no connection available leading to other issues

I have an XPS8500 running Window 7.

Recently, my wifi connection had been sluggish (like one or two bars when the laptop im using to type this has 5 bars).

And today, disaster, "no connection available" but it keeps searching (blue circle overhead the bars), leading to mother strange issues,  for example, I cannot even open the network center or the device manager, i get a perpetual blue circle when I try. CPU usage is stuck at 0 also which is quite strange.

Thanks in advance for any help