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I just bought a new Dell laptop with Windows 10 installed. I can connect to my wifi without any trouble, but I can't actively use it with multiple programs at once. For example, if I have a Putty session open and try to do something in chrome, it shows me the dinosaur page. If I wait a few seconds and refresh, chrome works, but Putty stops working - either my session dies or it freezes for a few seconds. The same thing happens with Skype and Windows Update. I don't think there's a hard limit on how many programs can use the internet, but if one program is using it another program is less likely to be successful. This even happens between two Putty windows.

This is not a problem with the network, because it doesn't happen on any other computer (including my old laptop, which was also Windows 10).

I also don't think it's a bandwidth problem with my computer's connection to the network. Downloading the initial updates and programs wasn't noticeably slow, and high quality skype video calls work fine. And the issue happens even between windows of Putty, which isn't what I would call an intense network user.

Has anyone seen this before?

I can edit in details about the computer if you let me know what's relevant.

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  • You have had this problem since you got the laptop I presume?
    – Ramhound
    Jan 8, 2019 at 18:40
  • @Ramhound yes, which was 2 days ago
    – Heshy
    Jan 8, 2019 at 19:48
  • It seems like your bandwidth is not enough. Or maybe some software occupy too much bandwidth. How much bandwidth do you have on your network? Try some bandwidth monitoring software to check whether some software occupy too much bandwidth. If not, maybe you need to improve your bandwidth.
    – Peter.G
    Jan 9, 2019 at 9:01
  • @Peter.G I explained in the question why this seems unlikely to me. And see the edit which provides a little more information.
    – Heshy
    Jan 9, 2019 at 14:40
  • Do you have any kind of security software installed (e.g. Firewall, Antivirus, ...)? If so, could you try to disable those and try again?
    – Berend
    Jan 9, 2019 at 14:49

1 Answer 1

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I spent an hour on the phone with Dell. The technician activated remote assist and did several things, including updating the drivers, clearing the DNS cache, and deleting some preinstalled apps that are known to cause trouble. Over the next few days, I tried again and the problem was not fixed.

Then I spoke with Dell again (different technician this time). He suggested reinstalling the operating system, but this requires a flash drive, which I didn't have. At this point I had a strong suspicion that the problem was caused by faulty hardware and didn't want to wait the extra time it would take to buy (or have Dell send me) a flash drive, get Dell on the phone again, and have them walk me through the procedure. I just asked for a replacement, which was granted with no further questions asked.

I tend to think that the technician wasn't so confident that reinstalling the operating system would work, or he most likely would have pushed harder for me to try that.

Bottom line: at least in my case, this was almost definitely a hardware issue.

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