Wifi Toggle switch is greyed out

Anonymous
2012-11-04T04:04:43+00:00

Original Title: How to turn on WiFi Capability on Windows 8

Hello,

I upgraded my Laptop Toshiba L500D from Windows 7 Home Premium (x64) to Windows 8 Pro (x64) a few days ago, then I realized yesterday I could not connect to WiFi connection. I have tried search on the internet how to fix it, but no luck. Here are the following list I have tried so far:

  1. Update to latest Driver by going to "Device Manager", click right "Realtek RTL8187SE Wireless LAN PCIE Network Adapter" then click "Update Driver Software...".
  2. Go to Toshiba Website, download "Realtek Wireless Lan Driver" for Windows 7 (x64) and install it by running in Windows 7 compatibility mode.
  3. Go to BIOS, by pressing F2 before Windows 8 loaded, and enable Wireless Communication.
  4. Troubleshooting "Network Adapter (WiFi)" and it gave this advice:

           "Turn on wireless capability

Use the switch on the front or side of the computer,            or function keys if available,            to enable wireless capability on this computer."

  1. Go to Settings -> Change PC Settings -> Wireless, and I got this:

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/2959/62721723.png

How am I suppose to switch it on, if the switch is disabled? The airplane is also off, so I suppose the Wireless switch should be enable so I can turn it on and off, but no, the wifi switch is still disabled.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Cheers,

simply.puzzle

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Internet and connectivity

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2012-11-29T21:38:42+00:00

I had a similar issue.. I used the diagnostics to resolve the issue... here are the steps I took.

  1. Right Click network icon in taskbar and select "open network and sharing center"
  2. highlight wifi connection then at top click "diagnose this connection"

the troubleshooter will discover that the WiFi connection is turned off and offer a "apply fix" option click that and windows will enable the wifi connection...

I had the same issues as the OP and Geecat where the Fn switch just didn't work, so I worked through it as outlined above... Looks like with Win 8 the troubleshooter is even more necessary... Not sure how I feel about that, but it is what it is.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-05-07T00:22:04+00:00

    Glad it's solved :-)

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-06-02T08:26:27+00:00

    Support person,

    I upgraded my win 7 to win 8 about 6+ months ago.  Everything went quite well (other than the missing dll know problems).  In the last 4 days, I have been turning off and on my Wify manually.

    Instead of shutting down my Sony laptop, I just turned off the wify.  The first 3 days I did not encounter any issue.  Last night I turned it off again and today, the "Wify on/off is greyed".   I followed some instruction in the web (including re-installing the drive to the Microsoft driver) w/o success.  The network still works fine using the cable (cat 6).   Can you please advise. 

    Thank you.

    ******@gunawan.us

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-07-07T23:41:52+00:00

    Fn+F2 is the solution.  Wow!

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-07-08T20:54:40+00:00

    Good Stuff :-)

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