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Why would a laptop drop to a drastically lower data rate or completely disconnect from wifi every few minutes during active use?

My HP Compaq NC6220 running XP Pro

keeps popping up the box that says

"Wireless connection is now connected"

every few minutes.

This never happened when it was new,

and it has not been damaged.

Update:

There are no cordless or dell phones nearby.

I and others have tried "changing the channel".

It has made no difference.

I will use XP until this thing dies.

Actually, my new HP Pavilion with W 10

does the same thing once in a while,

but not like this one does.

And the wifi network it's "connected" to makes no difference, either.

It has happened everywhere the laptop has been used.

Update 2:

Oops. Cell, not "dell" phone.

3 Answers

Relevance
  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    Possibly interference? Something like a cordless phone can transmit on the same frequency and "jam" the wifi.

    You can try going into the wifi box's control screen and changing the channel it's using. That sometimes clears up that problem.

  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    From experience, Compaq wireless cards seem to suffer overheating. That causes these types of drops.

  • ?
    Lv 5
    5 years ago

    Windows XP is no longer receiving updates and is open to many exploits. Your computer may be compromised. Install lubuntu

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