another option, but only if you’re comfortable opening the laptop.
Since the laptop stays connected to your phone’s hotspot, its wireless card and driver are probably functioning normally. That points more toward compatibility with the home router, extender roaming, or a router security/channel setting. Check whether the laptop behaves differently on 2.4 GHz versus 5 GHz, and try forgetting the home network before reconnecting.
I tried turning off the extender, but both the regular 2.4 GHz network and the extender disappeared, so I couldn’t test it that way.