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HP Laptop Won’t Connect To Home Wi-Fi

Tags: Microsoft, Networking, Windows

Hello, thank you for your time, in advanced.

I have an HP laptop, model 15-ay039wm, I am having issues with it not finding my home Wi-Fi. I can find and connect to my phone’s hotspot no problem, however, it will not see or connect to home Wi-Fi or local library’s Wi-Fi. Any help is appreciated.

Things that I’ve tried:
Issue started after I performed a fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate on this machine, it was running Windows 11 and was being crippled by the bloatware on it. After install, it wouldn’t see ANY Wi-Fi networks AT ALL, updated network drivers and was able to see my hotspot, but not my home Wi-Fi (current state).

Machine Hardware:
CPU: Intel (R) Core(TM) i3-6100U CPU @ 2.3GHz
Installed Memory (RAM): 8GB
System Type: 64-bit OS
OS running: Windows 7 Ultimate
Network Card: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 316

Thank you!

Topic

No mention of drivers?

In reply to HP Laptop Won’t Connect To Home Wi-Fi

Besides W7 being unsupported and maybe incapable of connecting to the web today, the “driver udpate” button and feature in Windows is soundly broken.

Try it the old fashioned way as well as run a supportable version of Windows or Linux.

Reply To: HP Laptop Won’t Connect To Home Wi-Fi

In reply to HP Laptop Won’t Connect To Home Wi-Fi

The old fashioned way: install the latest 64-bit Windows 7 driver for the wireless card from the maker of the motherboard, which should be HP.

Reply To: HP Laptop Won’t Connect To Home Wi-Fi

In reply to HP Laptop Won’t Connect To Home Wi-Fi

Don’t forget that it might not be the laptop and could be your home Wi-Fi device instead. How many devices are in use on that Wi-Fi? What make/model Wi-Fi device? How old is the Wi-Fi device? The issue could potentially be the laptop. I would try using a different device connected to your Wi-Fi to help diagnose where the issue is occurring.

[all4youu1888]

Reply To: HP Laptop Won’t Connect To Home Wi-Fi

In reply to HP Laptop Won’t Connect To Home Wi-Fi

Hi nin6man,

Thanks for sharing all the details — it really helps narrow things down.

Since your laptop can detect and connect to your phone’s hotspot but not your home Wi-Fi, it sounds like a compatibility or driver issue rather than a hardware fault.

A few suggestions:

Driver Specifics: Even though you updated network drivers, make sure you are using the official Windows 7 64-bit driver for the Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 316 card — not just a generic or Windows Update version. Download it manually from either HP’s site for your model or Intel’s official site.

Wi-Fi Mode/Compatibility: Modern routers often run in “802.11ac only” mode, which older OS setups (like Windows 7) sometimes struggle with. Log in to your router settings and set the wireless mode to 802.11n, 802.11g/n, or Mixed Mode (instead of ac-only). That could immediately solve it.

Wi-Fi Frequency Band: Check if your home Wi-Fi is broadcasting only on 5GHz. Windows 7 drivers + older hardware often have trouble with 5GHz. Enable 2.4GHz in your router settings if it’s disabled.

Security Type: Some older systems have issues connecting to Wi-Fi networks that use WPA3. If your router is set to WPA3 or WPA3/WPA2 mixed, try setting it to WPA2-PSK (AES) only.

SSID Broadcast: Make sure your router is broadcasting the SSID (network name) publicly. Hidden networks sometimes cause trouble on freshly installed Windows 7 machines.

Alternate Test: If you have another router or can create a guest network with different settings (2.4GHz, WPA2, n-mode), test if your laptop can see/connect to it.

• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 4 days ago by all4youu1888.
• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 4 days ago by all4youu1888.

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