Member Avatar for jadacoy

First time poster here - great site and I'm really hoping you can help. As a note, I'm very good with MS Office and wysiwyg programs but don't have much experience with coding and the back end.

The past few weeks I've encountered a problem on my relatively new HP laptop (6 months or so). While I'm wireless at home (as opposed to hard-wired at work), I'll get the Internet for anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours when suddenly the browser can't find pages. I'm told I have an "Excellent 54.0 Mbps Connected" status to the Internet, but I can't access sites.

We were on AT&T DSL for about a year and it started about six weeks ago on that system. Usually I could repair it by running the troubleshooting wizard; sometimes I could plug and unplug the modem; on fewer occasions I had to reboot. A week ago we switched to AT&T uVerse. The first few days were fabulous. Now the same thing is happening with even greater frequency. And w/uVerse (a fiber-to-the-core? connection), the troubleshooting wizard can't do anything and I have to reboot EVERY time to get back on the Internet.

I've tried both IE and Firefox and it happens with each of them. I've called AT&T and they can't figure it out. My two roommates had problems when we were on AT&T DSL, but neither has had issues with uVerse. Seeing as how it's happened with both wireless set-ups AND both browsers, I'd say it's the laptop, but I have no idea what to do to fix it.

My only other clue is the past few times as I rebooted I was told that the Connection Tray was not responding, but that's a new thing.

Help?? Thanks!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Member #682468

Dani AI

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described a classic “client looks linked to the AP but has no Internet” symptom: wireless shows a strong link (54 Mbps) yet pages stop loading after 30–120 minutes and a reboot fixes it. That pattern, and the new “Connection Tray not responding” message, most often points at the laptop’s network stack/driver/power-management or a DHCP/DNS interaction — though router-side issues (WPA/WPA2 group rekey, DHCP lease handling, or buggy firmware) can produce the same behavior. ’s re-key remark is a valid troubleshooting angle.

Quick, focused diagnostics (run from an elevated Command Prompt) to separate DNS vs. routing vs. DHCP problems:

ping 8.8.8.8
ping google.com
ipconfig /all
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
ipconfig /flushdns
netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset
  • If ping 8.8.8.8 works but ping google.com fails: likely DNS.
  • If neither works while other devices on the same AP are fine: likely client-side (driver/power/DHCP).
  • Note: netsh resets require a reboot and can remove network customizations.

Practical fixes and checks to apply next:

  • Test with an Ethernet cable at home: if wired is stable while wireless drops, the adapter/driver is implicated.
  • Update the laptop’s wireless driver from HP or the adapter vendor (Intel/Broadcom/Atheros).
  • In Device Manager > adapter > Power Management, uncheck “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.” Set Windows Power Plan -> Wireless Adapter Settings -> Maximum Performance.
  • Temporarily set manual DNS (8.8.8.8 / 1.1.1.1) to rule out ISP DNS timeouts.
  • Check router firmware and DHCP/WPA settings: try lengthening or temporarily changing the group rekey/lease interval and review router logs.

If problems persist, gather Event Viewer timestamps for the failures (System/Application logs), try Safe Mode with Networking or a Linux live USB to isolate Windows, and run sfc /scannow if UI elements (Connection Tray) are unstable. These diagnostics will narrow whether the fix is a driver/power tweak, a router configuration change, or a deeper Windows/network-stack repair.

Member Avatar for Member #682468

The connection tray may be a side-effect. I used to have this happen with an old wireless router, for some reason when the IP address I was assigned by the router expired I wasn't able to get back on, try looking at your router settings, and boosting the time for a group re-key.

Hope it helps.

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