Windows 8 Does not Reconnect to Wifi Automatically

Hi,

 Thank you for contacting Microsoft Community.

Just a few questions first, to get a clear picture of the issue;

1. Have you made any changes prior to the issue?
2. What is the make and model of the router?

I suggest you to follow the methods and check if it helps.

Method 1: Make sure if the WLAN AutoConfig service is set to automatic.

1. Click on start button, type services.msc and press Enter.

2. Scroll down to the WLAN AutoConfig service, right click on it and select Properties

3. Click on General tab, select Automatic for startup type.

4. Click on Dependences tab and make sure that all the dependences services are set to Automatic. Then click on OK button.

Method 2 **:**Try the steps in the following Microsoft Help article to troubleshoot problems with wired and wireless networks and check if it helps.

Wired and wireless network problems

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/network-connection-problem-help#network-problems=windows-81&v1h=win81tab1&v2h=win7tab1&v3h=winvistatab1&v4h=winxptab1

Method 3: Wake up your Wi-Fi adapter.

a. Press Windows

• X keys and click on Device Manager.

b. Search for the Network Adapter.

c. Right click on the Network Adapter and click Properties.

d. Click on Power Managementtab.

e. Uncheck the option "Allow this device to wake the computer."

f. Click Ok to save changes

Hope this information is helpful. If issue persists, you can write to us and we will be glad to assist you further.

Hi Gozzle,

Sorry to hear that the issue is not completely fixed by the troubleshooting steps provided earlier.

**Question:**What is the make and model of your computer?

I would suggest you to follow these below method and check if it helps.

Method 1:

Step 1: First, let’s check for the dependency services of “WLAN Auto Config” and make sure that all the dependency services are started.

Follow these steps:

1. Click Start, type services.msc in the Start search box and hit Enter.
2. Locate the “WLAN Auto Config” service.
3. Right-click the service and select “Properties”.
4. Click the “Dependencies” tab.

Step 2: Make a note of the dependency services of “WLAN Auto Config Manager” and make sure that these services are started and the startup type is set to “Automatic”.

To start a service, right-click the particular service and select “Start” or “Restart”.

To set the startup type of a particular service,

1. Right-click the service and select “Properties”.
2. Under General tab, make sure the Startup type is set to Automatic.

I would also suggest you to download and install the latest Chipset drivers from the Dell website for the Computer and manually update the graphic and Network adapters from device manager.

Follow these steps to update the drivers.

1. Press “Windows + X” and select Device Manager.
2. In Device Manager locate the device you want to update, and then double click the device name.
3. Click the Driver tab, and then click Update Driver and follow the instructions

Post back with the result.

Here is an update:

1. The wifi is back to failing with regularity, making wifi use practically useless.  
2. One particular scenario is that the wifi will operate for a  very short time right after coming out of sleep mode, and then disconnect and not automatically reconnect.  Then I manually reconnect and it goes back to failing every 10-15 minutes or so. 
3.  Still unanswered -  In the dependencies tab, I could not determine how to set the dependencies services to "automatic."  It did not come up the same way that it did under the General tab.  For example, there were 3-4 services apparently listed in the dependencies box, but nothing happens when I right click or left click them, and in particular there is no option to set to 'automatic"

I have the same problem on my Lenovo.  I am running Win8.  I have trouble with my laptop connecting to Internet automatically. 

Two use cases:

1. Laptop goes to sleep/hibernate mode.  When it wakes up around the SAME wifi network, it would usually connect to internet (around 60% of the times).  When it does not work, it would never connect to Internet on it's own.  Please note that it says "connected" to the wifi network but no internet access.  Only way to get it to connect is to go to "diagnose" wherein it would reset the wifi adapter and it would work well again.  The error shown is "Default Gateway is not available".  ON the same wifi router, my other laptops and cell phones work very well.  This Lenovo also works well after the wifi adapter is reset.
2. Laptop goes to sleep/hibernate mode.  When I change the location (say go from home to the office), it would always say connected to the "New" wifi network.  However, it will NEVER connect to internet until I reset the adapter.  Again, the error shown is "Default Gateway is not available" All other devices work well with this network as well.

Why is it necessary to reset the wifi adapter every time?  It is very annoying.  My other devices which ran Win 7 or iOS or Android work very well when I connect to the network.

With Win8 on this Lenovo U series laptop, unfortunately, I must click on "diagnose" and reset the wifi adapter for it to connect to internet!  It seems this wifi adapter does not get the valid IP address automatically.

Please help since it is very annoying and takes time.....

Sara, thank you.  I did as you suggested, with the following results.

1. In the  WLAN AutoConfig service settings, in the General tab, the setting was already to "automatic" as you suggested.
2. In the dependencies tab, I could not determine how to set the dependencies services to "automatic."  It did not come up the same way that it did under the General tab.  For example, there were 3-4 services apparently listed in the dependencies box, but nothing happens when I right click or left click them, and in particular there is no option to set to 'automatic"
3. I noticed that under the "recovery" tab there are settings as to what to do for the first failure, second failure, and subsequent failures.  For whatever reason, the "subsequent' failures" action was set to "do nothing."  I set it to "restart the service." Why would the system be set to give up after three failures, when it has been set to the user to connect automatically?  This makes no sense to me. 

Since then, the system has failed only once over several hours, which is a vast improvement.  But perhaps I have just been lucky today.  Can anyone explain if this helped the situation?