Gaming HP laptop has trouble getting wifi

[da_head]

At uni, in the basement, half the time my laptop can't connect to the internet, but the moment i go upstairs, it gets it. and no its not due to poor signal. two of my friends both which have hp as well, one of em having almost identical laptops (except the cpu), get it right away. i checked my wifi drivers and they're all up to date. what gives? o.o should i reinstall the drivers or something?

o and i just had a thought. i no nothing about how cpu's work but mine is a core 2 duo centrino. now correct me if i'm mistaken, but doesn't centrino imply that it's specfically designed for wifi or something? perhaps that's the issue? should i update that?

 

[Raki]

What's your wificard?
It should be written on the bottom of the laptop...compare this to your friends' laptops and if it's the same there must be another source for the low wifi signal

Sometimes a manufacturer takes another wificard than before because it's a cheaper one

 

[da_head]

What's your wificard?
It should be written on the bottom of the laptop...compare this to your friends' laptops and if it's the same there must be another source for the low wifi signal

Sometimes a manufacturer takes another wificard than before because it's a cheaper one

shit your right. turns out mines a:

Intel® WiFi Link 5100AGN & Bluetooth™

 

[Pizzaroo]

Yeah this happened to me as well. Toshiba pwned me and I had to move my router downstairs.

 

[da_head]

ok i updated that specific driver, i'm hoping for the best! (i can check on monday)

 

[Raki]

if this doesn't help you may get a better signal if you swap the wificard, but you would lose your bluetooth if you don't choose another one with bluetooth

 

[da_head]

if this doesn't help you may get a better signal if you swap the wificard, but you would lose your bluetooth if you don't choose another one with bluetooth

how would i go about switchin a wifi card of a laptop o.o (without voiding the warranty). and i could honestly care less about bluetooth

 

[dark42]

if this doesn't help you may get a better signal if you swap the wificard, but you would lose your bluetooth if you don't choose another one with bluetooth

how would i go about switchin a wifi card of a laptop o.o (without voiding the warranty). and i could honestly care less about bluetooth

It's pretty easy to swap WiFi cards on most laptops, and it shouldn't void the warranty. Flip your laptop over and see if there are panels you can unscrew and remove. If you remove the one of the panels there should be (in your case) a small card with some wires clipped on it that says Intel on it sitting in a slot. That is your WiFi card. Just unclip the wires and unscrew the one or two screws holding the card down. It should pop out and you can remove it.

However if you don't want to deal with that I suggest getting a USB WiFi adapter, preferably with a dock and extender cable. Those tend get the best signal of anything you can buy for a reasonable price. Actually it shouldn't cost you that much more than a mini-PCIe laptop WiFi card, and should pick up a lot better. Also that way you can keep your bluetooth.

If you do decide to replace the internal card, post a picture of the underside of your laptop and I can tell you which panel to remove (make sure to blur out any serial numbers and stuff).

 

[da_head]

here you are:

Spoiler

i'm guessin its the third pic, with the little wifi symbol

 

[UltraMagnus]

you could always add an external wifi antenna to your laptop.

 

[kobykaan]

or just buy a wifi usb dongle

which would avoid the need for possible warranty breaking/invalidation!

 

[da_head]

hmm how much would a wifi usb dongle help? it's not like the wifi card is completely useless, it just needs a boost.

also today i'm going to school, so i'll see if updating the firmware helped.

 

[dark42]

Remove those two.
One of them will have your Mini-PCIe slots.
Post pics if you're not sure what to do next.

 

[UltraMagnus]

or just buy a wifi usb dongle

which would avoid the need for possible warranty breaking/invalidation!

bah, be boring like that then!

 

[da_head]

or just buy a wifi usb dongle

which would avoid the need for possible warranty breaking/invalidation!

bah, be boring like that then!

lmao i have an extended warranty so, i kinda wanna keep it.

o and the firmware update didn't help >.>

 

[dark42]

Removing a mini-pcie card won't void warranty, it's the equivalent of adding or removing cards in your desktop. I'm pretty sure Dell/HP don't void your warranty for opening up a desktop and adding a videocard.