Wi-Fi option is literally... gone?

[Azade12]

Hey everyone, hope everyone is having a happy May.

 

I booted my PC this evening only to realize the entire wifi panel is gone. The pop up, the control panel and even in network devices. It literally just disappeared. 

 

I pinged 172.1.1.1 with administrator and the test came back OK, so I know it isn't a hardware error.

 

I have updated drivers, re-enabled services: nothing.

 

What seems to have happened is my literal network card, in the software, is just... literally gone? Windows failed a rollback and now the restore point is useless. BIOS confirmed the network card was enabled. Disabling and re-enabling it has not yielded any results.

 

I upgraded my tower to 32G ram and 3TB Nvm.e about a week and a half ago. Things worked very well up until today.

[BentleyOwen123]

5 minutes ago, Azade12 said:

Hey everyone, hope everyone is having a happy May.

 

I booted my PC this evening only to realize the entire wifi panel is gone. The pop up, the control panel and even in network devices. It literally just disappeared. 

 

I pinged 172.1.1.1 with administrator and the test came back OK, so I know it isn't a hardware error.

 

I have updated drivers, re-enabled services: nothing.

 

What seems to have happened is my literal network card, in the software, is just... literally gone? Windows failed a rollback and now the restore point is useless. BIOS confirmed the network card was enabled. Disabling and re-enabling it has not yielded any results.

 

I upgraded my tower to 32G ram and 3TB Nvm.e about a week and a half ago. Things worked very well up until today.

try just removing it and re seating it, sounds dumb but fixes the problem more times than not

[Azade12]

Just now, BentleyOwen123 said:

try just removing it and re seating it, sounds dumb but fixes the problem more times than not

My Wi-FI is not a separate card, it is built into my motherboard

[BentleyOwen123]

oh what the hell? it just disappeared??? does your bluetooth still work?

[BentleyOwen123]

and have you tried reinstalling windows?

[goatedpenguin]

4 minutes ago, Azade12 said:

My Wi-FI is not a separate card, it is built into my motherboard

Reinstall the driver for the corresponding wifi card. If you can't do that then you can try uninstalling the wifi driver through device manager and in the next reboot windows should put the driver back and hopefully it works, though the former option is better. 

[Azade12]

4 minutes ago, BentleyOwen123 said:

oh what the hell? it just disappeared??? does your bluetooth still work?

It all... just... left...?

[Azade12]

4 minutes ago, BentleyOwen123 said:

and have you tried reinstalling windows?

No, I have not. This computer worked fine two days ago, but I've been trying for the last 45 minutes to figure out what is going on

[Azade12]

2 minutes ago, goatedpenguin said:

Reinstall the driver for the corresponding wifi card. If you can't do that then you can try uninstalling the wifi driver through device manager and in the next reboot windows should put the driver back and hopefully it works, though the former option is better. 

The wifi card is GONE , like I can't even re-install the driver. It no longer exists on the PC? I could send a screenshot of my device manager, the wifi adapter is just a far of dream, or some imagination. It does not exist anymore

[OhYou_]

use a wifi cable now.

check in your uefi and see if it was disabled. windows now automatically updates the motherboard firmware so maybe a firmware update disabled it on accident or something.
check your version number and compare it with the manufacturer website and see if it was released/installed recently. you may have to roll back to a previous version if this is the case and it isnt simply disabled

[ChrisLoudon]

3 hours ago, Azade12 said:

The wifi card is GONE 

Firstly, have you tried a fresh install of Windows?

 

Secondly, try booting a linux distro like Ubuntu. You can install it within Windows like any other application OR you can create a live bootable USB stick and try it that way. Either way, if Linux can't find the card then its proper borked!

 

Is your BIOS up to date?

[ImWilly]

Can you share the screenshot of your Device manager?
If it shows the Wi-Fi device but with warning sign, that could means that there are some driver issue

 

I have a similar problem before (only for Wi-Fi, Ethernet and Bluetooth works fine), the Wi-Fi and hotspot option would gray out when I click on the bottom right and it turns out to be the Wi-Fi that comes from the motherboard is problematic

[whispous]

Can I get a serious moment for one sec

 

 

Can you do specifically a restart? NOT A SHUTDOWN. I really, REALLY mean it.

I oversee a lot of Windows 11 machines, and this REPEATEDLY comes up: a restart fixes this exact issue.

 

I also beg of you not to say you already have done, like 90% of my users do when I ask them to specifically restart, not shut down.

 

 

 

If this fails to make a difference, can we see a screenshot of device manager with network section expanded?

[manikyath]

restart, enter bios, disable wifi module in bios, restart, load into windows, restart, enter bios, enable wifi module in bios, restart, load into bios.

[Azade12]

On 5/10/2024 at 1:35 AM, manikyath said:

restart, enter bios, disable wifi module in bios, restart, load into windows, restart, enter bios, enable wifi module in bios, restart, load into bios.

I already said I did that, it did not work

[Azade12]

On 5/10/2024 at 1:30 AM, whispous said:

Can I get a serious moment for one sec

 

 

Can you do specifically a restart? NOT A SHUTDOWN. I really, REALLY mean it.

I oversee a lot of Windows 11 machines, and this REPEATEDLY comes up: a restart fixes this exact issue.

 

I also beg of you not to say you already have done, like 90% of my users do when I ask them to specifically restart, not shut down.

 

 

 

If this fails to make a difference, can we see a screenshot of device manager with network section expanded?

I have done both already, it does not work. This is a Windows 10 machine.

 

I'll send a ss soon

[Bitter]

To help rule out a stupid Windows problem can you boot up a USB stick with whatever recent Linux OS you'd like to try out. If it also can't find the wifi hardware either automatically or by running a command 'ls pci' to list all PCI/PCIe devices then it's probably dead hardware on the board. Usually that'd show up as an error'd device on device manager but not always.

[goatedpenguin]

Assuming you have a dead wifi chip then you can get a solid usb wifi antenna from amazon under 20 bucks. 

[Azade12]

UPDATE:
 

I booted my PC up and the wifi is back.

 

I decided to use my phone as a wired connection through a hotspot and usb-c

 

I'm not sure if that was it, but the Wi-Fi options came back when I booted up the PC today and then networks began discoverable once I enabled the wired hotspot.

 

I appreciate you all for your help. I would roll back to Windows 7, but Microsoft stopped supporting it years ago.