Laptop - Internet and Shutdown Issues

[deboratibi]

So, I have a ~7 year old Sony Vaio (VPCEG13EB) laptop with Windows 7 Home Basic. It hasn't given me major problems except one time when my hard drive died and I had to get a new one (that was probably about 3 years ago). But lately it's been acting weird, in a quite specific way: I'll be using it for a while, and suddenly I lose my internet connection - but when I look at the connection icon, it looks this:  which is normal (when it's down, there's either a yellow warning sign on it or an orange circle). It even says I'm connected when I hover or click on it, but I know I'm not connected because I can't load any page whatsoever, not even Google. The other odd thing is that before, when I had internet connection issues, I would just reset my router and it would work again. But now resetting my router doesn't fix it, what fixes it is restarting my computer. That, and the fact that only I'm losing my connection (my brother is still connected when this happens) brings me to the conclusion that my laptop is the problem. Oh, there also this: whenever this happens, I am unable to restart or shutdown my computer via the start menu. I click on the buttons and nothing happens, so unfortunately I end up having to unplug the cord and press the power button, which of course isn't the appropriate way to do it. I worry this is damaging my computer somehow, but I don't know what else to do. I really can't afford to have anything happen to it right now, lol.

Does anyone have an idea what this could be and what I should do? Any help is appreciated!

[Nielo]

It might just be your laptop's age? I'm honestly impressed by the fact that it's seven years old. In my experience, most laptops get impossible to work with after 4 or 5 years.

My old laptop also used to show the wifi icon as if everything was fine, even when it wasn't. I chalked that up to the less than stable wifi in our house, and just one of my laptop's quirks.

This site discusses the freezing start menu issue, although I have no idea if their solution is of any use to you. :/

 

[jellysundae]

2 hours ago, Nielo said:

I'm honestly impressed by the fact that it's seven years old. In my experience, most laptops get impossible to work with after 4 or 5 years.

*hugs 9 year old lappy*

That's a bizarre little quirk. *waits for @Scoobert_Doo to come along with the answer*

I have a little tale I could tell about this laptop, but I'm afraid it would be tempting fate so I'm not going to.

 

[Angeló]

im no expert .. but maybe you need to re-install / update the wi-fi / modem driver on your laptop 

worst case scenario - reinstall Windows ..?

[hrtbrk]

It is likely caused by too much traffic on your wifi's channel and it is causing interference. Most routers have options for you to change to a channel with less traffic

[Angeló]

16 minutes ago, hrtbrk said:

traffic on your wifi's channel

first time i know about this

luckily i live in a house and the nearest house to us is like 100 meters away

[deboratibi]

@Nielo Aww, my senior laptop is pretty reliable, considering it never had fantastic specifications to begin with. I try to take good care of it, even though I'm not very knowledgeable in tech stuff. My brother has gone through 3 laptops ever since I got mine. Anyway, my start menu doesn't really freeze, what happens is that my command to shutdown or restart the computer is ignored. I don't even get an error message. The weird thing is this only happens after I get that internet connection issue, which makes me wonder how these things are connected. If I wanted to shutdown my computer right now, it would work, because my internet is currently acting normal.

@hrtbrk That's interesting, I never knew about wi-fi channels! I will definitely look into that. Thanks!
Do you think this could somehow be affecting my shutdown problems though? Or are they separate issues? It's a weird coincidence that I have this problem when my internet stops working.

[Nielo]

1 hour ago, deboratibi said:

@Nielo Aww, my senior laptop is pretty reliable, considering it never had fantastic specifications to begin with. I try to take good care of it, even though I'm not very knowledgeable in tech stuff. My brother has gone through 3 laptops ever since I got mine. Anyway, my start menu doesn't really freeze, what happens is that my command to shutdown or restart the computer is ignored. I don't even get an error message. The weird thing is this only happens after I get that internet connection issue, which makes me wonder how these things are connected. If I wanted to shutdown my computer right now, it would work, because my internet is currently acting normal.

@hrtbrk That's interesting, I never knew about wi-fi channels! I will definitely look into that. Thanks!
Do you think this could somehow be affecting my shutdown problems though? Or are they separate issues? It's a weird coincidence that I have this problem when my internet stops working.

I'm guessing the two are at least somewhat connected, at the very least in the sense that something in your computer freezes up and affects both functions. It seems too much of a coincidence that both issues would always pop up at the same time. You could try scanning your laptop for malware. (I use the free version of malwarebytes, but I have no idea if that's the best one out there.)

This site suggests there might be a program running that's preventing your laptop from shutting down, and explains how to fix that.

On some level, what your computer does must be a logical response to something that happens in its software/hardware, but sometimes those things are buried so deep in layers of software/hardware, that it's hard to figure out. Google failed to turn up any articles or forum posts on your laptop's combination of issues (at least, as far as I can tell), so taking it in to be checked might be something you should consider eventually.

[Angeló]

i once bought a laptop and less than a week later it wouldn't shut . down . at . all .. i'd press shut down and it'd just keep running

 (i didn't connect it to anything yet cuz i was traveling and had no cable (yes internet used to be by cable lol) 

i gave it to my cousin who formatted it (it used to be Vista) and installed XP on it .. a step backward but XP was more reliable 

 

[deboratibi]

4 hours ago, Nielo said:

I'm guessing the two are at least somewhat connected, at the very least in the sense that something in your computer freezes up and affects both functions. It seems too much of a coincidence that both issues would always pop up at the same time. You could try scanning your laptop for malware. (I use the free version of malwarebytes, but I have no idea if that's the best one out there.)

This site suggests there might be a program running that's preventing your laptop from shutting down, and explains how to fix that.

On some level, what your computer does must be a logical response to something that happens in its software/hardware, but sometimes those things are buried so deep in layers of software/hardware, that it's hard to figure out. Google failed to turn up any articles or forum posts on your laptop's combination of issues (at least, as far as I can tell), so taking it in to be checked might be something you should consider eventually.

Oh, I use malwarebytes as well! I don't run it as often as I should though, lol. I just scanned my computer and they found/removed some Potentially Unwanted Programs.

I also did what that link said and disabled the unnecessary programs - there were quite a few there!

I'm gonna wait and see if the issue happens again. I'm also going to try what hrtbrk said. If it does happen, then I'll think about getting it checked. I'm hoping it doesn't come to that though *fingers crossed*

Thanks for your help! 

[jellysundae]

I like malwarebytes, it's a LONG time since I ran it, and seeing as I have NO other protection on here now I'll run it immediately!

Thanks for giving my brain the prompt it needed guys!

Hope it helps with your issue, Deb!