Wireless Issues - Possible Fixes

I have been having issues with my laptop's wireless connection since late June. The odd thing was that it started happening sometime after I upgraded from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1. I tried all sorts of things to repair the issue, and each possible solution is said to work for some people -- and by the way, this does seem to be a common issue. The one thing I did not want to do is a factory reset on my whole system, even after backing everything up.

I downloaded the most recent driver, then did a fresh install of the default driver (which requires uninstalling it, then restarting the computer. I tried a fresh install of the most recent driver. I tried restoring the system to a previous state (which did not happen due to some errors in the image). Unfortunately while my wireless worked for awhile, it would drop randomly, and sometimes it would not restore itself. A couple days ago the connection drops changed from occurring every few minutes to every few seconds when I tried to stream videos. And if this problem was this bad with Windows 8.1, I also heard that it was worse with Windows 10!

I discovered that Qualcomm, which makes the Atheros wireless adapters and their drivers, never created a driver that is compatible with Windows 8.1. At the moment, there does not exist one that is compatible with Windows 10 either. This is an unfortunate choice on Qualcomm's part. I hope they choose to fix it, or that Microsoft becomes aware of the issue and writes in full backwards compatibility, because according to what I've read online, a lot of people have this issue, or worse, cannot connect at all -- remember my issue was that my connection dropped, frequently, especially while streaming videos, downloading, or playing games. Many people have other connection issues, it seems.

I mentioned my problem to one of my friends on Skype, and he suggested powerline. Powerline adapters plug into your existing wall sockets. You plug one into your router, and the other into your computer where you use it, and it gives you a normal Ethernet connection. The one drawback seems to be that the more electrical systems, like the TV, you have running at the same time, the more your connection speed drops -- but most powerlines are rated to be at least as fast as normal Ethernet anyway. I ordered a basic pair of adapters online. You can search, for example with cnet, to find a list of recommended units.

While I wait for those to arrive, I decided on Saturday to give up, and plugged my laptop into my normal Ethernet in the basement. Ironically, since then, I have had no issues whatsoever with my wireless connection! I'll still get the powerline adapters, since they will be useful to have, but if this simple fix works for me, it might work for others. If you are one of those who have been having similar issues, give it a try. It might work, and save you a lot of hassle.

EDIT: The powerline does sometimes drop the connection, but then I only have to connect with my wireless for a few minutes. Since that now seems to work normally again, I have the option of using either now. Of course, I haven't upgraded to Windows 10 yet, and I've no idea how it will treat either.