Solved Windows 11 Wireless not recognized by OS

I did a series of command prompts to identify the issue
See below.
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22621.2861]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\System32>sfc scannow

Microsoft (R) Windows (R) Resource Checker Version 6.0
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Scans the integrity of all protected system files and replaces incorrect versions with
correct Microsoft versions.

SFC [/SCANNOW] [/VERIFYONLY] [/SCANFILE=<file>] [/VERIFYFILE=<file>]
[/OFFWINDIR=<offline windows directory> /OFFBOOTDIR=<offline boot directory> [/OFFLOGFILE=<log file path>]]

/SCANNOW Scans integrity of all protected system files and repairs files with
problems when possible.
/VERIFYONLY Scans integrity of all protected system files. No repair operation is
performed.
/SCANFILE Scans integrity of the referenced file, repairs file if problems are
identified. Specify full path <file>
/VERIFYFILE Verifies the integrity of the file with full path <file>. No repair
operation is performed.
/OFFBOOTDIR For offline repair, specify the location of the offline boot directory
/OFFWINDIR For offline repair, specify the location of the offline windows directory
/OFFLOGFILE For offline repair, optionally enable logging by specifying a log file path

e.g.

sfc /SCANNOW
sfc /VERIFYFILE=c:\windows\system32\kernel32.dll
sfc /SCANFILE=d:\windows\system32\kernel32.dll /OFFBOOTDIR=d:\ /OFFWINDIR=d:\windows
sfc /SCANFILE=d:\windows\system32\kernel32.dll /OFFBOOTDIR=d:\ /OFFWINDIR=d:\windows /OFFLOGFILE=c:\log.txt
sfc /VERIFYONLY

C:\Windows\System32>sfc /scannow

Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

C:\Windows\System32>dishpart
'dishpart' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Windows\System32>diskpaert
'diskpaert' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Windows\System32>chkdsk c: /scan
The type of the file system is NTFS.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
269312 file records processed.
File verification completed.
Phase duration (File record verification): 5.81 seconds.
31897 large file records processed.
Phase duration (Orphan file record recovery): 17.02 milliseconds.
0 bad file records processed.
Phase duration (Bad file record checking): 0.69 milliseconds.

Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
173 reparse records processed.
366400 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
Phase duration (Index verification): 4.86 seconds.
0 unindexed files scanned.
Phase duration (Orphan reconnection): 137.51 milliseconds.
0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.
Phase duration (Orphan recovery to lost and found): 0.66 milliseconds.
173 reparse records processed.
Phase duration (Reparse point and Object ID verification): 3.60 milliseconds.

Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Security descriptor verification completed.
Phase duration (Security descriptor verification): 110.15 milliseconds.
48545 data files processed.
Phase duration (Data attribute verification): 1.46 milliseconds.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
37806064 USN bytes processed.
Usn Journal verification completed.
Phase duration (USN journal verification): 281.04 milliseconds.

Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.

249938943 KB total disk space.
40239804 KB in 131552 files.
95468 KB in 48546 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
398059 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
209205612 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
62484735 total allocation units on disk.
52301403 allocation units available on disk.
Total duration: 11.23 seconds (11236 ms).

C:\Windows\System32>1) dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth
'1)' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Windows\System32>dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.22621.2792

Image Version: 10.0.22621.2861

[==========================100.0%==========================] No component store corruption detected.
The operation completed successfully.

C:\Windows\System32>dism/online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.22621.2792

Image Version: 10.0.22621.2861

[==========================100.0%==========================] The restore operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.

C:\Windows\System32>sfc /scannow

Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

C:\Windows\System32>chkdsk /scan
The type of the file system is NTFS.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
269312 file records processed.
File verification completed.
Phase duration (File record verification): 5.58 seconds.
31897 large file records processed.
Phase duration (Orphan file record recovery): 17.69 milliseconds.
0 bad file records processed.
Phase duration (Bad file record checking): 0.94 milliseconds.

Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
173 reparse records processed.
372456 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
Phase duration (Index verification): 5.75 seconds.
0 unindexed files scanned.
Phase duration (Orphan reconnection): 181.41 milliseconds.
0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.
Phase duration (Orphan recovery to lost and found): 1.06 milliseconds.
173 reparse records processed.
Phase duration (Reparse point and Object ID verification): 3.45 milliseconds.

Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Security descriptor verification completed.
Phase duration (Security descriptor verification): 89.90 milliseconds.
51573 data files processed.
Phase duration (Data attribute verification): 1.43 milliseconds.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
41007320 USN bytes processed.
Usn Journal verification completed.
Phase duration (USN journal verification): 219.02 milliseconds.

Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.

249938943 KB total disk space.
41118060 KB in 137650 files.
104780 KB in 51574 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
401131 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
208314972 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
62484735 total allocation units on disk.
52078743 allocation units available on disk.
Total duration: 11.86 seconds (11860 ms).

C:\Windows\System32>

I also ran an offline scan through window defender. Here are a couple files that resulted.

Another line of Command prompts resulted in this.

While I appreciate you providing a lot of data, none of it seems to directly be related to the issue in the title of your post. For example, you never even really make clear what the actual problem is. Is it that Windows does not see the wireless network that you want to connect to? Does Windows Device Manager not see the WiFi adapter in your system at all? Is this a laptop with built-in WiFi? If so, have you checked BIOS settings to see if WiFi is disabled?

If you could provide some of this information, including the precise computer model this would be appreciated.

I also ran microsoft safety scanner and it identified a few infected files but did not seem to by the end of the full scan. Runs between 5-7 infected files. I suspect Malware is present in this Alienware P31E Laptop. Here is a shot of it in progress, but I could not hit to take a shot of "nothing wrong."

hsehestedt said:

While I appreciate you providing a lot of data, none of it seems to directly be related to the issue in the title of your post. For example, you never even really make clear what the actual problem is. Is it that Windows does not see the wireless network that you want to connect to? Does Windows Device Manager not see the WiFi adapter in your system at all? Is this a laptop with built-in WiFi? If so, have you checked BIOS settings to see if WiFi is disabled?

If you could provide some of this information, including the precise computer model this would be appreciated.

Click to expand...

The OS doesn't recognize a connection but most of the apps on the PC do. So internet is "connected."

Looks like you have some malware infections then...full wipe and clean install of Windows should do the trick. Or you can of course waste time and hunt down all malware, which of many can be first of all difficult to detect and secondly very difficult to get rid of without breaking the whole system.

SlicEnDicE said:

Looks like you have some malware infections then...full wipe and clean install of Windows should do the trick. Or you can of course waste time and hunt down all malware, which of many can be first of all difficult to detect and secondly very difficult to get rid of without breaking the whole system.

Click to expand...

I started all of this with a factory restart when I purchased this laptop. Then I did a partial restore. After that didn't work did a full wipe and clean install of Windows. Still have this issue. Anyone else have any suggestions?

Buzz188 said:

I started all of this with a factory restart when I purchased this laptop. Then I did a partial restore. After that didn't work did a full wipe and clean install of Windows. Still have this issue. Anyone else have any suggestions?

Click to expand...

OK. This statement and the fact you have an 8th gen cpu leads me to believe this was a used laptop. Is that right? To advise you we need some direct answers.
Are you saying that wireless has never worked? Did you install the correct wireless adapter driver from Dell?

As @hsehestedt asked, does the wireless adapter show up in device manager? Is it enabled in UEFI bios?

If this machine was used, have you considered that the problem might be a defective wireless adapter? It's easily proven by buying a usb wireless adapter for about 10 bucks. Even if it wasn't used, it could still be bad hardware.

Just because you clean installed once, if you have malware now, another clean install is advised. It's the only way to know your laptop is 100% clean.

Your statement about "apps see a connection but windows doesn't so internet is connected" makes no sense. If you have internet access, are you saying your issue is that you just do not see the wireless icon in the task tray?