# General Business Category > Technology Forum >  3 year old laptop

## kavesh

I have taken over my wifes old laptop which is an i7, really nice machine.

I have 2 issues with it though and hope someone can advise.

Problem 1 - the wifi will not connect unless I am right next to the router. All other devices connect perfectly well to the router. This issue has been around for about a year and we were not able to resolve it. The work around was a USB dongle for the wifi, but even with that its not as good as other devices and oh yes I broke the dongle when placing the laptop into the bag.

Problem 2 - my wife always complained that the computer got really slow about 6 months or so ago but we did not try to resolve the problem. I removed all data from the laptop and reset windows and deleted all programs hoping that it may resolve both issues actually, sadly it did neither.

Any ideas guys?

Thanks
Kavesh

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## wernerdp

Problem 1 , wrong wifi driver , or in the device  manager  under network , wifi properties , advanced , the "transmit power is set to low " change to highest 
Also check if there is a BIOS update for the laptop 
Problem 2   , control alt delete , task manager , see what is running and what % the cpu , and hard drive uses when Idle . ( let laptop boot up and wait about 5 min everything loads) 
I also have a I7 laptop , when idle the cpu uses less that 1%

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## AmithS

Do you know the processor chip model example i7-4550? you have different generations of chips and the older the chip generation the less effective it will be than the newer generation i7 due to aging of the actual physical chip and newer software resource requirements.

What version of Windows are you running and did you change from the original version the laptop came with?

Do you know the size of the RAM and HDD?

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## kavesh

> Problem 1 , wrong wifi driver , or in the device  manager  under network , wifi properties , advanced , the "transmit power is set to low " change to highest 
> Also check if there is a BIOS update for the laptop 
> Problem 2   , control alt delete , task manager , see what is running and what % the cpu , and hard drive uses when Idle . ( let laptop boot up and wait about 5 min everything loads) 
> I also have a I7 laptop , when idle the cpu uses less that 1%



Thanks WernerDP. It what I was able to determine is that the wifi on the laptop was a 802.11b while the usb dongle was a 802.11n. I did read that the 802.11n is better for some reason, could this have been my problem, I could not figure out how to change the driver so I uninstalled it and downloaded a driver which seems to have the same results, so no improvement.
Not sure how to check for BIOS update, any advice on that please.
My CPU % keeps fluctuating between 2 - 10% while idle

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## kavesh

> Do you know the processor chip model example i7-4550? you have different generations of chips and the older the chip generation the less effective it will be than the newer generation i7 due to aging of the actual physical chip and newer software resource requirements.
> 
> What version of Windows are you running and did you change from the original version the laptop came with?
> 
> Do you know the size of the RAM and HDD?


Hi AmithS, its an intel(R) core(TM) i7 3537U CPU @ 2.0GHz 2.50GHz with 8gigs of installed ram , 64 bit operating system, x64 based processor.

I am running windows 10. Originally it came with windows 8. There was a free upgrade a while back to windows 10.

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## wernerdp

Which make is the laptop , just go to there website , type in the model nr  , and it should give you all the available updates including Bios ( which should be updates since you updated from win 8 to 10.
Laptop should be fine 3rd generation intel more than enough for Win 10  ,remove some of the windows 10 bloatware .

In the device manager , under the wifi properties check if the 802.11n setting  is set to auto .

Best advice wipe the laptop , install clean windows 10 from bootable USB drive , these auto updates always gives problems

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## kavesh

> Which make is the laptop , just go to there website , type in the model nr  , and it should give you all the available updates including Bios ( which should be updates since you updated from win 8 to 10.
> Laptop should be fine 3rd generation intel more than enough for Win 10  ,remove some of the windows 10 bloatware .
> 
> In the device manager , under the wifi properties check if the 802.11n setting  is set to auto .
> 
> Best advice wipe the laptop , install clean windows 10 from bootable USB drive , these auto updates always gives problems


So I just checked the wifi properties and it still has the "802.11b Preamble" The value is currently "Long and Short" The other value that it could be set to is "Long Only"
How do I change the 802.11b to a 802.11n?

So I cleaned out my harddrive and did a windows reset twice hoping that it would sort out the wifi issue as well as the performance. To some extent the performance has improved so that is positive, however, wifi remains an issue. 
How do I get windows on a disk as it came pre-installed on the laptop

Btw my harddrive is a 1TB.

The make of the laptop is an ASUS touchscreen. Not sure of the exact model. Any ideas how to determine the model of this laptop?

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## AmithS

You could try uninstalling the wifi module drivers and allowing windows to find the most suitable driver to reinstall.  It does come with risks thou.  You will need an internet connection on the laptop - through a phone or 3G dongle to allow windows to find the latest driver. If windows cannot find the driver you will have to search the net manually and do a manual install of the driver...

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## AmithS

What other software are you using on the laptop e.g. office or graphic design software?

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## wernerdp

https://www.asus.com/support/Download-Center/ 
 look for the model number under the laptop on the sticker , or when the  laptop starts , hit the DEL or F2 button to enter the BIOS model number will be there ( I think ASUS uses DEL button )

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## kavesh

> What other software are you using on the laptop e.g. office or graphic design software?


Office 365 only

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## kavesh

> You could try uninstalling the wifi module drivers and allowing windows to find the most suitable driver to reinstall.  It does come with risks thou.  You will need an internet connection on the laptop - through a phone or 3G dongle to allow windows to find the latest driver. If windows cannot find the driver you will have to search the net manually and do a manual install of the driver...



Thanks AmithS, will have to hunt for the correct driver as I did do the above without success. Windows did not find the driver and install

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## kavesh

This evening I have been online with Asus support who tried to assist. They suggested everything that you guys suggested and off course nothing worked.

Eventually they said that its most likely an internal problem, suggesting that the wifi card may be the problem. The easy solution would be to get a USB adapter but I really would rather get the wifi to work on the laptop.

Are the wifi cards universal or are they very specific to the actual brand or model. I am keep to have a go at opening up the bottom of the laptop and replace the card if the cost is reasonable and not brand specific which would make it expensive.

Anyone have experience with this before?

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## wernerdp

They are universal 90% of them , a new good one ( with WIFI and Bluetooth ) will be around R1000 , but you can take one from a broken laptop and use it .
Have the laptop been open before , maybe check if the aerials are connected on the WIFI card .

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## kavesh

> They are universal 90% of them , a new good one ( with WIFI and Bluetooth ) will be around R1000 , but you can take one from a broken laptop and use it .
> Have the laptop been open before , maybe check if the aerials are connected on the WIFI card .


My wife has had the laptop since new and it has never had any issues except for the wifi issues which we worked around with a usb until she broke it when putting into a bag. 

I like the idea of an old broken laptop card. Need to find a kind IT guy .that will br willing to part with it.

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## AmithS

Check gumtree or OLX and maybe even post an advert of what you looking for with a picture of your actual wifi card.  Sure you will come right with a bargain

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## kavesh

> Check gumtree or OLX and maybe even post an advert of what you looking for with a picture of your actual wifi card.  Sure you will come right with a bargain


Thanks will do.

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## Leesajohnson

You have to remove unnecessary software from a laptop for a proper functioning. Also, check Wifi connectivity by setting allocated IP.

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## New Perspective studio

> What other software are you using on the laptop e.g. office or graphic design software?


This here, I still have a i5 that beat new asus that came from a store until i mercilessly tweaked it to get all the bloatware off that effected everything from its wifi usage to the actual speed of the computer. 

Another thing with windows ten constant updates you are getting a bigger more sophisticated version of your operating system ( also be sure to check if it stores the old windows version after its updated a new one )  each time, however your hardware remains the same, at some point the os itself will be start to slow your computer. 

But yeah could also be a simple as a wifi card, given however that you are experiencing multiple problem across the os i dont think it something that is so limited in its effects around other peripherals.

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## kavesh

I managed to find another wifi card albeit an old second hand one that I picked up for R100. At least it resolved wifi connectivity. I thinkthe older wifi cards were also a lot slower than the newer cards, which I am noticing. Maybe I will get lucky and find a wifi card from a relatively new laptop. Incidentally these wifi cards can pose compatibility issues. I had tried another wifi card and it was virtually impossible to connect, with the current card connecting was easy once windows booted up. Can't remember what laptop the card was from though.

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## New Perspective studio

Well it would make sense that if the os was struggling with a piece of hardware it could impact performance all round... updating software static hardware, do you think when windows updates it takes into consideration all the manufactures... I dont think thats possible. Perhaps you damaged the wifi card. Perhaps the new update caused some issues compatibility wise which slowed the pc in general. You could have tried a roll back. 

But I mean you solved the issues for a R100 no less, thats a good deal any day  :Smile: 

Something I will keep in mind for the future.

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## Justloadit

Or get a USB version WiFi stick

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## wptech

If your computer is running slow just replace the current Hard drive with a SSD harddrive. 

It's time to upgrade to an SSD if you're still using a mechanical hard drive in your computer. An SSD is the single biggest upgrade you can give your computer, and prices have come down dramatically. Solid-state drives are so much faster because they don't have a spinning magnetic platter and moving head.

Read more here - https://www.howtogeek.com/194750/its...ssd-right-now/

The guys at Itrinity cloned my hardrive and added more memory. PC running amazingly fast.

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