So my laptop keeps losing WiFi connection randomly, but my phone and tablet stay connected fine. It’s super annoying because I’m in the middle of work or streaming. I’ve tried restarting the router and my laptop, updated the network drivers, and even changed the WiFi channel, but no luck. I noticed it mostly happens when I move to another room or even just after a few minutes of being idle. Could it be a hardware issue with the laptop’s WiFi card? Has anyone dealt with something like this and found a fix? Would a USB WiFi adapter help? Any tips or tricks would be awesome!

Sounds like your laptop’s WiFi card might be struggling with signal strength or power management settings. Since your phone and tablet stay connected fine, it’s probably not the router. One thing to check is if your laptop’s WiFi adapter has any power-saving features enabled that could be cutting the connection when idle or moving between rooms. You can usually find these settings in Device Manager under the adapter’s properties - try disabling any power-saving options.

If that doesn’t help, a USB WiFi adapter is a solid workaround and often more reliable, especially if your laptop’s internal card is aging or has a weak antenna. I had a similar issue, and switching to a USB adapter made a huge difference in stability. Also, if you can, test the laptop in different spots to see if the signal drops correlate with certain areas - sometimes just a better antenna placement inside the laptop can fix things.

On 12/30/2025 at 7:20 PM, ChatterBoxMax said:

So my laptop keeps losing WiFi connection randomly, but my phone and tablet stay connected fine. It’s super annoying because I’m in the middle of work or streaming. I’ve tried restarting the router and my laptop, updated the network drivers, and even changed the WiFi channel, but no luck. I noticed it mostly happens when I move to another room or even just after a few minutes of being idle. Could it be a hardware issue with the laptop’s WiFi card? Has anyone dealt with something like this and found a fix? Would a USB WiFi adapter help? Any tips or tricks would be awesome!

That sounds super frustrating, especially when your other devices are holding steady. Since you’ve already updated drivers and changed channels, I’d also check your laptop’s WiFi adapter settings for any aggressive power-saving modes that might kick in when idle or on the move. Sometimes Windows will try to save battery by throttling the wireless card, causing those dropouts.

Also, if your laptop is older or the internal WiFi card is a bit weak, a USB WiFi adapter can definitely help by giving you a stronger, more reliable connection without the hassle of opening up your laptop. Just make sure to get one with good reviews for your specific WiFi standard (like AC or AX) so it matches your router’s capabilities.

One last thing: if you’re moving between rooms, walls and furniture can really mess with signal strength. Maybe try a WiFi range extender or reposition your router if possible. Hope you get it sorted soon!

On 01/19/2026 at 10:45 PM, MellowOwl615 said:

On 12/30/2025 at 7:20 PM, ChatterBoxMax said:

So my laptop keeps losing WiFi connection randomly, but my phone and tablet stay connected fine. It’s super annoying because I’m in the middle of work or streaming. I’ve tried restarting the router and my laptop, updated the network drivers, and even changed the WiFi channel, but no luck. I noticed it mostly happens when I move to another room or even just after a few minutes of being idle. Could it be a hardware issue with the laptop’s WiFi card? Has anyone dealt with something like this and found a fix? Would a USB WiFi adapter help? Any tips or tricks would be awesome!

That sounds super frustrating, especially when your other devices are holding steady. Since you’ve already updated drivers and changed channels, I’d also check your laptop’s WiFi adapter settings for any aggressive power-saving modes that might kick in when idle or on the move. Sometimes Windows will try to save battery by throttling the wireless card, causing those dropouts.

Also, if your laptop is older or the internal WiFi card is a bit weak, a USB WiFi adapter can definitely help by giving you a stronger, more reliable connection without the hassle of opening up your laptop. Just make sure to get one with good reviews for your specific WiFi standard (like AC or AX) so it matches your router’s capabilities.

One last thing: if you’re moving between rooms, walls and furniture can really mess with signal strength. Maybe try a WiFi range extender or reposition your router if possible. Hope you get it sorted soon!

Hey @MellowOwl615, sounds like you’re on the right track checking the power management settings like @TechWhiz89 suggested. Another thing that helped me was disabling the “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” option in the WiFi adapter’s properties. Sometimes Windows tries to save battery but ends up cutting the connection unexpectedly.

Also, since you mentioned the drops happen when moving between rooms, it could be a weak antenna or interference. A USB WiFi adapter with an external antenna can really boost signal stability and range. They’re usually plug-and-play and pretty affordable, so might be worth a shot if tweaking settings doesn’t fix it.