wireless will not stay connected

i have a wireless router which is successfully connected to my husband's computer and was successfully connected to my old computer with no problems. i just got a new hp pavillion 6220 (i think that's the number) with windows vista and bought a wireless USB dongle made by TRENDnet. i set everything up and windows first did not seem to recognize any networks, but then i rebooted my computer and no problem--it connected. for a while. then when i left the computer for a little while and came back, the connection was gone and i could not get windows to recognize any networks again. since then, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and then the other day it kept going through this cycle where it found the network, started to connect and then suddenly disconnected and said it couldn't find any networks, then it would happen all over again--maybe twenty times in a row. any ideas?

to be fair, i bought a "refurbished" (but certified by the manufacturer) computer so it could be a hardware problem, though i sure hope not. i did call hp but they are currently researching my warranty to see if they can actually help me or not.

 

i'd say it's like a problem between vista and the usb dongle. try updating the drivers.

 

i called TRENDnet tech support the other day and they said the driver should not be a problem, but hey maybe they're wrong. I'll give it a try when I get home.

 

I don't doubt it that they said that. However, if i were having intermittent problems, I'd either check to make sure that i had a good, solid connection between the dongle and port (try other ports just in case) or i would suspect driver issues. If it's still happening, try the dongle in another computer that has access to wireless. If similar problems, it is much more likely it's the dongle having the issues.