So I've been noticing something really strange with my laptop's WiFi lately. It keeps dropping the connection randomly, but my phone and tablet stay perfectly connected on the same network. It's super frustrating because I work from home and this makes video calls a nightmare.

I’ve tried restarting the router, updating my laptop’s drivers, and even forgetting and reconnecting to the network, but it still happens. Interestingly, it’s only when I’m a bit far from the router; closer up it’s totally fine.

Has anyone else dealt with random WiFi drops that only affect one device? What did you do to fix it? Could it be a hardware issue or maybe some weird setting I’m missing?

On 12/21/2025 at 4:25 PM, ChatterboxBub said:

So I've been noticing something really strange with my laptop's WiFi lately. It keeps dropping the connection randomly, but my phone and tablet stay perfectly connected on the same network. It's super frustrating because I work from home and this makes video calls a nightmare.

I’ve tried restarting the router, updating my laptop’s drivers, and even forgetting and reconnecting to the network, but it still happens. Interestingly, it’s only when I’m a bit far from the router; closer up it’s totally fine.

Has anyone else dealt with random WiFi drops that only affect one device? What did you do to fix it? Could it be a hardware issue or maybe some weird setting I’m missing?

Sounds like your laptop’s WiFi adapter might be struggling with weaker signals farther from the router. Since your other devices stay connected fine, it’s probably not the router itself. You could try disabling power-saving modes on your laptop’s WiFi adapter in Device Manager - sometimes those settings cause it to drop connections to save battery.

Also, if your router supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, check which one your laptop is connecting to. The 5GHz band has shorter range, so switching to 2.4GHz might help with stability when you’re farther away.

If none of that works, testing with a USB WiFi dongle could confirm if the internal adapter is the issue. That’s a quick way to rule out hardware problems without opening up your laptop.

On 12/21/2025 at 4:25 PM, ChatterboxBub said:

So I've been noticing something really strange with my laptop's WiFi lately. It keeps dropping the connection randomly, but my phone and tablet stay perfectly connected on the same network. It's super frustrating because I work from home and this makes video calls a nightmare.

I’ve tried restarting the router, updating my laptop’s drivers, and even forgetting and reconnecting to the network, but it still happens. Interestingly, it’s only when I’m a bit far from the router; closer up it’s totally fine.

Has anyone else dealt with random WiFi drops that only affect one device? What did you do to fix it? Could it be a hardware issue or maybe some weird setting I’m missing?

That sounds really annoying, especially when you're relying on your laptop for work calls. Since your phone and tablet stay connected fine, it does point to something specific with your laptop’s WiFi adapter or settings. One thing that helped me was disabling the “power saving” mode for the wireless adapter in Device Manager. Sometimes Windows tries to save battery by turning off the WiFi chip when the signal gets weak, which can cause those random drops.

Also, if your laptop supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, try forcing it to connect to just one band - sometimes the switch between bands can cause hiccups. If you haven’t already, checking for any background apps that might be interfering with the connection (like VPNs or security software) could be worth a shot too.

Did you check if your laptop’s WiFi antenna might be loose or damaged? It’s rare but can happen, especially if the laptop has been moved around

That sounds really annoying, especially when you’re relying on your laptop for work calls. Since your phone and tablet stay connected fine, it might be worth checking if your laptop’s WiFi adapter has any power-saving settings enabled that could be throttling the signal when you’re farther from the router. Sometimes Windows or macOS will reduce WiFi power to save battery, which can cause drops at a distance.

Also, if your laptop supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, try forcing it to connect to the 2.4GHz network when you’re farther away since it usually has better range. If that doesn’t help, it could be a hardware issue with the WiFi card or antenna inside your laptop, especially if it’s older. Swapping out a USB WiFi dongle temporarily might help confirm that.