wireless network adapter gone missing

Anonymous
2010-01-26T05:41:47+00:00

Hi -

I've seen a number of similar questions but no solutions to my problem. 

My system:

Toshiba A505-S6980

Windows 7 Home Premium - 64bit

Realtek WLAN driver

Problem: 

After resuming from a sleep, the network adapter dissappeared.  This happened before and they replaced the computer, after trying a system restore and then full recovery.  Apparently, it's not the computer. 

The Wireless adapter is missing from device manager, much less the network and connections area.  In troubleshoot, the computer simply says a network cable needs to be plugged in.  There is no wireless choice under network connections.  There is no wireless adapter tab upon right click of Network Adapter in Device Manager. 

The Realtek WLAN driver DOES appear in the Programs & Features list.  I uninstalled, reinstalled, and also found/installed a patch for the driver.  This did not work.  I also started/automated the Autoconfig scripts for wireless.  Nothing works. 

Any help is appreciated. 

-Tucson56

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Internet and connectivity

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Anonymous
2015-05-07T04:30:16+00:00

Hi '

This just happened to me and I was able to get past it by doing several hard reboots. I had to fully charge the battery , and after three attempts with increasing intervals of time, the system appearently turned the wireless adapter back on.

After the card reappeared, I was able to find it in device manager again, in my case Intel(R) Centrino(R) Wireless-N 2200 under network adapters . Then a right click, to properties , within properties you chose power Management tab. There you will probably discover that by default the computer is allowed to turn off this device to save power. Uncheck the box , click ok and reboot . Hopefully this will prevent it from happening again.

Hope this helps

Art Master T

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Anonymous
2015-01-09T14:23:36+00:00

This same thing happened to me. What causes it to happen is a very low battery but found a simple solution to turn back on the wireless network adapter.

Hold down the Windows key and press x

menu should come up

click device manager

should go to a list of devices on your computer

expand network adapters from list

might be a few to choose from but look for 2 with the same name. one for wifi and one for ethernet

double click on the wifi network adapter

click on power management tab

click off the tab that allows the wifi to be turned off with low battery

click on drivers tab and enable device

should be good to go from there

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Anonymous
2010-01-27T20:25:00+00:00

Hi tucson56, A. From how long do you face this problem? I would suggest you to check for the power management settings for your wireless adaptor and see if that help. 1.Open Network and Sharing Center (click the Start button, type Network and Sharing in the Start Search box, and press Enter) 2.Click the Change adapter settings link in the upper left of the navigation pane. 3.Right click the network connection you want to enable/disable power management support on and click Properties. 4.Click Configure. 5.On the Power Management tab, check or clear the Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power check box. A. When checked, power management is enabled on the network adapter. B. When cleared, power management is disabled on the network adapter. 6.You can enable Wake on LAN for all wake methods or just enable magic packet WoL: To enable Wake on LAN for all methods, check the Allow this device to wake the computer check box. To enable Wake on LAN for magic packet only, check the Allow this device to wake the computer check box and then check Only allow a magic packet to wake the computer check box. 7.Click OK. Additional information:

http://technet.microsoft.com/zh-cn/library/ee617165(WS.10).aspx

Hope this helps. Let us know the results.

Thanks & Regards,

Vijay B – Microsoft Support

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-11-20T19:20:54+00:00

    I read this thread and several other related threads.  I haven't found anything that works.  I believe that this should be a 'drop-dead' simple problem for Microsoft to fix or provide a work around.  If the icon is missing, there is no dialog to open the connection.  Is there any chance that a Mr.Fix-it style solution will be made available?

     

    I agree with one of the later posters that there may really be only two solutions:  Buuy a new computer with a new version of Windows and transfer everything over, or set-up Linux to replace Windows.  Of course there is a learning curve with the later solution and an expense with the former.  I can say that for me the agravation of this problem is more expensive that the cost of either alternative.

    I have searched the web end to end and see no resolution as in the posts above except to go Linux or ditch the internal wireless adapter. Buying a new laptop is not the solution. I have a beautiful new Asus X53e which worked great since I used it little and allowed no updates for many months.  Now it is just out of warranty, of course. As soon as I allowed  Asus and Microsoft updates, the wireless adapter stopped working. Re-seated the adapter, no help.  Allowing the Microsoft troubleshooter to 'fix" the problem resulted in the adapter being removed from device manager.  I had a restore point but this did not help until I read the Asus support note on resetting the BIOS to default. NOTE there are NO Wifi settings in the new bios! A reboot allowed wireless for about 15 minutes then it was gone.  I gave up on the laptop for  month and just allowed thousands (yes) of MS and Asus update files. Still no adapter in device manager. A BIOS restore and reboot allowed the adapter to reappear but no Wifi networks can be seen. Today a resume from hibernation again removed it. 

    So you are not alone out there people! An amazingly mature technology like 802.11 has been rendered impotent by Windows. I suspect that any issue in Windows with the adapte removes it form bios to protect you from yourself.

     I am beat. I give up.

    Please are there any MS or Asus or other engineers out there who can help? I am beginning to understand why people are leaving the Windows platform for elsewhere - I will give it one last chance. System info below.

    Thanks Peter

    Asus X53e Windows 7, MS Security Essesntials.  (Reliable WAP, XP Asus Eee ok on wireless.)

    Clean original Asus install, no new software except Foxit, Irfanview, PDF Creator and Canoscan.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-11-21T22:29:04+00:00

    yes i agree with you. however i think the problem seems to go away with regular use.

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