Question Certain websites won't load only on laptop

[jimmyfarmer]

My sister has been having problems with her laptop for a few weeks now, there's been a bunch of odd things happening that didn't quite make sense. Certain programs would take minutes to complete simple tasks, certain websites wouldn't load at all, certain programs wouldn't work properly, her printer wouldn't work at all, she bought a new printer and that had a lot of issues as well.
She is an accountant and is in the middle of tax season so she was hoping to hold off troubleshooting until she was done tax returns but it got to the point that she couldn't use her laptop as it was.
Her problems seemed like malware to me but I scanned a few times and nothing was ever found.
She wanted to upgrade anyways so I told her instead of wasting so much time trying to fix it as is, let's just install the new ssd and have a fresh installation of windows 10 to work with.
So last night I installed the new ssd and windows and a bunch of the software she needs. I installed all of the windows updates and her laptop was working fine.
This afternoon I brought it to her place and everything seems to be working except for a few websites. About a week ago, by changing her dns values it made the websites she needed work so I tried that again today but it didn't help. Duckduckgo will not load but google will and there are two websites she needs that simply won't load no matter what.
There are no problems accessing any of those sites from her phone when it's connected to the same WiFi. So to confirm my theory that it's something to do with her wireless adapter, I hooked up her phone and turned on tethering and all of those websites worked fine when not connected to wifi. So she has a workaround now to get her through tax season but this will need to get fixed properly.
I'm all out if ideas, I tried changing the DNS in the router configuration, I did it in the chrome settings and I did it in the wireless adapter settings. I tried flushing the DNS.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I can't for the life of me think of what else to try.

 

[Ralston18]

More information needed:

This:

"I tried changing the DNS in the router configuration "

Change from "what" to "what" Reasons?

Update your post to include the (your sister's) laptop's full system and hardware specs.

What wireless adapter is she using?

Printer(s) make and model: old ("wouldn't work at all) and new printer with issues?

What "Certain programs", again, "take minutes to complete a simple task".

What "certain websites" will not load?

Look in the laptop's Reliability History and Event Viewer.

Either one, or both, may reveal some on going problems via error codes, warnings, or even informational events.

On the laptop ensure that only one network adapter, either wired or wireless is enabled. One or the other - not both at the same time.

What router is she using: make and model?

The router's logs (if available and enabled) may provide some clue.

Overall, I would think that a wired connection would be preferred for the work she is doing. Wired is inherently faster and less subject to interference.

 

[jimmyfarmer]

Sorry, I was trying not to make a really long post and was hoping I provided enough info.

I changed the DNS from automatic to 1.1.1.1(Cloudfare). The reason I changed it was because that fixed the problem about a week ago and now that it has a fresh install of windows, by default the DNS was set to automatic again.

Her system specs are as follows:
-4th Generation Intel Core i7-4800MQ
-NVIDIA Quadro K2100M with 2GB dedicated GDDR5 video memory
-Samsung 870 EVO 500GB SATA 2.5" Internal SSD (MZ-77E500B/AM)
-Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 802.11 ac (2x2) + Bluetooth 4.0 LE Combo

If you need more details, this is from the HP website:
https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03934138

The old printer was a Canon inkjet printer, couldn't tell you the model number, but she wanted a new one anyways so she didn't just buy a new one because she couldn't get the old one to work. The new one is a Brother MFC-L3770CDW and it's working fine now with the fresh install of windows.

She has a few programs she uses for her tax returns that were not working properly.
Intuit Profile Tax - this program would take 5+ minutes to print a return to a pdf which she said on her work computer would only take seconds.
TechSmith Camtasia - she said this program wouldn't work at all
TechSmith Snagit - she said this program would take minutes to do what should take seconds.
There was a PDF editing program she said wouldn't work at all, I can't remember the name of it.
These are not free trials, these are all the full paid versions she is using.

As for the websites there may be more but the ones she uses and needs are DuckDuckGo, Intuit and CRA. None of them will load at all.

Since she is working with a fresh install of Windows would the laptop have an event or reliability history still? She has her laptop now so I cannot check that information anyways.

Router is an Asus RT-AC86U. I don't have access to the router logs.

I don't disagree with you, a wired connection will always be better than a wireless one, but she should be able to use her laptop wirelessly and not have certain websites not load for her, and I don't imagine she want to run ethernet cables everywhere in her house that she uses her laptop.

 

[jimmyfarmer]

She messaged me this morning, her printer stopped working again. Her computer simply cannot print anything but other computers in the house print fine.
She is connected to her printer wirelessly as well which is telling me it's something to do with her wireless adapter. I told her to update the drivers,she said she will do so tonight.
does anyone have any idea what might be going on?
I won't likely be able to go over until the weekend to try to help her if she is still having problems. I'm hopeful the updated drivers fix her problems but I fear they won't.