If you have an HP laptop (Hewlett-Packard), and you have any problems related to Wi-Fi on this laptop, then you have come to the right place. In this article, I will show you how to enable Wi-Fi on an HP laptop, check for a wireless adapter, and, if necessary, find and download a Wi-Fi driver from the HP website. It is very difficult to write such instructions; more precisely, it is difficult to give specific instructions. For the reason that Hewlett-Packard has a lot of laptop models (a large lineup: 15, 17, 250, 255, Elite, Envy, OMEN and HP Pavilion). There are many older laptops on which Wi-Fi control differs significantly from newer models.
Plus, these laptops have different versions of Windows. Someone has Windows 10, or Windows 7, and someone generally has Windows XP. Also, from my observations, I can conclude that on HP laptops Wi-Fi often cannot be turned on, or configured due to the fact that the laptop model on which the manufacturer recommends installing Windows 10 (and there are only dozens of drivers on the website) many people install Windows 7, or Windows 8. I would not recommend doing that. And not only because of possible problems with the wireless network, but also because you programmatically restrict the capabilities of your laptop.
To make it easier to understand everything, I will highlight three main cases (be sure to determine which one you have):
- When the Wi-Fi module is configured and everything works. You just need to connect your laptop to a Wi-Fi network. In this case, the tray icon will look like this:
Click on it, find your network and connect to it. Here you may find useful an article on how to connect a laptop to the Internet via Wi-Fi. - When Wi-Fi is disabled on the laptop. On HP notebooks, it can be disabled either programmatically (in Windows settings, in Device Manager) or hardware (with a separate switch or keyboard shortcut). If Wi-Fi is simply turned off, then the tray icon may look like this (provided that the Internet is not connected via cable):
In this case, the device manager must have a Wi-Fi adapter. - When the Wi-Fi driver is not installed on the HP laptop. The tray icon will most likely look like this:
There will be no Wi-Fi (wireless network connection) settings in your HP laptop, no adapter in the Network Connections window or Device Manager. As in the article, the laptop does not have a Wi-Fi wireless network connection.
Click on it, find your network and connect to it. Here you may find useful an article on how to connect a laptop to the Internet via Wi-Fi.
In this case, the device manager must have a Wi-Fi adapter.If there is a wireless adapter, we try to turn on Wi-Fi. If there are no Wi-Fi settings and the adapter itself in the system, first install the driver on Wi-Fi. You will find both solutions in this article.
Turn on Wi-Fi on your HP laptop
The first thing I do is always go to the device manager, to the "Network adapters" tab. You can open Device Manager in different ways. One of them: open the "Run" window by pressing the Win + R key combination and execute the command mmc devmgmt.msc.
If among the adapters there is an adapter in the name of which is "Wireless", "Wi-Fi", "802.11", "Dual Band", "AC" - then the driver is installed and the wireless connection is most likely simply disabled. If there is no such adapter, you need to install the driver (the second part of this article). Pay attention to the icon near the adapter. If there is an arrow next to it, then right-click on the adapter and select "Enable device". If there is a yellow exclamation mark next to it, we reinstall Wi-Fi.
Perhaps after that Wi-Fi on your HP will work immediately. Pay attention to the tray icon.
We also check the "Network Connections" window. You can open it with the command ncpa.cpl (in the "Run" window, which can be called by the command Win + R). There should be a "Wireless" adapter (this is in Windows 10), or "Wireless Network Connection" (Windows 7). Pay attention to the status of this adapter. If it's disabled, try enabling it.
If your HP laptop is running Windows 7, you can try enabling wireless through the Mobility Center. Press the keyboard shortcut Win + X.
There may be a "Wireless off" status. Try turning it on.
Other articles on this topic:
- Wireless - Disabled in Windows 10. Wi-Fi won't turn on
- How to turn on Wi-Fi on a Windows 7 laptop?
HP Connection Manager
I understand that this utility is relevant only for Windows 7. If you have seven installed, then check if the HP Connection Manager program is already installed on your laptop (you can search in the Start menu). Launch it and turn on Wi-Fi (Wireless LAN) there.
If the HP Connection Manager utility is not on your laptop, install it. You can download it from the HP website (see below the instructions for finding a driver), or on third-party sites.
Separate switch, or keyboard shortcut (Fn + F12)
Take a close look at the chassis of your HP laptop. It may have a special button, or a switch, with which you can turn on and off the wireless module. Usually these switches are on older laptop models, and they look something like this:
You can also use a key combination to turn on Wi-Fi on HP laptops. On these laptops, these are the keys Fn + F12 (In most cases). The F12 is usually marked with a wireless antenna icon. Also on some models this is a separate key, near the F12 key (see photo below). And on new HP laptops, on which the manufacturer recommends installing Windows 10, you can see an airplane icon on the F12 key. In Windows 10, you can use it to turn Airplane mode on or off.
Try pressing Fn and F12 at the same time, and see if the connection status (icon) in the Windows tray has changed.
How to download and install Wi-Fi drivers for HP laptop?
If you did not find a Wi-Fi adapter in the device manager, then most likely the driver is not installed.
Well, either the Wi-Fi module itself is broken, or it is disabled in the BIOS. By the way, if you cannot install the driver, then check if Wi-Fi is disabled in the BIOS of your HP laptop.
The plan is this: we find out the model of our laptop, what Windows is installed on it, download the required driver from the official website, install it, and enjoy working Wi-Fi.
- You need to find out the laptop model, or serial number. Both the model and serial number are usually located on a sticker on the bottom of the laptop. Or try pressing the Fn + Esc key combination, perhaps a window will appear in which this information will be indicated. You can also look at the warranty card. For example, we have a laptop HP 255 G7.
- Follow the link https://support.hp.com/ua-ru/drivers/laptops
- In the search bar, enter the laptop model, or serial number. You can try clicking on the "Let HP detect your product" button. But I entered manually.
If a prompt appears during the entry process, click on it. The download page for our laptop should open. - We select the operating system installed on our laptop.
- In the list of drivers, we are interested in the "Driver-Network" section. We open it and find there Wireless LAN Drivers or WLAN... Click "Download".
- Save the file (driver) to your desktop.
We are waiting for the download to finish. - Run the downloaded file and use the installation wizard to install the driver on Wi-Fi on our HP laptop.
If you downloaded the archive from the site, and not the .exe file, then open the archive, find the Setup.exe file there and run it. - After successfully installing the driver, restart your laptop.
If a prompt appears during the entry process, click on it. The download page for our laptop should open.
We are waiting for the download to finish.
If you downloaded the archive from the site, and not the .exe file, then open the archive, find the Setup.exe file there and run it.If the site has multiple WLAN drivers or the downloaded driver is not installed
It happens that during the installation of the driver an error appears, they say the device was not detected, or it is disabled and the installation is not completed. This means that the installer was unable to find the Wi-Fi module. This happens when it is broken or disabled (physically, or in the BIOS). But more often than not, we just downloaded the wrong driver. More precisely, for the wrong manufacturer of the Wi-Fi module.
Wi-Fi modules from different manufacturers can be installed even in one HP laptop model. And the site will have multiple Wireless LAN or WLAN drivers. As in the case of a laptop HP - 15-db0447ur.
We see two drivers for different manufacturers: Realtek and Intel. Which one to download is not clear.
In order not to bother, you can download both, and try to install them. Nothing bad will happen. An inappropriate driver will most likely not be installed. Or you can try to find out the manufacturer of the WLAN module using the HWVendorDetection utility, which can be downloaded on the Internet. Just run the utility and see which provider is listed opposite the Wireless LAN. But it doesn't work on all laptops.
If this instruction did not help, you could not turn on Wi-Fi on an HP laptop, or install the driver, then you can describe your case in detail in the comments, we will figure it out together.
