Fix or replace · Wi-Fi keeps dropping
Wi-Fi keeps dropping
Before anyone sells you a repair, one question decides most of these cases: is it dropping on every device, or just yours?
Verdict
Probably fix it
— but step one is proving whose fault it is, yours or the router's. That triage is free to do at home; the machine-side fixes are mostly cheap software work, and the hardware cases get quoted before we start.
The free triage: prove the culprit in five minutes
- Every device drops, or the drops follow you room to room? That's your router or internet, not the laptop. Reboot the router; if it keeps happening, it's an ISP/router conversation, and we'll tell you so instead of selling you a repair.
- Only this one machine drops, everywhere it goes? Now it's the laptop — and that's usually fixable.
The machine-side causes, cheapest first
- Driver junk or power management "saving" your connection. The most common cause, and it's a software fix. Covered as part of a $99 tune-up (cleanup, updates, and settings that stop Windows from napping the radio).
- Loose antenna or dying Wi-Fi card. Laptop Wi-Fi cards are small plug-in modules — if the hardware is the culprit, we quote the part up front (the cost guide shows typical card/driver-fix ranges). Still a repair, not a new laptop.
- Half-broken recent update. Also software; also tune-up territory.
The honest boundary: if the $49 diagnose says the machine is innocent and your router or ISP is the problem, we say exactly that — the $49 is credited toward any repair you approve, and "you don't need one" is an approved answer. We'd rather be the shop that told you the truth than the one that replaced a perfectly good Wi-Fi card.
Slowness, pop-ups, or a machine running hot at the same time? Those have their own verdicts: slow, virus/pop-ups, jet-engine fan.
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