Bought son a new laptop yesterday for when he starts uni in a few weeks. Nothing special, just a <£300 PCWorld HP he liked the look of (gets that from his mother) that seems to have a good enough spec for not too much money.
Seems ok, apart from wifi - get 37Mbps on a cable, but more like 2 or 3Mbps on wifi; that's with the laptop sitting next to the router, where Windows gives the signal strength 4 out of 4. Tends to drop the connection when further away. Lots of other devices in the house are fine.
Got in touch with Plusnet earlier to see if they could think of anything in the router that might be causing it, but they couldn't.
It's only about 15 mins back to PCWorld so relatively easy to take it back to fix/replace, but any suggestions as to what might be the problem? It's running Windows 10 (son upgraded it).
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I should add that I've tried uninstalling the wifi in Device Manager and resetting the routers (fibre and 'normal').
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Borrow another laptop from a neighbour and see what it runs like.
If its OK then I'd be back at PC World and get them to test against their network - DEMAND a new box rather than a repair.
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I'd agree with Mr. Bairn. Its brand new, if the problem isn't your WiFi then I'd be back there demanding resolution.
p.s. just a thought, its not busy downloading W10 or something, is it?
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Sometimes the antenna connectors can come loose in transit, it is usually only a few seconds job to fix this but it depends where the WIFI card is located. I think now it is usually built into the motherboard making it harder to access.
You really need to test the laptop at a friends or try another laptop at home. There is a good chance the laptop is not faulty and is just a faulty router. Seen faulty routers cause this a few times.
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>> You really need to test the laptop at a friends
That's the one thing I haven't been able to try yet but might just let PCWorld test it in he shop. Thanks all.
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>> p.s. just a thought, its not busy downloading W10 or something, is it?
Son already upgraded it.
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Mine spent some time running like a dog until it got itself sorted out. Everything from indexing its files to upgrading its drivers.
Still, I think I wouldn't mess around. Just back down there and get them to sort it. Run something like speedtest.net in front of them to prove your point.
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>> >> p.s. just a thought, its not busy downloading W10 or something, is it?
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>> Son already upgraded it.
Did it work before? See my previous post...I have heard of somebody else having a similar wifi problem too.
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>> p.s. just a thought, its not busy downloading W10 or something, is it?
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Sounds possible, although if you have a fast connection that shouldn't last long.
My laptop had incredibly slow wifi when I got it - but only at home. Turned out that it and the router didn't like each other - swapped the router and all was well. Never found the cause.
Until I did the Win10 upgrade the other day that was. Then I had exactly the same symptoms again - very slow until the wireless card eventually stopped altogether. Reverted to Win 7 Pro and it's fine again.
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>> >> p.s. just a thought, its not busy downloading W10 or something, is it?
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>> Sounds possible, although if you have a fast connection that shouldn't last long.
Doesn't explain the big difference between wire/wireless though (does it?).
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>>Doesn't explain the big difference between wire/wireless though (does it?).
No, it doesn't.
The Router / PC mutual dislike sounds like a credible possibility. Is there nowhere nearby Neighbour / coffee shop / whatever.
A few moments on someone else's WiFi prior to a stroppy trip to the shop would seem worthwhile.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Mon 24 Aug 15 at 22:32
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>> A few moments on someone else's WiFi prior to a stroppy trip to the shop
>> would seem worthwhile.
:)
Son thinks it was dodgy before the 10 upgrade, which he says took 'a long time' and the connection dropped at least once.
Going to use the HP Recovery Manager to do a 'restore factory settings'. I'm on holiday and it gives me something to do :)
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Other reasons for trying the factory reset are that the Hp Support Assistant, which might or might not be useful, keeps crashing, and won't uninstall or re-install. It just seems a bit ill.
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>> Borrow another laptop from a neighbour and see what it runs like.
Plenty of other devices inc. laptops in house running fine.
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you got a dual band wifi router? try the other band.
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>> you got a dual band wifi router? try the other band.
will try that if it's still iffy after the factory reset
EDIT: if the router is dual band, don't know
Last edited by: Focusless on Mon 24 Aug 15 at 22:55
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Fresh start, and wifi still slow. HP Support Assistant initially ran ok, but after selecting to install some updated drivers, including the wifi, it got stuck. Currently waiting for it to restart - might have to force the issue...
So looks like another trip to PC World on the agenda for tomorrow. I'm happy now it's not a Windows 10 issue, and more likely to be wot Ratts said.
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Agree with Rats, sounds like dodgy wifi module or module antenna connections fallen off / never connected.
If in the mood for more debug (although I'd be trotting back to PC World by now) I'd install inSSIDer and see what the signal levels are like, if you are few feet form your home router, with an unobstructed path, I'd expect to see the home router coming through loud and clear at a signal level in the -60 to -70 range.
www.techspot.com/downloads/5936-inssider.html
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>> (although I'd be trotting back to PC World by now)
Been there... the helpful (but somewhat harassed - big queue) Knowhow chap had a play, and claimed to see a download speed of 5-6Mbps by enabling 802.11d (IIRC) in the wifi hardware settings. But then at my suggestion he went to speedtest.net and it was all very slow; he could see the connection was flaky and recommended a replacement.
Which is sitting in front of me now, about to be tested...
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3.5Mbps. Ho hum. (37Mb via the cable.)
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...but just retested and showing 36Mbps. Mmm... does that mean it's ok; was it just settling in?
Will play a bit more and see how it goes.
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Re: Wifi extremely slow on new laptop
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‎04-08-2012 07:12 AM
Found the issue isn't HP's. This is a known issue with the adapter. It doesn't help that HP's crapware hides most of the essential settings to resolve issues (why these manufacturers feel it necessary to bog down a users machine with all of this unnecessary junk is beyond me). All I did was turn off the bluetooth radio and tweaked a few other minor settings and now I'm getting the speeds I expect. I did a search for the Intel Centrino adapter itself and found the issue and recommended fixes.
I did have a poor experience with HP before as well with their customer service however this laptop was at an unbeatable price. I'm a tech myself so 95% of the issues I figure out myself. Hope you're enjoying your new laptop. Hopefully this will fix my issues going forward.
h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Wireless-Internet-Home-Networking/Wifi-extremely-slow-on-new-laptop/td-p/1288365
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Cheers - I'll have a(nother) fiddle tomorrow.
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slow wifi on new laptop - Focusless
