Why My Laptop Is Not Connecting To Mobile Hotspot? 12 Ways To Fix It

In this modern era of technological advancements, mobile hotspots have made it easy to access the Internet freely. If you earn income off the Internet, a mobile hotspot is essential when you don’t have access to Wi-Fi, as it allows you to surf the net by connecting your mobile network to your laptop.

However, you might have experienced frustrating connection glitches often and asked why my laptop is not connecting to the mobile hotspot. I have compiled the best ways by which you can quickly solve this issue. 

Why My Laptop Is Not Connecting To Mobile Hotspot?

There are many reasons why your Laptop is connecting to a mobile hotspot. Common causes are your Internet Connections and Network Adapters are not updated, frequent connectivity glitches and the Wi-Fi frequency band of your mobile device and your Laptop are not on the same wavelength.

Other than the above-mentioned reasons/causes, a few more reasons can stop your Laptop from connecting to your mobile hotspot.

Below, I’ve mentioned 12 ways to solve this frustrating issue, with a step-by-step info guide.

12 Ways To Connect Laptop To Mobile Hotspot

Run Internet Connections Troubleshooter

You can launch your system’s Internet connection troubleshooting wizard when you keep experiencing issues with hotspot connectivity. To perform a troubleshooting operation, follow these simple steps :

  • Click on Settings.
  • Click on Update & Security.
  • Click on Troubleshoot, then click on “Additional troubleshooters”.
  • Select Internet connections.
  • Click Run the Troubleshooter.

Any issues with Internet connectivity will be diagnosed and repaired once you run the Internet Connections Troubleshooter. 

Restart Your Mobile And Laptop

A simple restarting of your hotspot device and your laptop could be all you need to do to establish a better connection. Turning off and switching on both devices helps to reset their functions automatically.

Keep Your Mobile Hotspot Security Settings Open

You might encounter hotspot connectivity glitches if you connect your laptop over an encrypted network connection. To solve this, change the hotspot security settings to an open network. You can change the settings through these steps:

  • Click on Settings, then Connections.
  • Click on a Mobile Hotspot to change it to an open network.
  • Go to “Configure Mobile Hotspot.”
  • Change the Security from “WPA2 PSK” to “Open.”
  • Retry the connection.

Swap Your WiFi Frequency

There could be hotspot connectivity issues if the Wi-Fi frequency band of your mobile device and your laptop are not on the same wavelength. For instance, if you have a device with a Wi-Fi connection frequency of 5GHz and your laptop is on a 2.4GHz wavelength, there will likely be hotspot connection glitches. 

Modern devices are usually equipped with a 5GHz Wi-Fi frequency, which is way above the Wi-Fi signals of 2.4GHz. Though the 5GHz ensures faster data transmission, its signal strength is not as strong as that of 2.4GHz. Making sure your laptop and hotspot device are on the same wavelength is paramount

In this scenario, you will have to lower the Wi-Fi frequency of your mobile device and try the connection again. You can do this by:

Configure Mobile Hotspot Band Frequency Settings
  • Go to your Mobile Hotspot settings.
  • Click on Configure.
  • Click Edit on the Band tab.
  • Select the 2.4 GHz frequency.
  • Save your settings.
  • Re-test the connection.

Reset Your Laptop’s Network Settings

You can carry out a reset of the network settings on your laptop to solve the issue with hotspot connections. It is important to note here that a reset to the default settings will restore the network adapter drivers to the original version 

You can reset the network settings on your laptop by taking the following steps:

  • Click on Settings.
  • Select Network & Internet.
  • Click Network Reset to activate the default settings.
  • Click on Restart.
  • Retry the hotspot connection after the system boots up.

Reset Your Mobile Network Settings

You can also reset the network settings of your mobile hotspot device if you have done the step mentioned earlier and the connection issues persist. You can do this by:

  • Go to Device Settings.
  • Click on General Management.
  • Click on Reset.
  • Click on Network Settings to restore all network-related settings of your device to default settings. 

Run Network Adapter Troubleshooter

When you often experience problems connecting your laptop to your mobile hotspot, it could be that the network adapter is having issues. You can tackle this by running the network adapter troubleshooting wizard. To run the troubleshooting application, follow these simple steps:

  • Click on Settings.
  • Click on Update & Security.
  • Click on Troubleshoot, and go to “Additional troubleshooters”.
  • Then, select the Network Adapter.
  • Click Run the troubleshooter.

Any issues with the network adapter driver will be detected and resolved.

Update Your Network Adapter Driver

If your laptop runs on an outdated version of the network adapter driver, you will likely experience issues with hotspot connectivity frequently. I recommend updating your network driver whenever a new update is out. The same also applies if you are using a laptop running on Windows 10 or 11. 

To update your network adapter driver to the latest version, follow these steps:

  • Go to the Device Manager. 
  • Click on Network adapter.
  • Right-click the network adapter for your system, then click on update driver.
  • Reboot your system.
  • Test the hotspot connection.

Roll Back Network Adapters

Suppose you have not encountered issues connecting your laptop to your mobile hotspot. In that case, it’s possible that when you update your network adapter driver, you might start having issues with the hotspot connection. 

Performing a rollback of your network adapter’s driver could help tackle the problem. To roll back to the previous version, take these steps:

  • Go to Device Manager from the Start icon.
  • Click Network Adapters to search for your system adapter driver.
  • Click on properties.
  • Click on Rollback driver.
  • Restart your system and test the hotspot connection.

There are some cases where there might not be a network adapter driver to roll back to, which means you must update your driver version. You can get the updated network adapter driver without an Internet connection by using another system connected to the Internet. 

Go to the website of your laptop brand and download the installation file. Copy it on a mobile drive and install it manually on your system. 

Use Command Prompts On Your Windows Laptop

You can run a test of your hotshot connection by making use of the Commands Prompt function.

To utilize this function, perform these steps:

  1. Open the Command Prompt sequence by typing CMD in the Start menu.
  2. Right-click and select Run as Administrator.
  3. Test the hotspot connection after running and entering the individual command line below: 
  • netsh winsock reset
  • netsh int ip reset
  • ipconfig /release
  • ipconfig /renew
  • ipconfig /flushdns
  • reg delete HKCRCLSID{988248f3-a1ad-49bf-9170-676cbbc36ba3} /va /f
  • netcfg -v -u dni_dne

If there are any issues with hotspot connectivity, they will be detected. 

Check Your Registry System

You may have problems with the hotspot connectivity because of issues with your laptop’s registry system. Alterations in the registry could cause the malfunctioning of some programs on your laptop. 

To check the registry system of your laptop, take these steps:

  • Open the registry editor by typing Regedit in the Start menu bar.
  • Right-click on it and select the Run as Administrator option.
  • Move to the registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WlanSvc\Parameters\HostedNetworkSettings\
  • Right-click on HostedNetworkSettings.
  • Click on Delete.

Check The Compatibility Mode

When you have updated your network adapter driver, it is possible that you still encounter connection issues. This could be due to the updated network driver version not being compatible with your laptop’s operating system. Launching it in compatibility mode lets you get the updated version to work.

This runs the new update in the previous version of your laptop’s operating system. 

You can perform a compatibility mode test in these steps:

  • Download the new update installation file from the device manufacturer’s site.
  • Right-click on the file and select Properties.
  • Click on Run Compatibility mode test.
  • Pick the previous driver version and install it.
  • Reboot your system, then check if the hotspot connection is working.

FAQs

Why My Laptop Is Not Connecting To Mobile Hotspot In Windows 10?

You can check why your Windows 10 laptop is not connecting to a mobile hotshot by running the network adapter, troubleshooting wizard, or updating the driver. 

Why My HP Laptop Is Not Connecting To Mobile Hotspot?

If you experience hotspot connection issues in your HP Laptop, go to the Settings menu and activate the Troubleshooting wizard. Run the troubleshooting application on your network and Internet connection to detect the problems.

Why My Laptop Is Not Connecting To Mobile Hotspot In Windows 7?

Reset the hotspot password after rebooting your laptop and hotspot devices. You can also change the Wi-Fi band frequency of the hotspot device to that of your laptop to ensure a smoother connection.

Why My Laptop Is Not Connecting To Mobile Hotspot In Windows 8?

Your Windows 8 laptop may not easily connect to a mobile hotspot because your laptop’s operating system or network driver needs to be updated.

Conclusion

Most of the time, fixing issues with hotspot connectivity on your laptop requires a simple rebooting of both your system and the hotspot device. Just switch them off and on again.

I hope that using any of the above-mentioned methods has helped answer why my Laptop is not connecting to a mobile hotspot.

You can try out any of them to help boost the hotspot connectivity between your laptop and your mobile hotspot device. Now, you can quickly access the Internet, even in areas with no Wi-Fi connections, without stress.

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