This post was originally about trouble I had at a coffee shop trying to connect my laptop to their Wi-Fi network. That was an ordeal, and a puzzle I attempted to solve, but in the bigger picture it turns out that the laptop is on its final breath.
The problem I had was trying to connect with the coffee shop’s Wi-Fi. Windows 10 just won’t do it. Turns out, the password had changed, so it was a simple solution to forget the old network and then re-connect and specify the new password. Here’s how that works in Windows 10:
- Press Win+I to open the Settings app.
- Click the Network & Internet button.
- Ensure that Wi-Fi is chosen from the left side of the window.
- Scroll down and click the link Manage Wi-Fi Settings.
- Locate the network below the heading Manage Known Networks.
- Click the Forget button.
That solved the connection issue, but the Internet remained sluggish. Or, upon reflection, it was my laptop that crept along at a snail’s pace. Programs would seize. The mouse pointer would lock for several seconds. Nothing worked. So I finished my tea and left the shop.
When I returned home, I hooked up the laptop to download some updates, but it wouldn’t connect to my office Wi-Fi. In fact, it started seizing again, which raised my eyebrows.
Checking the Device Manager, I noticed a USB controller not working. That gizmo has nothing to do with the networking hardware, but it might cause the sluggishness. So I restarted the laptop in safe mode.
No dice. The system failed to restart in safe mode. Instead, it popped up in whatever-normal mode is. This time the Device Manager showed multiple failed hardware gizmos, including the network adapter.
Minus Internet access, it’s impossible to fix some problems. For example, you can’t update a driver or even run some Windows troubleshooters. The laptop is under warranty (for two more months), but I can’t access the support information because it too requires an Internet connection.
I’ll continue to futz with the laptop to try and diagnose what’s wrong. My guess is hardware failure, which happens more rapidly with laptops than with desktop PCs. The portability and heat issues add up quickly for a laptop. And that’s one reason why I strongly recommend in Laptops For Dummies that you obtain a 3-year warranty on the device.
It’s the old thing, You need the ports to update the ports. PC’s were easier in some respects when they were given a seperate disk to boot off in emegancy, the ‘safe boot partition’ has never been that safe in my mind, what if the hard drive is over run with a virus! I remember a flat mates laptop got the name ‘cooker’ as it was an XP laptop with a solid state drive and got hot (quick boot)! Laptop mother boards are built to a cost point and then slightly cheaper another friends laptop went in for repair and when it came back was all new aside from the hard drive and case (my guess is the mother board went out of production and was replaced with the closest).
Comment by glennp — October 21, 2015 @ 9:29 am
With both the USB and network adapters failing, my options were limited. One of my desktop PCs had a bad network adapter, so I just plugged in a USB Wi-Fi adapter and it worked fine. But eventually that system’s motherboard failed.
The timing for my laptop dying is perfect for me. The warranty expires in December. So if it is a hardware failure, and they do replace the motherboard, I hope to get some more life out of the laptop. Who knows?
Comment by admin — October 21, 2015 @ 9:50 am