My sister and I have the same type of laptop. Everything has been going smooth as butter, but TODAY her laptop has lost most or all of the bars to the internet, and now she cannot do anything. When she tries to download anything from the internet it says it has been interrupted and the connection to the internet then cuts off. When she tries to load a video on YOUTUBE, that won't even load up. Anyone know any ideas? It is Windows 8.If your computer is side by side hers as to location and you have 5 bars and she has no signal, that usually means 1 of 4 things.

1.) Driver she is using has issues with wifi adapter.

2.) Antenna Internal to Laptop for wifi has come loose ( popped off the wifi NIC )


3.) NIC is malfunctioning
For #1 if you verify that her laptop and yours are both using the same driver and driver VERSION, then its likely not a driver issue.

4.) Software driver corruption etc.
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For #1 you can verify the driver between your laptop and hers if the same exact model. Or download the wifi driver for Windows 8 using your laptop and place this on a thumb drive. Then insert thumb drive to her system and install the wireless network adapter driver. This will replace the prior driver. Its best to get this driver from the laptop manufacturers website, and use the wireless network adapter driver for the same model that her laptop is.

For #2 you can verify that its connected properly by locating the access panel on the underside of the laptop. Most have a small panel that requires a torx or philips screw removed in which the Network Adapter is then able to be seen. This network adapter will have 1 or 2 wires with an insulator on it with a small gold button plug that plugs into a gold plated button jack on the Wireless NIC. If this has come loose, it just needs to carefully be snapped BACK into the button connection. ( You may not hear or feel it snap, but it should be locked to the Adapter board and not pop off if touched etc. The center of this button connection has a gold pin which is used to make the connection from the adapter to the antenna.)

For #3 if this computer is still covered by warranty you might want to use the warranty before it expires, however I'd try option #4 first.

For #4 reset the system back to factory settings by using the system recovery feature that came with the laptop. *Be sure to backup any important data first to an external hard drive or a thumb drive before doing so as for all personal data could get wiped out if you perform the factory restoration and not the factory repair option.