Share how to fix laptop not catching wifi

During the process of using a laptop, you must have encountered a situation where your laptop cannot catch Wifi. But you do not know the cause and how to fix this situation other than taking it to a repair shop. Today, TipsMake will guide you to find the cause and how to fix this situation right at home!

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Reasons why laptop cannot catch Wifi

To find a way to fix the situation where the laptop cannot catch Wifi, we must first know the cause of the error to find the fastest and most accurate way to fix it. But there are many reasons why your computer cannot connect to Wifi, and one of those reasons can be listed as follows: 

1. Accidentally turned off the Wifi switch, or did not activate the Wifi feature on the laptop. Some laptop models such as Dell, HP,. will have this switch. Therefore, the phenomenon of Dell laptop not being able to connect to wifi may be because you accidentally turned off the wifi switch.
2. The computer does not have a Wifi network driver installed or the driver is old, corrupted due to a virus or software conflict.
3. Due to network system, wifi router error or no network connection.
4. Same IP as other machines in LAN
5. Computer infected with virus
6. Use fake IP software or VPN to change IP

How to fix the error

Laptop cannot catch wifi with red X

If you cannot connect to the network and the wifi has a red X icon, you need to check if the wifi is turned on or not. On some old Dell or HP laptop models, there will be a physical switch to turn the Wifi on and off. Therefore, when the Dell laptop cannot catch the wifi, first check this switch to see if we accidentally turned it to OFF mode or not.

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For current laptop models such as Dell laptops or HP laptops, the physical wifi switch on the edge of the machine is designed as a button next to the power button. Try turning on wifi on your laptop with this hotkey. When turned on, the Wifi button has a blue indicator light, on the contrary, when the indicator light is orange or red, it means the laptop's wifi is off.

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In case your device does not have the quick wifi on/off buttons as above, you can also use the shortcut key combination to re-enable wifi.

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Key combination to turn on/off Wifi on laptops:

1. Dell Laptop: Fn + PrtScr
2. Asus Laptop: Fn + F2
3. Lenovo Laptop: Fn + F5 or Fn + F7
4. Acer Laptop: Fn + F5 or Fn + F2
5. HP Laptop: Fn + F12
6. Toshiba Laptop: Fn + F12

Reinstall driver

If you used it normally before but suddenly your laptop can't catch wifi anymore, then the possibility of your network driver error is very high. To check your laptop's wifi driver, do the following:

Step 1: On the This PC icon on the desktop, right-click and select Manager

Step 2: Continue to select Device Manager and check in the ' Network adapter ' column to see if the wifi driver is present. The normal wifi driver will have the symbol Wireless

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Step 3: If you do not have the Wifi driver, you must use another device to download the driver, copy it to the USB and then reinstall it. If you cannot download the wifi driver or cannot find the driver, you can use All in one driver automatic installation software such as Driver Booter or Wandrive to automatically reinstall it.

Step 4: After installing the Driver, if the signal bar icon is the same as before, it is successful. In case the new device has not installed the driver, you can also do it this way.

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Wifi not connected and has yellow exclamation mark

When your laptop cannot connect to wifi and has a yellow exclamation mark or the laptop loses the wifi icon, this is a common sign when your computer has an IP that overlaps with devices using the network with you. To fix this situation, you can delete this old Wifi and reconnect.

If after reconnecting to wifi it still doesn't work, please refresh the IP address as follows:

Step 1: Open the RUN window by typing " run " into the search box on the window. 

Step 2: Continue typing cmd and enter to open the Command Prompt application .

Step 3: The cmd window appears, you use the command ipconfig /release   ⏩ then press Enter to execute: This command helps you delete the old IP that is having an error.

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Step 4: Next, type the command ipconfig /renew for the computer to receive a new IP address.

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After completing this step, restart your computer to check the results.

Above are some of the most common causes and solutions for laptop not catching wifi errors . Hopefully this information will help you fix this error quickly and effectively if you encounter it. Good luck! 

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Isabella Humphrey

Update 16 January 2025