Missing WiFi Adapter (software)

[VitorSDM]

Hello!

So I have this machine (with a RAM/GPU upgrade I made this year): https://www.newegg.ca/msi-aegis-rs-11te-095us/p/N82E16883152765?Item=N82E16883152765&utm_medium=TraEmail&utm_source=TEMC-Shipping-New-Tracking-Notification-Responsive-US&cm_mmc=TEMC-Shipping-New-Tracking-Notification-Responsive-US-_-N82E16883152765

 

On the wireless side it supposedly has the following:

LAN Chipset	Realtek RTL8125B-CG
LAN Speed	2.5Gbps
WLAN	WiFi 6 (802.11ax) 2.4Gbps, Dual Band 2.4GHz / 5GHz
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 5.1

 

I can see the shark-fin MSI wireless antenna on the machine and have checked that it's physically screwed into the WiFi card, but my wireless capability has completely disappeared. I'm plugged in via a powerline adapter currently and the internet works fine. But checking device manager doesn't show any WiFi adapter. And going into internet options (Windows 11) only shows me the wired options. I haven't used wireless in around a year or two so have no idea when this happened - I just had new internet installed today and the 1.5 Gigabit speed there likely outstrips the powerline limits I'm hitting of 120Mbps so I wanted to try and see how things were over WiFi instead. 

 

Anyone know what may be the issue? Is the WiFi card dead and needs replacing? Is this a BIOS problem? Any help would be much appreciated, thanks!

[Budget DIY]

Did you try to find drivers for this wifi device? And then install the drivers, and check if it worked or what kind of error you got?

[Bitter]

Are there any unknown devices in device manager?

For the record you'll probably be disappointed by the Realtek Wifi's stability under load. I'd suggest swapping it for a Intel like a AX series or you can get a pretty cheap m.2 adapter card and a 9260 m.2 card that slots in it, won't be 1.5 gigabit but it'll do a solid 800 megabit and can do it stable. Intel drivers are kept up to date pretty well, I can't say I've ever had an issue with Intel Wifi cards.

[VitorSDM]

On 5/6/2023 at 5:35 PM, Budget DIY said:

Did you try to find drivers for this wifi device? And then install the drivers, and check if it worked or what kind of error you got?

I installed the intel wifi driver as that's what was linked on the "MSI HERALD-AX INTEL AX200NGW WI-FI 6" page. But I'm not sure that's actually what I have... I should open the case and check honestly. 
 

On 5/6/2023 at 6:34 PM, Bitter said:

Are there any unknown devices in device manager?

For the record you'll probably be disappointed by the Realtek Wifi's stability under load. I'd suggest swapping it for a Intel like a AX series or you can get a pretty cheap m.2 adapter card and a 9260 m.2 card that slots in it, won't be 1.5 gigabit but it'll do a solid 800 megabit and can do it stable. Intel drivers are kept up to date pretty well, I can't say I've ever had an issue with Intel Wifi cards.

Nothing like that in device manager. I have 2x ExpressVPN software items, the Realtek PCIe Family Controller and a bunch of WAN Miniports. The Realtek says the drivers are up to date also (but that is just for LAN, right? So it doesn't matter). 

And yeah, I may be looking to get a PCIe wifi card I guess to replace the one I have if it's non-functional. Appreciate the advice on what to look at! Not sure on the strength of the wifi signal - my phone reads 650Mbps on SpeedTest when standing next to the router but drops to sub-100Mpbs when I'm in the office... Not sure if that's a signal drop off or just an issue with the size and power of most phone antennas.