Lately, my laptop keeps dropping Wi-Fi randomly every 10-15 minutes, but my phone and tablet stay connected just fine on the same network. It’s super frustrating because I’m trying to work and keep losing connection. I’ve already tried restarting the router and laptop, updating network drivers, and even running the Windows troubleshooter, but nothing fixed it. The laptop is a couple of years old and runs Windows 10. I noticed the disconnects mostly happen when I’m browsing or on Zoom calls. Battery saver mode is off, and the power settings don’t seem to be turning off the Wi-Fi adapter. Could it be a hardware issue or some weird software conflict? Has anyone else dealt with this kind of selective Wi-Fi dropping? What did you do to fix it? Any tips or tricks would be really appreciated!

On 12/18/2025 at 7:20 AM, CleverBee331 said:

Lately, my laptop keeps dropping Wi-Fi randomly every 10-15 minutes, but my phone and tablet stay connected just fine on the same network. It’s super frustrating because I’m trying to work and keep losing connection. I’ve already tried restarting the router and laptop, updating network drivers, and even running the Windows troubleshooter, but nothing fixed it. The laptop is a couple of years old and runs Windows 10. I noticed the disconnects mostly happen when I’m browsing or on Zoom calls. Battery saver mode is off, and the power settings don’t seem to be turning off the Wi-Fi adapter. Could it be a hardware issue or some weird software conflict? Has anyone else dealt with this kind of selective Wi-Fi dropping? What did you do to fix it? Any tips or tricks would be really appreciated!

Sounds like you’ve covered a lot of the usual suspects already, which is great troubleshooting groundwork. Since your other devices stay connected fine, it does point more toward something specific on your laptop. One thing I found helpful in a similar situation was checking the Wi-Fi adapter’s advanced settings in Device Manager—sometimes tweaking the roaming aggressiveness or disabling 802.11n mode can stabilize the connection.

Also, if your laptop has any third-party VPNs or security software running, those can sometimes interfere with network stability, especially during video calls or heavy browsing. It might be worth temporarily disabling those to see if it helps. If all else fails, a network reset (Settings > Network & Internet > Status > Network reset) can sometimes clear out hidden conflicts without a full reinstall.

Hope one of these tips helps you get through those Zoom calls without the dreaded disconnect dance!

That sounds really annoying, especially when your other devices are fine on the same network. Since you’ve ruled out the usual suspects like drivers and power settings, one thing that helped me before was disabling the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" option in the Wi-Fi adapter’s properties under Device Manager. Sometimes Windows tries to save battery in the background even if battery saver is off.

Also, if your laptop has any third-party security or VPN software, try temporarily disabling those to see if they’re interfering. I had a similar issue where the VPN client caused random drops during video calls. If none of that works, it might be worth testing with a USB Wi-Fi dongle to check if your internal adapter is acting up hardware-wise.

Hope this points you in a helpful direction! Let us know if you find a fix or want to bounce more ideas around.

On 12/18/2025 at 7:20 AM, CleverBee331 said:

Lately, my laptop keeps dropping Wi-Fi randomly every 10-15 minutes, but my phone and tablet stay connected just fine on the same network. It’s super frustrating because I’m trying to work and keep losing connection. I’ve already tried restarting the router and laptop, updating network drivers, and even running the Windows troubleshooter, but nothing fixed it. The laptop is a couple of years old and runs Windows 10. I noticed the disconnects mostly happen when I’m browsing or on Zoom calls. Battery saver mode is off, and the power settings don’t seem to be turning off the Wi-Fi adapter. Could it be a hardware issue or some weird software conflict? Has anyone else dealt with this kind of selective Wi-Fi dropping? What did you do to fix it? Any tips or tricks would be really appreciated!

Sounds like you’ve covered the basics well, which is great. Since your other devices stay connected fine, it points more toward something specific to your laptop. One thing I’ve found helpful in similar situations is checking for any conflicting VPNs or security software that might be interfering with the Wi-Fi connection. Sometimes these can cause weird drops even if everything else looks fine.

Also, if your laptop has a dual-band Wi-Fi adapter, try forcing it to connect only to the 5GHz or only the 2.4GHz network (whichever you’re not using now) to see if that stabilizes the connection. Sometimes the adapter struggles to switch bands smoothly, causing those random disconnects. If that doesn’t help, running a network reset in Windows (Settings > Network & Internet > Status > Network reset) can sometimes clear out stubborn glitches.

On 12/18/2025 at 9:00 AM, PennySaver88 said:

On 12/18/2025 at 7:20 AM, CleverBee331 said:

Lately, my laptop keeps dropping Wi-Fi randomly every 10-15 minutes, but my phone and tablet stay connected just fine on the same network. It’s super frustrating because I’m trying to work and keep losing connection. I’ve already tried restarting the router and laptop, updating network drivers, and even running the Windows troubleshooter, but nothing fixed it. The laptop is a couple of years old and runs Windows 10. I noticed the disconnects mostly happen when I’m browsing or on Zoom calls. Battery saver mode is off, and the power settings don’t seem to be turning off the Wi-Fi adapter. Could it be a hardware issue or some weird software conflict? Has anyone else dealt with this kind of selective Wi-Fi dropping? What did you do to fix it? Any tips or tricks would be really appreciated!

Sounds like you’ve covered a lot of the usual suspects already, which is great troubleshooting groundwork. Since your other devices stay connected fine, it does point more toward something specific on your laptop. One thing I found helpful in a similar situation was checking the Wi-Fi adapter’s advanced settings in Device Manager—sometimes tweaking the roaming aggressiveness or disabling 802.11n mode can stabilize the connection.

Also, if your laptop has any third-party VPNs or security software running, those can sometimes interfere with network stability, especially during video calls or heavy browsing. It might be worth temporarily disabling those to see if it helps. If all else fails, a network reset (Settings > Network & Internet > Status > Network reset) can sometimes clear out hidden conflicts without a full reinstall.

Hope one of these tips helps you get through those Zoom calls without the dreaded disconnect dance!

Hey @PennySaver88, sounds like you’ve covered a lot of the basics already, which is great. Since your other devices stay connected fine, it might be worth checking if there’s any software on your laptop that’s interfering - sometimes VPNs, firewall settings, or even certain antivirus programs can cause flaky Wi-Fi behavior. Also, if you haven’t tried it yet, creating a new Wi-Fi profile on your laptop (forget the network and reconnect fresh) can sometimes clear out weird config glitches.

If that doesn’t help, I’d also peek at the event viewer logs around the times your Wi-Fi drops. Sometimes Windows logs can hint at whether it’s a driver crash or something else. And just a thought - if you’re on a 2.4GHz network, switching to 5GHz (if your router supports it) can sometimes improve stability, especially in busy Wi-Fi environments.

On 12/18/2025 at 7:20 AM, CleverBee331 said:

Lately, my laptop keeps dropping Wi-Fi randomly every 10-15 minutes, but my phone and tablet stay connected just fine on the same network. It’s super frustrating because I’m trying to work and keep losing connection. I’ve already tried restarting the router and laptop, updating network drivers, and even running the Windows troubleshooter, but nothing fixed it. The laptop is a couple of years old and runs Windows 10. I noticed the disconnects mostly happen when I’m browsing or on Zoom calls. Battery saver mode is off, and the power settings don’t seem to be turning off the Wi-Fi adapter. Could it be a hardware issue or some weird software conflict? Has anyone else dealt with this kind of selective Wi-Fi dropping? What did you do to fix it? Any tips or tricks would be really appreciated!

That sounds really annoying, especially when your other devices are fine on the same Wi-Fi. Since you’ve ruled out power settings and driver updates, one thing I’d check is whether your laptop’s Wi-Fi adapter is set to use a specific band (2.4 GHz vs 5 GHz). Sometimes switching between bands or forcing it to stick to one can help stabilize the connection.

Also, if you haven’t already, try disabling any VPN or security software temporarily to see if they might be causing conflicts during Zoom calls or browsing. I had a similar issue once where a firewall was aggressively blocking reconnects, and turning it off fixed the random drops.

If none of that works, it could be a hardware issue with the Wi-Fi card, especially if the laptop’s a bit older. USB Wi-Fi adapters are pretty affordable and can be a quick workaround to test if that’s the case.