Unreliable WIFI Adapter

[ChaseCosmicwing]

This was a problem before, which I thought I'd fixed. Originally, after some searching and thinking, I noticed I had too much stored on my computer, as I thought I'd stored a lot of things on one of my removables, but obviously, I hadn't. I figured it was a memory issue where something overflowed and caused the adapter to go screwy. Well, after sorting a decent chunk of my storage, about a fourth of my total available freed back up, it seemed to stop for a while. Ping was back to normal in online games, I didn't have random disconnects, videos stopped having to buffer or just outright refusing to load every so often, it was all nice, y'know?

Well, unfortunately, it started back today. Same thing as last time: my computer shows I'm connected, shows a few bars or full signal, says I'm connected, the troubleshooter won't recognize anything wrong, but I will have no connection, anywhere. I can't play an online game, or even connect to one, I can't load any webpage, even Google, I can't connect to Skype, or anything, but I also can't really address any of the issues. I've tried everything to get it to settled, and all of the tricks work, for about ten minutes or so. I'll restart my computer, my router, and my modem, and I'll come back to perfect connection, which doesn't even waver, until a few minutes later, where it just completely crashes and burns to nothing. I can occasionally fix it without having to actually go through the tedium of restarting something, or everything, but I have to wait for my computer to recognize that I've lost internet connection, which is seemingly random, and the little yellow warning to show up by my connection on the bar. I'll run the troubleshooter, and it will almost instantly just restart my wifi adapter, telling me that the default gateway isn't available but that it was fixed. Now, since I freed up the memory, I've not downloaded anything, and the storage numbers have not changed, at all, I still have well over a hundred gigs left free, so if it was a memory thing before, then I don't know how much free space I have to have to be able to access the internet, but it's apparently quite a freaking bit.

A few details escape me at the moment, but I should be able to answer specific questions if they're presented. I've seen a few "fixes" for wifi adapters, but I'm only faintly sure that's the issue, as that seems to be what has to reset to fix it, and not one of them seemed to be the same issue, as they all have the network connection end entirely, with the computer even recognizing it, whereas my connection is only my internet, or, at least that's all I'm aware of, as my computer only rarely figures out the connection is lost at all to even the internet.

Any possible help is very much appreciated.

 

[Ralston18]

Doubt that the problem is "space" related.

Make and model of the Wifi adapter? Is it plugged in tightly and securely?

Check the temperature - if the adapter is hot then the problem could be heat related. Hot = problems, Cool = okay for awhile at least.

Explains why, after a crash, things come back; the adapter has cooled off some.

You might try putting the adapter on a USB extension cable so you can raise the adapter higher or otherwise move it about for, hopefully, better reception. And perhaps cooling if the adapter is stuck down somewhere behind the PC sans air flow.

 

[ChaseCosmicwing]

Doubt that the problem is "space" related.

Make and model of the Wifi adapter? Is it plugged in tightly and securely?

Check the temperature - if the adapter is hot then the problem could be heat related. Hot = problems, Cool = okay for awhile at least.

Explains why, after a crash, things come back; the adapter has cooled off some.

You might try putting the adapter on a USB extension cable so you can raise the adapter higher or otherwise move it about for, hopefully, better reception. And perhaps cooling if the adapter is stuck down somewhere behind the PC sans air flow.

It's an internal, and I'm genuinely sorry if it's listed incorrectly as such, but it's listed under the device manager as:
Realtek 8821AE Wireless LAN 80211ac PCI-ENIC

That's assuming I found the right one(there were four things listed under Network Adapters and this seemed the one I was looking for).

If I should re-tag this as something else, like an internal adapter or something else/more specific, I will. I just want this to be fixed, although the overheating part may be something to it, since, like I said, it's internal. I'm just not sure how to fix that. Hope this information is helpful.

 

[Ralston18]

I think you are okay with the tagging. Moderators will move if and as warranted.

What make and model computer (and OS) are you using? Dust free and plenty of ventilation to prevent heat build up?

Can you run "ipconfig /all"and post the results?

Two immediate things to consider: 1) Making sure that you have the current/current driver installed for your wireless internal network adapter, and 2) Do some network testing (via wired or other ports; e.g., test with a USB wireless adapter) to narrow down the problem to perhaps just being the current wireless internal network adapter.

Make take some time and a methodical approach to work through.

Need to narrow down the possible causes.

 

[ChaseCosmicwing]

I think you are okay with the tagging. Moderators will move if and as warranted.

What make and model computer (and OS) are you using? Dust free and plenty of ventilation to prevent heat build up?

Can you run "ipconfig /all"and post the results?

Two immediate things to consider: 1) Making sure that you have the current/current driver installed for your wireless internal network adapter, and 2) Do some network testing (via wired or other ports; e.g., test with a USB wireless adapter) to narrow down the problem to perhaps just being the current wireless internal network adapter.

Make take some time and a methodical approach to work through.

Need to narrow down the possible causes.

I ran the command and tried to capture the results as best I could here.
Outside of that, and the other suggestions, which I will try, for sake of accuracy if nothing else, a recent test last night makes me think that I might just need to fix/replace my current cooling system, as apparently my cooling fan never turns on, even when my GPU is reaching 133F/~56C. If that's too close to the chip, I can easily imagine that causing some connection issues. Again, though, I will be trying some of the other suggestions to make sure that's the issue, all the help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Ralston18]

Hard to tell - overheating problems can cause all sorts of strange behaviors. Best that you are addressing the fan/GPU problem up front....

As for the link, it appears that it did not capture the full output of "ipconfig /all". Give it another try when you have a chance.

And no harm is continuing with troubleshooting per se. However, if the GPU is getting hot you may want to pull it and just the motherboard's built-in monitor port - just as temporary measure while testing. If the problem completely stops then the GPU is the culprit.