Solved Windows 11 WiFi Still Missing Upon Reset

Question, hello, on my new laptop with windows 11, after removing wifi driver, upon resetting the system, there is no wifi listed. Is there any possible way of recovering? I think normally the wifi would be reinstalled after a reset? Thanks, Jeff

Welcome to ElevenForum!

If you removed the driver, how is it supposed to reinstall the driver?

A couple of questions:

Does your system have an Ethernet connection that you can use to get connected to the Internet so that re-acquisition of the driver would be possible? If so, connect using Ethernet, open Device Manager, select the WiFi adapter (should be showing with an exclamation mark), right-click it and choose to update the driver.

Otherwise, you could download the driver from another system, copy to the system in question using a flash drive, external HD, etc. and install the driver.

If you need assistance with that, please let us know what WiFi adapter your system has and we can provide more precise details.

hsehestedt said:

Welcome to ElevenForum!

If you removed the driver, how is it supposed to reinstall the driver?

A couple of questions: ...

Click to expand...

Hello! Thank you for questions. I am working with manufacturer under warranty however they need me to send it in.
However it seems like there should be a way to recover even if there is no ethernet. Although I should have done a bunch of stuff, however after uninstalling wifi driver, rebooted, it was missing, so advised to reset, and now is still not there.
I did attempt to boot to my windows 11 usb (fat32) drive, after setting bios to prioritize usb drive, and either did not work or appears to give same result.
So if I did find the correct wifi driver, on manufacturers site, how would I install it, even from having on usb drive?

Question: When you uninstalled the WiFi driver, did you also choose the option to remove the driver from the system (see the 2 screenshots below):





If you elected to delete the driver, then you need to get the driver as I noted before. If you place it on a flash drive (also known as a thumb drive, pen drive, UFD (USB Flash Disk), etc.) then you simply run the driver to install it.

If you did NOT delete the driver from your system, and it can still be found, then click on your system name at the top of the Device Manager tree as shown here:



Then, choose Action > Scan for hardware changes as shown here:



Note: If you have a hardware switch to turn off WiFi (some systems use a keyboard button for this), make sure that the WiFi adapter is enabled first so that the system can find it.

If this still does not help you, could you please provide a screenshot of the "Network adapter" section in Device Manager as in this example:

Follow-up:

I re-read your last post and want to make one detail a little more clear. There is no need to reboot from the flash drive. The flash drive simply acts like another drive. If you place the driver on that flash drive from another system, and attach it to the system with the missing WiFi driver, you can simply access that flash drive in File Explorer while you are in Windows and run the driver installer from there.

hsehestedt said:

***Follow-up:

I re-read your last post and want to make one detail a little more clear. There is no need to reboot from the flash drive. The flash drive simply acts like another drive. If you place ***

Click to expand...

Hello! Only Windows 11 install screen is available, first country, keyboard, then when I get to the wifi page, there is nothing available (and no ethernet).
Is it possible to boot to a command window so as to enact some kind of driver install?
You may be very right that I chose to delete it from the system, which makes sense now in retrospect better understanding.

I used this to get past the wifi screen on the windows installation process!
http://Let’s Connect you to a network - Windows 11 SOLVED!
So I may be able to use your advice as given above, returning in a few hours.

Note previously
I attempted to install this, however didn't work (also found on another forum same experience), or I didn't know how to install correctly
Vivobook-17-M712-AMD-Ryzen-5000-Series/
***
Version V2024.0.10.135
2022/09/14 5.76 MBytes
Realtek WLAN Driver

Description :
This package includes an RealTek wireless LAN driver to provide better Wi-Fi connection experience. When you update this driver, it is recommended that you update RealTek's Bluetooth driver at the same time for better compatibility.

Device List :
AW-CB295NF/RTL8822BE/AW-CB295NF/RTL8822BE(SEA)/AW-CB304NF/RTL8821CE/AW-CB304NF/RTL8821CE(1ANT.)/WCBN810L-AD/RTL8822CE/WCBN809L-AD/RTL8821CE-VC/WCBN809L-AD/RTL8821CE-VC(1ANT.)/AW-CB515NF/RTL8821CE-VC/AW-CB515NF/RTL8821CE-VC(1ANT.)

SHA-256 :
565A49EB3507EE6B114606853682B62EAE3F2C72E505E5C4D4B8A477390DE5D4

Jeff Moeller said:

Hello! Only Windows 11 install screen is available, first country, keyboard, then when I get to the wifi page, there is nothing available (and no ethernet).
Is it possible to boot to a command window so as to enact some kind of driver install?
You may be very right that I chose to delete it from the system, which makes sense now in retrospect better understanding.

Click to expand...

Jeff, let me make sure that I understand. On the machine where you say you uninstalled the WiFi driver, I assumed that Windows was already running, after all, how could you have "uninstalled" a WiFi driver if Windows was not already installed?

So, are you now saying that you are trying to install Windows 11 from scratch and that Windows setup is simply not finding your WiFi adapter?

I am able to boot into new windows 11 install now, and get to device manager. I installed the above mentioned package again however did not work yet. Will report back within a few hours. I wonder if I get search for that installed driver?

My explanation was that after uninstalling the wifi driver, i rebooted, and since the wifi driver wasn't there, that rebooting didn't replace the driver, the manufacturer tech support asked me to "reset windows" which then it was still not there.
However now using the youtube link provided, i was able to skip past the blocking wifi setup page and full reinstall / replace windows (through setup).
And now running the package previously mentioned, again, the wifi driver is still not available. How can windows find the wifi driver? I have tried your suggestion now of "scan for hardware changes", which also does not replace the wifi driver.

You still have not shown me a screenshot. I know that you may not have Internet access, but can you take a pic with phone?

If not, how about simply describing what you see in the Network section of Device Manager. Do you see the WiFi adapter? If so, is it shown with an exclamation mark indicating a problem (such as no driver)? Finally, what model is the WiFi adapter?

Looking at ASUS support, it appears that your system uses a Realtek WiFi driver.

Go to another computer where you have Internet access. Go to this page:


I know that you said you tried to install this before, but tell me if this is the process that you followed. If so, what king of error did you get?

Download the driver:



After downloading, right-click on the file, select properties, go to the "General" tab, check the box that says "Unblock", click "OK".

Now, copy the file to your flash drive and take it to the laptop. Double-click that file on the flash drive to install the driver.

Thank for reminder on bringing in an image.
I have tried running the AMD drivers, which removed all of my previous drivers except for the blue tooth.
And then ran the wireless realtek yet again. This time i simply extracted and then used the device manager add driver prompt which claimed to have run everything that was extracted.

I am starting to believe that the wifi device component itself is unable and possible faulty, which I am gearing up to send the laptop into acer under warranty. However i wanted to see if I could simply fix this myself. I had started the call since the normal wifi connection in a further room, proven my many other devices over many years, was quite less than it should be. Amongst increasing crashes/sudden reboots over the day. There was mention that i should be using the myasus tool however strangely that won't run now after reinstalling windows 11.

Okay, we are making progress. Be patient! We will get there. There is no need to return the laptop!

Next, that network controller that is showing with an exclamation mark, right-click on it, choose properties, go to the "Details" tab, select "Hardware Ids" in the "Properties" box . You may see several lines of output. Copy the first one for me, or grab a screenshot.

Also, go to the top of Device Manager, select View > Show Hidden devices. Open that Network adapters section once more and grab a screenshot.

I just noticed something:

Your computer specs say that this is an ASUS Vivobook, but in your last response you reference ACER. Am I looking at the wrong system? Is this the ASUS Vivobook or is it an ACER we are dealing with?

ack! muddled in my mind, ASUS vivobook

Jeff Moeller said:

Hello! Thank you for questions. I am working with manufacturer under warranty however they need me to send it in.
However it seems like there should be a way to recover even if there is no ethernet. Although I should have done a bunch of stuff, however after uninstalling wifi driver, rebooted, it was missing, so advised to reset, and now is still not there.
I did attempt to boot to my windows 11 usb (fat32) drive, after setting bios to prioritize usb drive, and either did not work or appears to give same result.
So if I did find the correct wifi driver, on manufacturers site, how would I install it, even from having on usb drive?

Click to expand...

upon a reset its going to use the stock drivers from the system partition so the whole because you uninstalled the driver thing is moot. It should
install those drivers automatically since Unless you went in and deleted the reserve system partition its not possible it wouldnt automatically install them.

Still hoping to get the info from Dev Man that I asked for. I think we can get this resolved rather easily. But I need to see what's going on.

Greetings! (Day 2 - Tuesday 9/27), Thanks for sticking with this, it was a beneficial and helpful journey so far.
My current position:
1. No hardware found, my conclusion is that the wireless/wifi component, is not recognized - some defect or low level situation.
2. "Reset" - pulls from a partition, agreed that all default microsoft drivers should be there, on reboot, on reset, on add/scan for hardware changes, driver package et all
3. USB Windows install multiple attempts also failed at setup wifi screen (fourth screen: country, keyboard, alt keyboard, wifi)
4. Manufacturer driver package install/extract - add driver, manual attempt - does not add wifi therefore wifi hardware is not available.

Make sure the laptop is not in airplane mode. Page 55 in the manual.


Ben

I think we need to go back to the beginning to solve this. First, as you say this laptop is new, what circumstance made you choose to remove the wifi driver in the first place? Did the wifi ever work?