Laptop messing up my WiFi - help, please

[BreatheAndFocus]

I’m hoping someone techie here can help me because I’m getting so frustrated.

I have a WiFi router and until recently I only had an iPad to get online. The internet worked fine. I’ve now bought a laptop BUT every time I switch the laptop on the lights on the router go mad (the two lights labelled Internet and WiFi) and the internet is completely messed up. I can hardly use it. I can’t open websites and I can’t upload or download.

I’m assuming the problem is some setting on my laptop? I’ve googled and made sure the WiFi setting said “Obtain IP address automatically” and “Obtain DNS server address automatically” but it made no difference (I re-started the laptop too).

When my laptop is switched on, I basically have no internet access. It’s not just the laptop- the iPad can’t connect either. I then switch the laptop off and the router lights stop flashing frantically and my internet goes back to normal.

Please help - I feel like I’ve wasted the money I spent on my laptop as I can’t use it.

Can you get hold of an ethernet cable and try connecting the laptop via cable

@cdtaylornats Thank you for replying.

I’m not 100% sure because I could just be being thick, but I don’t think the laptop has an ethernet port. It’s an Acer Aspire.

Just checked the laptop very carefully and also googled the specs. There isn’t any Ethernet port to plug a cable in.

But - with the iPad not working either when the laptop is switched on, isn’t the problem something in the laptop’s settings?

I have a hunch the issue is simple - just a case of changing something on the laptop - but I can’t find out what to try. I’ve googled loads.

Any other suggestions would be much appreciated. Just having the laptop switched on completely messes up my WiFi and internet access for all appliances trying to use the internet (iPad, WiFi on phone, visitors’ iPads and phones, etc)

Hi.
Just looked at spec too. Looks like the Ethernet port is next to the hdmi port on the left side of the laptop.
You say you’ve just bought it, is it possible that when it’s turned on the laptop is trying to download a lot of software updates and ‘flooding’ the WiFi ?

If you leave the laptop on for an hour, with the router lights flashing away does it settle down?

@tanstaafl Thank you for replying.

I’ve found something that might be an Ethernet port. It has a kind of push down cover. I can’t find my old Ethernet cable so i’ll get a new one and try it to make sure it’s actually is the right port. I can’t tell by looking

Re the updates, I always pause all uploads and downloads when I put the laptop on to make sure it’s not overwhelming the internet, so that’s not the reason. I’ve also tried leaving the laptop on for hours to see if it settles.

It’s definitely something the laptop is doing. I can literally see the router lights start flashing as it switches on, and the moment it shuts down the internet is fine in seconds.

When I google, I see lots of people having similar problems eg a work laptop messing up a home WiFi network, but I either can’t find a thread where it’s been solved or the solution given doesn’t work for me because the settings they say to change are already correct on my laptop.

Any other suggestions or things to check in Settings would be very welcome.

That port with the push down cover is the ethernet port

Personally I'd start by starting up the laptop and disabling the wifi to see if the router started behaving.

Then Id get a cheap usb wifi adapter off amazon and see if that worked - if it does its a network / hardware setting related to the built in wifi, if you have the same problem its probably related to the OS / a piece of software on the laptop - in which case id wipe it and install a fresh Windows installation....

I'd go down the route of Ethernet cable into the router (just temporarily disable the WiFi adapter on the laptop).

If the router goes bonkers, pull up task manager on the laptop and see if you can identify the process that's causing it.

Is the laptop slow when you use it?

I used to have similar with my phone, whenever my WiFi was on, the smart tv would constantly crash, nothing else would work. We changed providers thinking that was the issue and when they came to set it up, they found a fault on the line which we would not have been able to detect. It was on the box out on the street wire (I dont know the actual issue, just that they had to get up on the pole to fix it) Just letting you know in case it could be similar.