# My laptop's wifi just died. What could have caused that
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptops-wifi-just-died-what-could-have-caused-that/694640
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 2, 2014, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptops-wifi-just-died-what-could-have-caused-that/694640 "2014-08-02T13:11:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2014, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptops-wifi-just-died-what-could-have-caused-that/694640/1 "2014-08-02T13:11:32Z")
I have an HP laptop, about 3 years old. It has had some occasional problems. today while unpacking it after a trip I noticed the computer was freezing so I restarted it. I got the blue screen of death, and then when it started up the internal wifi didn’t work and I couldn’t get online. I don’t know if the hardware or the software died.
It isn’t a huge problem because I had one of those USB network adapters lying around, I plugged that in and used that to connect to the router. But if possible I’d rather have the built in wifi working.
What would have caused this problem and what would fix it? I’m assuming it is more a software than hardware problem, but have no idea. The computer has had hardware issues (a fan broke, the keyboard comes loose) so maybe something physically broke inside. If so I’m just going to use the network adapter rather than spend $100 to have the wifi fixed. But if it is just a software issue and a new driver will fix it I’d do that.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2014, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptops-wifi-just-died-what-could-have-caused-that/694640/2 "2014-08-02T13:24:25Z")
My first thought is a bad driver. In Win 98 and XP, I could often go to the control panel, uninstall a non working Network Card, and upon rebooting, Windows would reload the proper driver.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2014, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptops-wifi-just-died-what-could-have-caused-that/694640/3 "2014-08-02T13:33:47Z")
Yeah, broken drivers.
The other thing that isnt always obvious… HP laptops usually have a physical button for turning the wifi on and off - it’s easy to accidentally press the button and disable the wireless adaptor.
The button has a little tree-like antenna symbol next to it. If the light is orange, it’s disabled.
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2014, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptops-wifi-just-died-what-could-have-caused-that/694640/4 "2014-08-02T13:35:53Z")
> [@Mangetout](#):
>
> Yeah, broken drivers.
>
> The other thing that isnt always obvious… HP laptops usually have a physical button for turning the wifi on and off - it’s easy to accidentally press the button and disable the wireless adaptor.
>
> The button has a little tree-like antenna symbol next to it. If the light is orange, it’s disabled.
I was going to mention the button, but forgot. I’ve had that happen before (I turned it off by accident and it was orange, I hit it again and it turned blue and turned back on). So I tried that and it didn’t do anything.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2014, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptops-wifi-just-died-what-could-have-caused-that/694640/5 "2014-08-02T14:09:55Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#):
>
> I was going to mention the button, but forgot. I’ve had that happen before (I turned it off by accident and it was orange, I hit it again and it turned blue and turned back on). So I tried that and it didn’t do anything.
My cat reaches up and does that, the little shit. 🙂
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### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2014, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptops-wifi-just-died-what-could-have-caused-that/694640/6 "2014-08-02T14:17:05Z")
If it’s a driver problem, it might have been caused by a corrupt file or filesystem. I recommend you run a full check of the hard drive before you try to re-install the driver. (Right click on drive, select Properties, select the Tools tab, click “Check Now”, and check both options. Be warned, this will require a reboot and may take a long time, several hours on an older computer.)
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### Author:  [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2014, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptops-wifi-just-died-what-could-have-caused-that/694640/7 "2014-08-02T15:22:02Z")
I presume when you said it was “freezing”, you did not mean that you had left it out in your car on a January night.
Temperature extremes can be a computer’s worst enemy, especially overheating. In a laptop, the vents are very small and underneath, a laptop can be killed in a few hours if operated on a soft surface like a bed, with surface material blocking the cooling vents. When this happens, it is usually terminal.
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2014, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptops-wifi-just-died-what-could-have-caused-that/694640/8 "2014-08-02T15:32:55Z")
In some notebooks the wifi chip is actually a removable chip accessible near the RAM that clips in and out like a tiny ram module. They are usually fairly cheap to replace if available for your model and if the remove-replace is a clip in clip out scenario. In other setups you will have to remove the case or keyboard to access the module.
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### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2014, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptops-wifi-just-died-what-could-have-caused-that/694640/9 "2014-08-02T17:40:24Z")
Can you more thoroughly describe the software situation? Do you still see the WiFi list of hotspots, etc.? Or even the device itself in the device manager? Or is it like you don’t have a WiFi card at all?
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### Author:  [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2014, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptops-wifi-just-died-what-could-have-caused-that/694640/10 "2014-08-02T18:12:39Z")
I’d suggest a quick look at Device Manager via Control Panel to see if Windows thinks it’s a driver problem, which is probably more likely than a sudden hardware fault. If there’s nothing wrong there, Vista or Win 7 which is probably what you’re running have the ability to try to automatically “repair” a WiFi connection which may be worth a try. Without more info that’s all I can come up with as the first things to look at. (ETA: A scan of the system event log may have useful info, too.)
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2014, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptops-wifi-just-died-what-could-have-caused-that/694640/11 "2014-08-03T13:20:38Z")
Thanks for the advice, here are some updates:
**Reply** there are no wifi hotspots listed under my built in wifi.
Under my HP Connection manager it says my two options for wifi are ‘off’ and ‘disabled by device manager’. There is no ‘on’ option.
**jtur88** I meant the computer was really slow, I didn’t expose my PC to any temp extremes as far as I know.
\*\*scr4 \*\*Thanks for that advice, but it didn’t seem to affect the problem when I implemented it.
\*\*carnivorousplant \*\*I’m on Windows 7
I just updated hte drivers in windows device manager, and now it is working again. Thanks people.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2014, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptops-wifi-just-died-what-could-have-caused-that/694640/12 "2014-08-03T13:43:58Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#):
>
> I just updated hte drivers in windows device manager, and now it is working again. Thanks people.
Cool. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2014, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptops-wifi-just-died-what-could-have-caused-that/694640/13 "2014-08-03T20:42:25Z")
I just clicked in to say that I read the thread title as “My laptop’s wife just died.” My condolences.