Wi-Fi randomly disconnecting. Is Malwarebytes causing it to disconnect?

[SDGreen]

• Recently moved, got setup with fibre broadband in January.
• Was given an older model, two months went by fine then the internet connection on both laptops in my house began randomly dropping throughout the day.
• ISP said there's nothing causing it on their end and it might be a problem with the modem, so they replaced it with a newer model.
• One laptops Wi-Fi problem was now fixed, but the other laptop (Acer Aspire E5-571, Windows 10, other details attached in pictures below) is still occasionally dropping internet connection.
• I believe it is the laptop that is causing the problem because my other laptop doesn't disconnect when the Acer laptop does and all of the router settings have been checked by the ISP to make sure it's not the modem (i.e best channel selected, WLAN driver is compatible etc.)
• I've tried multiple suggestions such as turning off power management on the driver, changing battery power settings to maximum performance, flushing dns, updating and reinstalling WLAN driver but its still happening.
• On both my laptops, Malwarebytes (Pro) occasionally causes 100% disk usage (Is there a fix for that?). May it have something to do with that or are there any other known issues with Malwarebytes that causes random Wi-Fi DC's. If you have any other suggestions as to what I can try to fix this that would be great.

tl;dr: Laptop occassionally disconnects from Wi-Fi. ISP said its not the modem, and there might be some setting or an antivirus triggering it to DC. Any tips?

[AlexSmith]

Sorry to hear about your wireless connection issues. I know how frustrating that can be as I have encountered it personally in the past. Generally speaking, there can be a metric ton of root causes for this, most of which are usually related to networking hardware, drivers, or even local interference.

With that being said, when this issue happens what exactly happens? Does the actual Wireless Connection claim to be disconnected or does web based traffic simply time-out? Do you get any specific error messages or error codes you can share? Is the laptop that is behaving nicely in the same area of your house when this issue occurs?

[SDGreen]

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Does the actual Wireless Connection claim to be disconnected or does web based traffic simply time-out?

I'm not sure sorry as its my mother who uses the laptop. She is usually using Skype or watching tv shows when it happens. I've told her to make sure she's able to access websites through her browser when Skype disconnects as to make sure its not just Skype that's DCing. The connection icon in the bottom right taskbar just turns to disconnected and even though I have "Connect automatically" ticked, I usually have to manually reconnect when this happens.

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Do you get any specific error messages or error codes you can share?

I've never gotten to it in time before she closes the browser but I'll try to get one next time it happens. I'd assume its the normal Chrome error message you're referring to when you try to access a webpage without being connected to the internet?

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Is the laptop that is behaving nicely in the same area of your house when this issue occurs?

The laptop that doesn't have this problem is always in a fixed spot upstairs. The laptop that the issue occurs is mobile and is usually in a room next to the modem. I don't have any smarts tvs, microwaves, led lights etc that can interfere with the signal and the fibre broadband is pretty reliable and strong so I can't imagine it would consider the next room too far away as even my phone can use the Wi-Fi perfectly at high speeds 20ft away in the garden through multiple walls.

[AlexSmith]

Thanks for the additional details!! I agree with you and the ISP that this issue is isolated to the laptop itself.

31 minutes ago, SDGreen said:

I'm not sure sorry as its my mother who uses the laptop. She is usually using Skype or watching tv shows when it happens. I've told her to make sure she's able to access websites through her browser when Skype disconnects as to make sure its not just Skype that's DCing. The connection icon in the bottom right taskbar just turns to disconnected and even though I have "Connect automatically" ticked, I usually have to manually reconnect when this happens.

This tells me the issue is with the wireless adapter or the driver itself disconnecting the actual wireless network connection. To attack the driver side, I would make sure you have the latest driver directly from the manufacturer of the wireless adapter OR the manufacturer of the PC if the device manufacturer doesn't provide end user driver support.

If you have tried the latest driver and are still experiencing issues then it could be something wrong with the adapter itself or the internal antennae leads. Best way to test for an adapter problem is to try using a USB wireless adapter if you have access to one. If not, you may want to contact a computer technician or take it in to a tech shop for service.

[SDGreen]

Thanks for your help, I'll try that.

 

By the way, non related to this issue, my laptop sometimes gets 100% disk usage and task manager usually says its 'system and compressed memory' that's causing it or Malwarebytes. Do you know of a way I can fix this issue?

[MarkMac]

Sorry to hear about your issue when it can be so random.  My most recent experience boiled down to HP Support Assistant and the HP UI eating up Disk space and really ramping up my network traffic causing my machine to run very hot.  The fan was going full blast all the time and still the heat was tremendous.  Not at all the cause of MalwareBytes.  Once I pulled that off using CCleaner and rebooted the machine, the machine quieted down is running cooler and the network traffic is more reasonable.  In addition, I too recently got a new router from Verizon and this router has two bands.  One for regular traffic i.e. computer, tablets, phone and the other band is specifically for streaming i.e. Skype, movies, music.  When I was connected to the one band for regular traffic and tried to cast a movie to the TV it was sporadic at best and would get hung up clocking away or drop altogether.  I had never actually signed into the streaming band but after I did, using the same password and such for setup as the other (minor) band, streaming was WAY better and I stopped getting dropped inconsistently.  This was my experience and may not at all be yours, but I thought I would throw it out there, just in case.

[SDGreen]

7 minutes ago, MarkMac said:

In addition, I too recently got a new router from Verizon and this router has two bands. 

My new router also has two bands, 2.4g and 5g. I have no experience with this at all, but I'm guess the laptop must also be dual band to connect to both or one for different things? Both my laptops are from around 2014 and they only allow me to connect to the 2.4g connection so I don't think I can use 5g at all.