Windows 7: Wi-fi takes long time to connect

My wife has a new Acer netbook which came with 7 Starter. I upgraded it to Home Premium 32bit. She is complaining that after closing the lid, or hibernating, or sleep mode, it take at least two minutes before the netbook connects so that she can use the internet. My two laptops do not have this problem at all. All three machines use the same router.

The signal strength icon on the system tray shows a yellow blob which stays until a connection is made. It doesn't always happen, but enough for hair tugging sessions!

Any ideas, reasons for this behaviour and is there anything I can do about it?

Many thanks.

In an effort to keep things simple, I'd first be inclined to uninstall the wireless adapter driver then reboot your computer.

Windows 7 should detect your wireless adapter and install a driver for it or you can download the latest driver from Acer and install that one.

http://www.acer.co.uk/ac/en/GB/content/drivers

Check this Microsoft article for further advice.

Update a driver for hardware that isn't working properly

You can also go into Device Manager and disable the wireless adapter then re-enable it as this has been known to solve your problem.

Wow, that was quick!

I've just disabled power saving on the wireless card.

I have a Broadcom 802.11n Network adapter and Realtak PCIe FE Family Controller. I assume I need to disable/enable the Broadcom?

Yes, the Broadcom is the one.

The Realtek is your wired ethenet adapter.

I've tried all those options but the problem is still there. It does now and then get the signal quite quickly but usually it takes some time.

Hi there,

I don't know if this problem is allready solved or not. The only thing I can tell is that I'm experiencing the exact same issue over here

The problem is on my Packard Bell Easynote TS11-HR laptop which came with Windows 7 Home Prémium 64bit, bought december 2012.
I do not have those issues on my Asus eeePC netbook (Windows 7 starter) or on my 3 years old Lenovo laptop ( Windows 7 32-bit Ultimate)

No, she still has the same trouble only it is more than 2 minutes usually!

Still hoping for an answer.

Does it do the same thing after a normal restart?

I'd tell it not to sleep when you closed the lid.
Also try giving it a static IP just to see if it connects quicker.

No, it is fine after a restart.

I wanted to tell it not to sleep but wife wanted it fixed properly. Her choice!

I don't know how to give it a static IP.

With it connected;

Open up a command prompt by typing cmd in the search bar of your start menu. Type in

ipconfig /all

Write down the IP it was assigned, subnet mask, default gateway, and the DNS server addresses. Usually 2 or 3 DNS servers.

Open your network and sharing center. Click on Change Adapter Settings. Right click on your wireless adapter, and go down to properties. Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click on properties.

Click the radio buttons to manually enter the addresses, and enter the numbers you wrote down. Select Ok, the Ok again, and it should automatically disconnect then reconnect. Put the computer to sleep, then wake it up and see if it made any difference.