Starting this week, my 8 year old Toshiba Satellite laptop would lose connection with the Wifi. I have to go to network setting and turn of the wifi and turn it back on and it will reconnect again. But it would drop the connection when I am not using it or when I am using the laptop, but not actively accessing the web. Any suggestion?
I would imagine your wireless card is starting to fail on you. On some models it's easily replaceable. You can try updating the driver first though.
I'd also replace the card if this happens on all ssids. They're pretty cheap and a decent opportunity to put a better one in there.
Provided its not whitelisted.. I know I ran into it before on both Toshiba and Lenovo notebooks where they just will not accept a different wifi chip...like the notebooks wouldnt even boot up. I'm sure some of you know a way to crack that, but I sure don't.
How do you replace a wireless chip in a laptop? Is it something that I can unplug and replug a new one? Or would that be better to buy a USB wifi adapter? If so, do I have to turn off/or disable the wifi in the machine?
Wireless cards are small little chips that basically plug into a pcie slot and then 2 small wires get attached to it. They are usually very easy to access and change out for most models.
In your case, and given the age of the laptop, I'd recommend a USB wifi adapter. It's gonna be the easiest, pretty much sure fire way to go for you, and doesn't require opening the back or fiddling with the antenna leads. Grab a decent wireless AC usb dongle and be done with it!! Just disable your current internal wifi, and connect to the usb stick!! Done and Done!!
Just went on YouTube and viewed a couple of how to. It looks like something I can handle. Went on eBay and found that the replacement (used) is about $5. That would be pretty painless. Thanks.
For under $5, it is worth a try. If it doesn't work, I can always order another one. BTW, what is a whitelisted chip?
I'm going say this poorly, basically some laptop boards wont allow the wireless chip to be swapped out, or only certain 'approved' devices. I think I have the name right. Anyhow, I've run into issues on Toshibas and Lenovos where it wouldn't boot after an attempted wireless chip change.
If I take the current one out from my laptop and order the identical part, would that work? I think there are tons of them on eBay to choose from.
