I have a Lenovo ThinkPad that's been randomly disconnecting from wi-fi for the past week. The signal shows up fine, but it drops every few minutes and I have to reconnect manually. I've already restarted the router and updated the drivers, but it's still happening. What else can I try?
The most likely problem is that Windows is shutting down the adapter to save battery without you knowing about it. Go to Device Manager, find your wifi card, right-click it, properties, and in the "Power Management" tab disable the option that says something like "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power". It's annoying but it works most of the time.
What others mention about completely uninstalling the driver is also worth trying, but first do the power saving thing because it's faster and it's usually that. If it keeps failing after you change that setting, then download the latest driver from the Lenovo site directly, uninstall the current one with the option to remove the software, restart the machine, and install the new one.
Another thing you can check is whether there's interference: move the router somewhere else or try connecting from closer by for a while to see if the problem persists. If it goes away only when you're next to the router, it's probably interference from other devices. And if none of this works after a week of trying, it's possible the adapter is starting to fail physically, but that's less common in ThinkPads since they're pretty reliable machines.
First off, did that problem start after some Windows or system update? Because sometimes those things disable the network adapter. What I'd recommend is opening Device Manager, finding your network adapter, and in the properties under the "Power Management" tab unchecking the option that says something like "Allow the device to turn off this adapter to save power" - a lot of times the laptop disconnects itself to save battery. Also try completely uninstalling the driver, restarting the machine and letting Windows reinstall it from scratch, because sometimes weird configurations from the previous one stick around.
If you've already ruled out drivers and router issues, try disabling power-saving mode on your network adapter. Windows often puts the adapter in low-power mode and disconnects it automatically - it's a silly thing but it works. Go to Settings > Devices > Wi-Fi > Manage known networks, find your network, click advanced properties, and make sure power-saving mode isn't turned on. You can also check the device manager to see if there's any warning sign on your network adapter.
Try also completely uninstalling the driver for your wifi card (check Device Manager, right-click and choose "Uninstall device" with the delete software box checked) and then let Windows reinstall it from scratch, because sometimes leftover files stay behind that updates don't clean up and cause these weird conflicts. Another thing: if it's connected to a 5GHz network, try switching it to 2.4GHz temporarily to see if the problem persists, because a lot of older ThinkPads have compatibility issues with 5GHz.
Check what frequency bands your laptop is using, because sometimes ThinkPads go crazy switching between 2.4GHz and 5GHz for no reason! Go into Device Manager, open the properties for your WiFi adapter, go to the Advanced tab, and lock it to a single band instead of letting it switch automatically. That usually fixes these weird disconnections when everything else seems fine.
I had a similar issue with my ThinkPad recently and the culprit turned out to be exactly what they mentioned about power-saving mode, but with a detail that sometimes gets overlooked: it's not just in Windows power options, but there are also settings within the wifi card driver itself that force the issue. What I did was go to Settings > System > Advanced power options > Change the current plan settings, and there I looked for "Wireless adapter settings" and set both options (plugged in and battery) to "Maximum Performance". But that alone wasn't enough in my case.
What actually fixed it for me was going into Device Manager, right-clicking on my wifi adapter, properties, going to the "Advanced" tab and looking for an option that said something like "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" or similar (the exact name varies depending on the model). I disabled it and the disconnections stopped. It's also worth checking if your BIOS is up to date, because sometimes those intermittency issues come from there and not from Windows itself. If none of this works, honestly sometimes a clean uninstall of the driver (like they suggest above) and then downloading the latest version from the Lenovo website is what saves the day.
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