Windows 10 Teacher with No/Intermittent Internet Access, Windows 10

[pforan]

I could really use help with this situation. I am teaching from home and unable to connect reliably to home WIFI for online teaching.

• HP Elitebook with Windows 10 Enterprise Volume License from school.
• All other devices work perfectly on network (multiple laptops and phones).
• This laptop worked fine for two years until yesterday. Previously it would sometimes disconnect momentarily but then reconnect automatically seconds later (annoying but no real problem). Last two days, it will connect, then lose connection repeatedly. Sometimes no connection for hours. Sometimes it will work for 1-2 minutes, sometimes 5-10 minutes, always cutting out eventually.
• Strange thing: if I make my phone into a WIFI hotspot and share my home connection, the laptop works perfectly. Same WIFI signal from same router. If computer is connected directly, it's unusable, but through my phone, no issues. Why?
• The ONLY change in the past few days is that my Windows activation expired (I didn't know this was a thing), so I have a watermark that (sometimes) appears telling me to activate Windows. My understanding is that the computer should still work fine even if not activated. My school IT dept is closed and cannot help with any kind of activation for the foreseeable future. If I try to activate through Windows settings I get a "Cannot connect to your institution's network" error.

Things I have tried:

• Reboot
• Reset Router and Modem
• Uninstall and reinstall network adopter
• Reset network
• Use network diagnostics (this sometimes fixes things for a few minutes)
• Update windows / Remove Windows Updates
• flush DNS

Again, this is crucial as I am a teacher in NY relying on internet for distance learning with 5 classes.

Again, it is strange because I never had issues with this computer before yesterday, and nothing has changed other than Windows activation.

Again, I can't understand why the laptop will not keep a connection to the router, but WILL keep a connection if connected through my phone hotspot to the router.


Any help is greatly appreciated by me and my 92 students!

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