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Home / Internet Troubleshooting / Why Won’t My Laptop Connect To WIFI – Guide 2023

Why Won’t My Laptop Connect To WIFI – Guide 2024

Waking up early to start working or to handle your next assignment but surprisingly found out your laptop wont connect to the WIFI?

computer wont connect to wifi

This is a common problem that most laptop users face daily. I know this can be bothersome and can as well lead to late work or several other issues. The good news is that the cause of such issues can easily be identified at home.

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This is an indication that you don’t have to head to your technician to get the laptop rectified. There’s no need to panic or to postpone your project simply because your laptop cannot establish a stable and secure connection to WIFI.

Additionally, this problem is very common and affects a great number of laptop users. It’s not an issue that is common with a specific laptop model. As a matter of fact, Dell, HP, Mac, and Lenovo users have faced this issue several times. This means you are probably not alone.

Over time, we have seen many windows and iOS users complain of the same. Most of them also search online and report their laptop won’t connect to the WI-FI. The more important thing here is that we have a reliable solution today.

Before we delve in…

I know you may want to know what causes this issue. The problem with WIFI connectivity can come from the router itself or be a problem with your laptop. Secondly, start by checking that Laptop WIFI is enabled on the laptop. In some laptops especially the Dell make has a switch on the right end corner close to the power button. Make sure the switch is on and WI-FI is enabled.

Additionally, check to be sure that airplane mode is not enabled on the laptop. Airplane mode prevents your devices from connecting to any data source including your WIFI and Modem connection.

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To check where the problem is coming from, test the laptop and the router separately. To see whether the router is okay, you can try to connect your smartphone to the WIFI. If your smartphone establishes a secure connection, then your laptop definitely has an issue and you need to troubleshoot the trouble on your laptop.

If your smartphone also fails to connect to the WIFI, then the problem comes from the WIFI network and you should troubleshoot the problem from this site. Based on the source of the problem, you should utilize one viable method from the below list.

Compare with different Devices

This is probably the most obvious first step would be to see if your phone or if you have a secondary computer desktop to a laptop sitting around to check if the device is experiencing in the same problems connecting to your WIFI router.

If so, then you know this is likely to be a modem/router issue at which case you can skip to the section to restart and reconfigure your router.

Restart your laptop

If your smartphone connected to the WIFI, your laptop serves as a source of the issue. For that reason, restart your laptop. A simple action of restarting the laptop can fix the problem. After the laptop reboots, try to connect to the WIFI Network again.

Check your WIFI drivers

There are some situations where the router or the WIFI Adapter faces some incompatibility issues with the devices including your laptop. For that reason, you should also check to reset your WI-FI driver. The process of resetting your Wi-Fi drivers is easy through the below steps.

  • Hold down your windows logo key and press Pause
  • The next thing is to check Device manager
  • Click on the Network adapters>right click on the WI-FI driver software>then click uninstall.
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After all that you should restart your laptop. After everything is set, then wait for a few seconds and try to connect to WIFI again.

Try resetting your router

In case your smartphone failed to connect to the WIFI, the router or the modem is the source of the problem. For that reason, you should restart your router or the modem.

This is one of the fastest methods of troubleshooting the WIFI issue. To some people and brands of routers and modems, it can be very difficult to restart the router. Though, you can try any of the below methods.

  • Switch off the router from the socket and switch it back on.
  • Remove the router from the power source
  • Long press the power button of the router for about 5 to 30 seconds to reset it, use the modem manual and look for resetting your router to default.
  • In case of the modem still doesn’t work, then unplug the router from the power source and power it down and wait 60 seconds.

If this still doesn’t work and you have no devices connected then it may be the fact that your wifi modem is broken and may need to be replaced or taken back to the manufacture for support.

Update the Drivers

If the WIFI drivers on your laptop are missing or are outdated, there it will probably not connect to the WIFI. If you suspect this is the case, then we highly recommend updating your Wi-Fi drivers on your laptop to the latest version.

This solves the WIFI connectivity issue and eventually enhances the speed of your laptop. In such a case, there are several ways of updating your WIFI drivers. You can actually do this manually or automatically through the process shared below.

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Automatic update of WI-FI drivers

For people that want to facilitate this process fast enough or those that don’t have enough computer knowledge, an automatic driver update is a way to go. Use a program call Driver Easy to update the WI-FI drivers manually as this will automatically recognize out of date drivers.

You should always take a download copy of the driver or become familiar with rolling back drivers if more problems arise during updating your driver, we not be going in that today.

A manual WIFI driver update

To update your laptop WI-FI drivers manually, head to the manufacturer’s site and search for the relevant drivers. After this, click on the compatible drivers and update.

Your IP address

One under checked issue with WIFI is the conflict with IP address. This problem can also prevent your laptop from connecting to WI-FI successfully. To solve the problem fast enough, choose to renew the IP address. Follow the below steps to go about it.

  1. Hold down the Windows logo key and eventually click R, which eventually brings the Run Box.
  2. Type the cmd and click enter to open the Black window. Now type ipconfig/release and hit enter.
  3. Now, wait for the command to complete. Now proceed to type ipconfig/renew and hit enter.
  4. Now, wait for the task to be complete.

After that whole process, try to connect your laptop to the WIFI again. If the problem is solved, it must be able to connect to WIFI automatically.

The above are some of the most reliable methods of solving the issue laptop cannot detect WI-FI.

Disable Firewall and Antivirus Software

If you use antivirus software then its advisable that you disable the program to assure that its not an underlying software problem. This includes going into your firewall to temporarily disable it to see if the problem persists.

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John
John
A tech maestro with a penchant for Android systems, John is also a self-proclaimed Mexican food critic. When he’s not exploring the latest tech trends, he’s likely binging on the newest series on Netflix.
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