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So this is an interesting one.
My partner and I both have HP laptops, mine is a HP 250 G4 Laptop bought about 18 months ago, hers is a 15-ba099na bought just a few months ago.
Her previous laptop was also a HP (not sure of the model now), all three are pretty much physically identical apart from colour and our current ones differ only in mine has an Intel processor and hers an AMD (though there are probably some other small differences too).
We sit beside each other on a couch connecting wirelessly to a router the next room over, I get internet speeds of between 12 - 15 mbs and she gets between 5 - 7 mbs.
I've tried doing the tests with the laptops in different positions (in case it's some odd interference which is to blame) and there is no significant difference, mine is fast and hers is slow wherever the test is performed.
I've checked and we both seem to have the same wireless network adapters a Realtek RTL8723BE 802.11 b/g/n. However my drivers are from 2015 and hers are from 2016 and I have considerably more options in the advanced tab in the driver properties.
I tried updating the network adapter (Windows said it was up to date but there was a newer version on HPs website) but that actually seemed to make it slower. I've tried to find the driver my laptop has but the closest one I can find doesn't seem to be compatible (odd considering they appear to be the same device) as the installation just silently fails and does nothing.
The really curious thing is the reason my partner upgraded her laptop was because of similar issues of speed on her old one. We had put that down to the laptop being a refurb and being a few years old and I assumed it was a combination of slow processor and lack of RAM rather than the connection that was at fault. There were some issues of malware on the previous laptop (and files and Chrome profiles were copied over to the new one) but scanning with Malware Bytes doesn't find anything and really the new laptop should be clean. I can't see any suspicious activity in the task manager and nothing seems to be hogging resources.
There's no anti virus running or windows update going on that could account for speed issues, and the problem is constant rather than intermittent so I doubt it would be anything like that.
The obvious answers would be positioning or malware brought over from the old laptop (which would explain why the issue has plagued both the old and new machine) but neither seems to be the case from what I can tell.
So any ideas of what might be the issue or what to try next?
adaliabooks
Posted 2017-09-20T15:51:40.627
Reputation: 101
Could it be that the internal Wi-Fi antenna wasn't connected properly? – user1686 – 2017-09-20T17:42:40.267
@grawity Possibly. I did encounter that as a possible issue while researching. Is that something fixable or would it need to go back to the manufacturer? – adaliabooks – 2017-09-20T18:05:19.500
1You should visually inspect the connection. – Ramhound – 2017-09-20T18:40:51.757
@Ramhound I presume that will require opening the laptop up? – adaliabooks – 2017-09-20T18:42:16.137
Yes; If you want to confirm that the problem is because the antenna's connection is loose then you would have to open the laptop up and verify that fact. It sounds like these devices are not under any sort of warranty. – Ramhound – 2017-09-20T18:44:20.640
@Ramhound The old one won't but the new one should be, it's only a few months old. So if that is the issue I can possibly send it back and get it sorted properly (as opening it myself will no doubt void whatever warrenty there is). I've got some external wireless adapters lying about so I might try it with one of those first and see if that helps at all, as well as plugging it in to the router directly (which I hadn't even considered earlier when troubleshooting) – adaliabooks – 2017-09-20T18:48:35.340
@adaliabooks: Depends... If it's just loose or unconnected (look for connectors like this), that's easy to fix. But since the Wi-Fi chip is on the motherboard but antennas themselves frequently in the lid, it could also be that the connecting cable just broke over time...
– user1686 – 2017-09-20T18:55:27.410@grawity I think I'll try an external adapter and if that works I'll probably leave it. My partner is happy enough with that and considering this is possibly the second laptop to develop the issue I'm not sure it's particularly worth fixing when it's so easily bypassed. Thanks for the help :) – adaliabooks – 2017-09-20T19:00:52.313
@grawity I tried an external adapter and got speeds comparable to what my laptop gets so that does seem a likely candidate. I've ordered a new external adapter for that laptop and hopefully that should be it sorted. If you or Ramhound want to make an answer out of this I'll accept it. – adaliabooks – 2017-09-20T19:31:46.250
@Ramhound see above – adaliabooks – 2017-09-20T19:31:54.550
If you do decide to open it up and fix it, do post your own answer below. – user1686 – 2017-09-21T06:39:01.150