It has had this problem for a while (I don’t know if it had it from the time we bought it or if it started later). But today the problem has gotten worse. Here is the problem.
When we switch from one account to another*, we have a lot of trouble getting it to connect to the internet. It’s not that it can’t connect to a network–it’s that it stops being able to see networks at all. In fact, when we click on the symbol on the bottom right that tells us we’re not connected to the internet (the connection strength bars, with a red x over them), it says wireless is simply “off.”
We generally “fix” this by going to Settings, then Change PC Settings, then Wireles, and turning Wi-Fi to “on.” The thing is, usually when we do this, it stays on for a few seconds then spontaneously switches back off. We usually have to go through this four or five times before it will finally stay on.
Only this evening, we can’t get it to stay on at all. We can switch it on for a few seconds, but after that it spontaneously switches back off.
During the few seconds it’s switched on, it’s even connected and everything. If we’re fast we can go to the desktop, load a page in our browser, and everything. But then inevitably it switches off again.
We have signed out, tried both accounts, restarted the computer, disable/reenabled the wireless card. What else should we be trying here?
(BTW when we “enable” the card through the device manager dialogue, it just takes us back to the “change PC settings” menu mentioned above.)
The machine has two accounts, an admin account and a guest account.
Something else I tried was to go through the Windows troubleshooting dialogue. It detects two problems:
A network cable is broken or unplugged (words to this effect)
Wireless is disabled.
Number 2 is of course just the problem I’m describing. It “fixes” this problem by enabling wireless. Wireless then spontaneously turns off again a few seconds later.
Regarding number 1, I assume this just means I don’t have a wired connection right now, which is of course true and not a problem. That is all that means, right?
Go into the Device Manager, select Network Adapters, right click on your wireless adapter and click on Properties. Click on the Power Management tab, and uncheck ‘Allow computer to turn off this device to save power’.
The problem occurs on both accounts, including the part where after several tries, we are able to turn wifi on and be connected to the internet.
BTW the thing finally connected (and stayed that way) several minutes after my posting here but in light of the fact that keeping wifi enabled seems to be getting slowly more and more difficult, I’ll still be looking for fixes. Will try the power setting change mentioned above when I next have access to the machine.
In connection with the power setting…do you normally use the laptop when plugged in, or on battery power? It’s more likely to be aggressive about turning things off to save power if you are running from the battery.