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
    2012-12-30T08:00:39+00:00

    Something odd going on here with Windows Update but no inspiration from Microsoft. I had a Windows7 Acer system belonging to a friend, that just stopped all networking one day and had to be fully reinstalled.  The user is a very basic guy and was doing nothign interesting so I think and a Windows Update arrived and blew him away.  The wired and wireless devices were present in device manager and apparently working,  The IP protocol stacks were apparently present.  There seemed to be no connecton throgh the stack between the device and any software wanting the network.  Different computers worked on the router and different location/router didn't fix the failing system.  Multiple driver reloads, device uninstall/reinstalls, IP resets from command prompt, all did nothing.  The available system restore points were few (don't know why) and failed to restore (no useful report on why they failed).  After a day and a half with no success, I did a full system reload from scratch and got everything reupdated and it worked perfectly.  24 hours later it did a further auto update and went back to failing exactly as it has been.  On this occasion the system restore worked and after running the restore he has turned off all updates.   It may never update again based on this experience.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-04-25T16:08:30+00:00

    Not the issue.  My laptop is plugged in and the battery is fully charged.  Not sure about the coin battery, but the laptop battery stick is fully charged.  I circumvented the problem by buying a wireless microUSB stick.  This one is still working while the on-board wireless is disabled again. 

    What is irritating is that the troubleshooter says Windows has disabled the device and I need to go to Device Manager to re-enable it.  I go to DM, but this device isn't even listed. After finally getting the on-board working again will it show in DM.  Same with the network Center/Change adapter Setting screen.  The device doesn't show when the system disables the device.

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