Windows 10 Can't connect to this network

Adam Spofford

Extraordinary Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2016
Messages
6
Every so often, while doing nothing in particular on my computer, it will disconnect from my home internet. It refuses to connect to any other network, saying Can't connect to this network. Turning on and off the WiFi on the computer does nothing. Turning airplane mode on and off does nothing. Turning the internet adapter off and on again does nothing. Turning the router off and on again does nothing. I would restart the relevant service, but I don't know if there is one. The only thing that works is restarting my computer. I would like to figure out the source of this problem and to fix it if possible. I do in fact mean I am doing nothing in particular; there is no indicator of what is causing this to happen. I might be browsing a web page, or playing a game (offline or online), or streaming something, or literally just leaving the computer alone for five minutes. The most recent one involved my phone being connected as a storage device, but I do not believe that was the case in more than one other occurrence.

I have Windows 10 build 14393.351. My network adapter is a Qualcomm Atheros AR956x. Its driver is version 3.0.2.201. I have prepared a DxDiag report, but the forums won't let me post the link.
 


Solution
The NIC is the network adapter. Then you probably have a bad nic and will want to replace it. They are generally accessible from a back panel and are very easy to replace.
Hi and welcome to the forum :up:

Your laptop is over 2 years old, and can begin to suffer from a variety of hardware for software failures. It appears your laptop came from the factory with Window8.1, not W10, so did you do the upgrade to W10 yourself, or pay someone to do it for you? If you did yourself, did you remember to run the W10 COMPATABILITY TEST before the upgrade? If not, you may have some misbehaving drivers that came in to your laptop from the W10 upgrade.

Did you try to uninstall your Wi-Fi driver through Device Manager yet? A quick look at the Lenovo support page for your model laptop shows that Lenovo does provide support for new drivers for W10 64bit; and there are 2 drivers listed shown here:
Link Removed
Did you try installing either or both of these drivers to your laptop? If not, you should attempt that first before proceeding to more drastic repairs.

If installing the above W10 WLAN drivers fails to solve the problem, you'll need to look for other issues with your laptop. The 2 biggest problems with laptops are that after 2 years, the hard drives begin to fail, so you'll need to test your drive and replace if faulty. The 2nd problem is there are now a huge number of viruses that single out and disable the Wi-Fi drivers on laptops:eek:--it's well known how to do this, and many virus hackers proliferate these viruses.:waah: And they can be very stubborn to remove. For the average person, this renders the laptop virtually unusable as today's laptop pretty much are worthless if they can't be used on the Internet via Wi-Fi.:( This means that you should scan your computer with whatever AV is your primary (Windows Defender, Norton, Avast, ect.) for viruses. Remove all that are found and retest your W10 login again. If it's fixed you had a virus, and have corrected it!:up:

If the problem persists it's likely you have either a spyware virus or a Rootkit Virus. Standard AV programs do not check for either of these.:noway:
To check for Spyware viruses, download and run the free MALWAREBYTES from malwarebytes.org
To check for Rookit viruses, download and run the free ROOTKIT BUSTER from trendmicro.com
Of course, remove all spyware viruses or rootkit viruses found, and retest your W10 login. If it's fixed, you're all set to go! :up:

If the problem persists you'll need to attempt the System Restore and retest. If that works, you're all set to go! :up:

If the problem persists still, you'll need to refer to my Troubleshooting Good for complete hardware testing and advanced software solutions here:
Windows 10 - Unclickable Task Bar
From experience we are seeing 90% success rate for users willing to follow the steps contained in the Guide. So have a look.

If you have further questions, or get stuck along the way, we are here 24x7x365.

EDIT: It's important to note that if virus scan/removal or device driver reinstall fails to solve the problem, it's possible that your WLAN card can be bad inside of your laptop. This often happens with laptops if they are dropped or banged hard. An easy way to tell if this has happened is to test your hardware (RAM and Hard Drive) as per directions in my Troubleshooting Guide above. Clean Install of W10 on a tested hardware will produce a conclusive result. If the WLAN card fails to work at this point, it could be bad. Replacement is about $10-$15 US, but it can often mean complete disassembly of the laptop. If you know how to do this great, you can do it in a day. If you've never opened up a laptop before, it's best to pay a professional to do for you; labor for this can be from $40-$200 depending on the accessibility of the WLAN card in your particular laptop. Purchasing a high-quality USB Wi-Fi adapter card such as Cisco/Linksys or Netgear for $35-$50 US can be a good solution to replacing your internal WLAN card, as you don't have to take your laptop apart and find the exact WLAN card you need on ebay or other site, it takes 10 min. to install and you only have to carry around the small USB Wi-Fi adapter with your laptop when you leave home. That will fit easily into a laptop bag or a pocket therein. Unfortunately, you'll have to go through about 3-7 days of troubleshooting to know if this will work or not. Many of my clients skip all this and just buy the USB adapter and plug it in and hope it will work. The viruses out there targeting windows Wi-Fi devices are well aware of this and target windows system networking files and damage or remove them to prevent this step. The only way to recover if this shortcut fails, should you try it, is to test your hardware and do a W10 Clean Install, and then install the USB Wi-Fi adapter, which produces a positive result in like 98% of cases. :up:

Best of luck,:encouragement:
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>
 


Last edited:
@BIGBEARJEDI Much emoji, very information. Wow.

Right on the money - it came with 8.1. I used GWX to upgrade to 10, and the only true issues I have seen with it are graphics driver issues, which I have solved. I have in fact tried all manner of drivers for the network adapter; each one fails eventually to the same problem. I am completely and utterly sure that I have no viruses (I assume by 'standard' you mean McAfee or Norton, which I've never touched with a twenty-foot pole). The computer has in fact suffered from one or two hard knocks, and the hard drive is definitely slightly slower than when it was new, but wouldn't a restart not affect the first one, and a restart of the adapter swiftly fix the latter?

@Neemobeer Thanks, I'll do that when it comes up.
 


From the log your wireless nic (network interface card) is on but not connected to an access point. Could be an issue with the nic, the router, could be interference or distance from the access point
 


@Neemobeer Is the NIC the same thing as the network adapter? Also, yes, I already know this. Like I said, the problem is that at an utterly random point, it will disconnect from the access point, and refuse to connect to it or any other access point until the computer is restarted. It's not interference or distance, because it will not work for any access point.
 


The NIC is the network adapter. Then you probably have a bad nic and will want to replace it. They are generally accessible from a back panel and are very easy to replace.
 


Solution
When you restart you are briefly removing power from the device, device manager is only dealing with drivers/software. If the laptop doesn't have a back panel (the nic will generally be under the panel memory is installed) in many cases. If there are no panels on the back then it will need to be opened up and replaced. The difficulty depends on the make and model of the laptop.
 


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