If your ever run into the WiFi not working on laptop problem, don’t worry. It’s often not hard to fix at all…
Fixes for WiFi not working on laptop
Before your start, please make sure your laptop is within the connection range of the WiFi network.
Then check on other devices that are connected to the same WiFi network to see if they are working properly.
- If these devices cannot be connected to WiFi either, there is probably an issue going on with your WiFi router. You should look into your WiFi router to troubleshoot the issue. Or if it still doesn’t work, please contact your ISP provider for help.
- If these devices work properly, please work your way down the list until the WiFi not working on laptop problem is resolved.
- Update your Wi-Fi driver
- Check if Wi-Fi is enabled
- Reset WLAN AutoConfig
- Change adapter Power Settings
- Renew IP and flush DNS
Fix 1: Update your Wi-Fi driver
This problem may occur when you’re using the wrong WiFi driver or it’s out of date. So you should update your WiFi driver to see if it fixes the problem. If you don’t have the time, patience or computer skills to update the driver manually, you can do it automatically with Driver Easy.
Driver Easy will automatically recognize your system and find the correct drivers for it. You don’t need to know exactly what system your computer is running, you don’t need to be troubled by the wrong driver you would be downloading, and you don’t need to worry about making a mistake when installing. Driver Easy handles it all.
There are two ways you can use Driver Easy to update your WiFi driver:
If you can connect your laptop to a wired network, then choose Option 1. Otherwise, please choose Option 2.
Option 1: Update the WiFi driver directly
1) Download and install Driver Easy.
2) Run Driver Easy and click Scan Now. Driver Easy will then scan your computer and detect any problem drivers.
3) Click Update All to automatically download and install the correct version of ALL the drivers that are missing or out of date on your system (this requires the Pro version – you’ll be prompted to upgrade when you click Update All).
4) Restart your computer for the changes to take effect.
5) Check to see if the WiFi not working on laptop issue has been resolved. If yes, then congrats! If the issue remains, please try Fix 2.
Option 2: Update the WiFi driver with the offline scan feature
1) On a computer with Internet access, download Driver Easy. Then save the setup file of Driver Easy in a USB flash drive and transfer it to the target computer (the computer without Internet connection).
2) On the target computer, run the Driver Easy setup file to install Driver Easy.
3) Run Driver Easy and click Tools in the left pane.
4) Click Offline Scan. Then select Offline Scan (on the computer without Internet access) and click Continue.
5) Click Browse…, then choose a destination folder in your computer to save the offline scan file. After that, click Offline Scan.
6) A window will pop up telling you that the offline scan file has been saved. Click OK to confirm.
7) Open the folder where you’ve saved the offline scan file. Then save the file in a USB flash drive and transfer it to another computer with Internet connection.
8) On the computer with Internet connection, (download and) install Driver Easy.
9) Run Driver Easy and click Tools in the left pane.
10) Click Offline Scan. Then select Upload Offline Scan File (on the computer with Internet access) and click Continue.
11) Click Browse… to locate the offline scan file. Then click Continue.
12) Click the Download button next to your wireless driver.
13) Wait until the computer completes. When it does, save the downloaded file to your USB drive and transfer it to the target computer.
14) You can follow Step 3 of Driver Easy Help to manually install your WiFi driver.
15) Restart your computer for the changes to take effect.
16) Check to see if the WiFi not working on laptop issue has been resolved. If yes, then congrats! If the issue remains, please try Fix 2, below.
Fix 2: Check if Wi-Fi is enabled
- On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R at the same time. Then copy & paste control /name Microsoft.NetworkAndSharingCenter into the box and press Enter.
- Click Change adapter settings.
- Depending on whether Wi-Fi is enabled (icon colored):
If yes: then close the windows and jump to Fix 3.
If no: then right-click on Wi-Fi and click Enable.
- Check to see if WiFi is working properly on your laptop. If yes, then great! If the problem persists, please try Fix 3, below.
Fix 3: Reset WLAN AutoConfig
- On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R at the same time. Then copy & paste services.msc into the box and press Enter.
- Scroll down to the bottom and double-click on WLAN AutoConfig.
Select Automatic in Startup type and click Start. Then click Apply > OK.
- Check to see if the Wi-Fi not working on laptop problem is resolved.
WiFi still not working? Please try Fix 4, below.
Fix 4: Change adapter Power Settings
- On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R at the same time, then copy & paste powercfg.cpl into the box and press Enter.
- Click the High performance option > Change plan settings.
- Click Change advanced power settings.
- Double-click on Wireless Adapter Settings > Power saving Mode and choose Maximum performance.
- Click Apply > OK.
- Check if your WifI not working on Windows 10/8/7 problem gets fixed.
Fix 5: Renew IP and flush DNS
- On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and type cmd. Then right click on Command Prompt and click Run as administrator.
Click Yes when prompted to confirm. - In the command prompt window, type the following commands and press Enter after each:
ipconfig /release ipconfig /renew
- Wait until the command finishes. Then type ipconfig /flushdns and press Enter.
- Re-connect your laptop to WiFi again and see if it works.
Hopefully you have successfully resolved the WiFi not working on laptop issue by now. If you have any questions, ideas or suggestions, please let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading!