Wireless card kicking out after transporting laptop

Question

I have a junker of a laptop. It's an HP ProBook 4510s running Windows 7 Ultimate, with the screen removed.

I had it sitting in the living room, hooked up to my TV via VGA. The internet connection worked fine. Then I moved it to the attic. When I plugged it into a new monitor, the red X next to the wireless icon was showing.

The card is on, the switch on the side of the laptop shows that. Windows Diagnostics cannot find anything wrong.

I tried installing the driver update from HP, no success. I put a fan under the laptop to make sure it wasn't an overheating problem.

The card works for thirty seconds every half-hour to four hours.

Do I need to replace it or is there something software/firmware-wise I should do?

Answer 1

First, "I moved it to the attic" implies it's now out of range of your WiFi router. Try another laptop to see if the signal is too weak. If that is the issue, then there are a number of things to improve the range:

1. Try channels 1, 6 and 11 if you're in the 2.4 GHz band for best range.

2. Adjust the router antenna(e).

3. If you can access the laptop's WiFi adapter, add a cantenna.

4. Move the WiFi router.

Second, if you can get a good signal on another laptop in the attic, and believe the one in your old laptop is broken or not sensitive enough, try an external USB WiFi adapter, available for $US10 or less. Even some"micro" adapters have surprisingly good range, but opt for one with an external antenna, if it's far to the router.