Why has my laptop suddenly stopped connecting to wi-fi automatically?

[swee'pea99]

Suddenly, like within the last month or something, my laptop has taken to starting up and not connecting to wi-fi. I have to connect manually. Which works, but it's a PITB. Every time, I find myself confronting:

Every time, I tick the box. Every time, next time I arrive, the box is unticked. The online advice I can follow generally circles around finding this in properties

and making sure it's on. Which it is.

Makes sense to me. You'd expect windows to have a setting to connect automatically. This is surely it. But though I've set it to 'connect automatically when in range', it doesn't.

Anyone have any idea why and/or, more importantly, if there's a solution - I'd be orfly grateful. Like I say, no biggy, but it's beginning to get on my tit.

 

[fossyant]

Delete the connection, then search for it again !

 

[swee'pea99]

Thanks! Done. <fingers crossed emoji>

 

[swee'pea99]

Interestingly, arguably, when I did that - right-clicked on the network and 'forget', I noticed that in the instant of shutting down, a cross appeared in

the 'Connect automatically' box. Interesting...

 

[ColinJ]

That kind of thing is VERY annoying.

I have had a similar issue with the 'battery conservation' feature on my Lenovo laptop. When enabled, it restricts charging to 60% and then switches over to mains power. It should greatly extend the lifetime of the battery, which is important because it is not supposed to be replaceable. (I unscrewed the laptop anyway to check...In fact I probably WILL be able to do it if I can find a compatible replacement battery but I still don't want the original battery to die an early death like the one on my old Dell did.)

The thing is... the laptop often forgot the conservation mode setting every time I shut the laptop down. Next time I powered it up, it would do a 'overcharge' to 100% unless I happened to notice that the setting was wrong, which I usually DIDN'T!

I eventually found that if I left the laptop power connected while I shut it down, and made sure the power was already connected when I started it up again, the setting IS remembered.

When I say 'shut down' - I mean put into sleep mode. I have the machine set to sleep when the lid is closed and wake again when it is opened. It only takes a couple of seconds each way, so that is very convenient. Sleeping doesn't use much power on this device. I think I have it set to 'hibernate' after a long sleep, but I rarely leave it that long before using it again.

Do you do a full reboot of your laptop each time? If so, why don't you try using sleep instead of a full shutdown?

 

[matticus]

Same problem - intermittently - with our fairly "mature" ASUS. Absurd!

Delete the connection, then search for it again !

The reason I haven't done that is the fear that it will forget the password!

(as for using Sleep mode more: well, leaving things on Standby is verboten by the power-saving Fuhrer in our house. )

 

[RoubaixCube]

why don't you try using sleep instead of a full shutdown?

Because things like these usually come with their own problems which then can go on to cause data loss/corruption. Just google 'windows 10 sleep bug' and 'windows 10 hibernation bug' -- Its not worth the risk. Just shut your computer down. One of the many blessings of having solid state storage is that you can be on your login screen/desktop in around 30 seconds from a cold boot if not even less.

While windows 10 is a more advanced OS boasting a plethora of better features than its predecessor, It is nowhere near as stable as Windows 7 ever was due to Microsoft doing away with its QC team and making the consumers its unpaid beta testers.

 

[cisamcgu]

Suddenly, like within the last month or something, my laptop has taken to starting up and not connecting to wi-fi. I have to connect manually. Which works, but it's a PITB. Every time, I find myself confronting:

......

Anyone have any idea why and/or, more importantly, if there's a solution - I'd be orfly grateful. Like I say, no biggy, but it's beginning to get on my tit.

My PC has started doing exactly the same thing about 4 days ago - very annoying indeed

 

[RoubaixCube]

My PC has started doing exactly the same thing about 4 days ago - very annoying indeed

Probably a windows update. Are you tech savvy to go to the windows update history page and uninstall it? Updates usually start with a 'KB' suffix then end with a few random numbers. uninstall one or two of them, restart your pc and see if that helps.


This is why i normally set my windows updates to manual or set it to delay it for a month if manual update isnt possible so that everyone can take the leap first before its eventually my turn - I recommend that everyone does the same.

the more you click, the longer it pauses updates.

 

[HMS_Dave]

You could try changing this in the power profile.

1. Type "edit power plan" into the search box in the bottom left and click it.
2. Click on "change advance power settings"
3. Ensure that "Wireless Adapter Settings" is set at "maximum performance" (it should be)
4. Ensure that under the "PCI Express" drop down, ensure "Link State Power Management" is set at maximum performance...

Should have minimal impact on battery life and i had some success with it...

 

[ColinJ]

I've not had any problems with sleep/hibernate so far on this laptop. I'll carry on using it but it probably is about time that I did a full backup of my machine, rather than just my most important documents!

I usually do a full reboot once or twice a week anyway.

As a matter of interest though, I'll start the laptop from cold and see how long it takes to get to the login prompt...

Hmm, various updates to do. It has obviously been a while! I had update alerts disabled so I didn't know those were waiting... I have reenabled the alerts so I can keep an eye on pending updates.

I found out how to disable the pretty lock screen photo and go straight to the login prompt. Details - HERE.

Yes, that IS pretty quick (not worth timing). The thing that I don't like is having to reopen everything that got shut down when I switched off. I'm used to the system coming back up exactly as I left it.

 

[swee'pea99]

Delete the connection, then search for it again !

At the risk of tempting fate...so far so good.

Incidentally, this is very much a 'waking from sleep' thing. My laptop is set to go to sleep when I put the lid down. When I woke it up just now, the network icon was the sort of globe thing that means 'no connection', but within a second or two it changed to the network live icon. So it at least looks as though it now is 'connecting automatically when in range'. Hooray again - another triumph for CC! (Thus far )

 

[fossyant]

At the risk of tempting fate...so far so good.

Incidentally, this is very much a 'waking from sleep' thing. My laptop is set to go to sleep when I put the lid down. When I woke it up just now, the network icon was the sort of globe thing that means 'no connection', but within a second or two it changed to the network live icon. So it at least looks as though it now is 'connecting automatically when in range'. Hooray again - another triumph for CC! (Thus far )

Good - just one of those weird things with Computery things.

 

[cisamcgu]

Probably a windows update. Are you tech savvy to go to the windows update history page and uninstall it? Updates usually start with a 'KB' suffix then end with a few random numbers. uninstall one or two of them, restart your pc and see if that helps.

Well, I ventured into the murky world of Windows Updates (more of an Oracle/Linux chap in my day job), and removed the 3 that had been installed in February, and lo and behold it seems to have fixed the problem

Many thanks

 

[RoubaixCube]

Well, I ventured into the murky world of Windows Updates (more of an Oracle/Linux chap in my day job)

Youre cut from the same cloth as my dad in that case He worked with the same but dealt more with Unix & some other thing begging with 'Si' or 'SY' that sounds like 'simmonds' but i cant remember for the life of me what it was. They used to build big rack mount server units and stuff back in the 80s along side companies like IBM before sun microsystems took over the market