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davidspackage
May 16, 2007

Nap Ghost
Problem description: Since about a week, upon startup, my laptop will show a normal wifi connection, but I won't be able to reach any websites. Upon trying to let Windows solve the problem, it may report that DHCP is turned off, or that no IP can be assigned, at which point my wifi connection will show "Identifying...", a message that does not go away. I should note that if I plug in an ethernet cable, it works fine, and none of the other devices in my house that use wifi experience any problems. It's strictly this laptop's wifi.

Attempted fixes: Googling this problem, I unfortunately find mostly tech support threads where people have the same issue, get offered a few dozen different solutions to try, and no resolution. I've tried running ipconfig /release /flushdns /renew from a command line. I've tried disabling and re-enabling the wifi in device manager. I've tried reverting to an older driver for the wifi card. I've tried updating the driver. I've tried deleting the driver and letting it reinstall itself. I've tried manually downloading drivers and installing those. The only thing that has worked so far is using system restore to revert to a day or two earlier, which brings me to the next point.

Recent changes: No changes as such, but over the past week, I've temporarily solved the problem several times by using system restore. A day or two after doing that, I experience the problem again. I had a look at what programs/drivers get removed by reverting to an older restore point, and it shows the following: Intel Corporation (Net) 30-4-2015 1.4.1.1003 (oem19.inf) Driver. I'm really hoping this is part of the problem, because it's my only lead to a consistent factor in the problem reappearing. I've performed a system restore like three times now, and each time, that oem19.inf driver is the only mentioned change in the interim.

--

Operating system: Windows 8.1 64 bits

System specs: HP Pavilion 17 Notebook PC 17-f084nd, AMD Quad Core A8-9410 processor, 5 GB RAM. Going by Device Manager, wifi card is a Realtek RTL8723BE 802.11 bgn Wi-Fi Adapter.

Location: Netherlands

I have Googled and read the FAQ: Yes

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Zogo
Jul 29, 2003

I'd upgrade to W10 if possible.

davidspackage
May 16, 2007

Nap Ghost
Well, it got resolved, somehow. I rolled back to a "wifi working" status a couple more times, then put my laptop in sleep mode instead of shutting down for a few days in a row. Finally, let it reboot and update again two days ago, and not experienced the problem since. I hope it doesn't come back, there doesn't seem to be a common solution.

davidspackage
May 16, 2007

Nap Ghost
And poo poo, it's back. Weirdly, this morning I was wifi-ing just fine, put my laptop into sleep mode while I went running errands, and when I come back and wake it up,
1) wifi connection drops, comes back but can't reach any sites
2) I let Windows try to figure the problem, it tells me DHCP isn't turned on
3) I let it try to fix the problem, and we're back to "Identifying...".
4) Rolled back to an earlier state with system restore. I notice again that the only item it shows as affected is that oem19 driver/file.

Think I'll try a complete factory reset of the laptop, though I'm worried that once it's done running updates, I'll be back at square 1.

davidspackage
May 16, 2007

Nap Ghost
Sorry for bumping, but I think I've narrowed down the issue. The latest driver update for my laptop's built-in realtek wifi-adapter just seems to permascrew my wifi. I just tried, after restoring to an earlier state, to update the driver through device manager, and bam, bye wifi. I return to device manager and restore to the earlier driver, and wifi's back. Can't imagine a solution other than waiting for a newer driver update and hoping that won't break it.

On a related note, Realtek's website looks like it hasn't been updated since 1999.

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