Wi-Fi Connectivity Issues

SidearmSinker49 · 07 Nov 2016

As the title of the post says, my laptop's Wi-Fi will not turn on. When I hovered over the Wi-Fi button in the corner it said that it was connected to the network but had no internet access, which was a little strange. My dad's tablet is on the same network and his is working just fine (I'm using his tablet to type this post). So I tried to reboot my laptop to see if the "try turning it off an on again" adage would work, and after rebooting the computer, now the Wi-Fi won't turn on at all. Not in the sense that it won't connect to the network, but in the sense that the slider to actually turn on Wi-Fi does not work. I tried to do a system restore on the laptop, but now it seems like I completely lost Wi-Fi capability! Not only that but now there are a slew of other problems. The Wi-Fi slider is gone, the start menu won't open, and worst of all, my computer doesn't think I'm an administrator anymore. I'm completely distressed because my homework and my music is on that computer and I'm at my wit's end.

bro67 · 08 Nov 2016

What does it show when you open a Command Window and run ipconfig /show Along with netsh wlan show all? Also make sure that the adapter is set for Private not Public. If you have any third party security software installed, make sure that it trusts that adapter.

SidearmSinker49 · 08 Nov 2016

When I run ipconfig it gives me:

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
Media state : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS suffix :

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:
Media state : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS suffix :

Ethernet adapter Bluetooth Network Connection :
Media state : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS suffix :

My dad suggested to try and download the ethernet driver onto a USB stick and then plug that into my computer and install it that way. Problem is, since the computer no longer thinks I'm an administrator, I can't access the Device Manager to try and install it.

At this point, it seems like my computer is irrecoverable and I'm thinking that resetting this thing and reinstalling Windows is the only solution...unless I'm jumping to conclusions.

bro67 · 08 Nov 2016

The information that I posted was for you to know how to figure out what is going on, not to have you post a portion that will not help you out. If you are having wifi issues with the laptop not showing the wifi adapter enabled, you need to find out if the proper services are running, if the adapter is enabled in Device Manager first. If it is enabled, then you need to use the information I posted to start troubleshooting what is going on and using that info to determine why there is a problem.

SidearmSinker49 · 08 Nov 2016

Well the problem is since my computer doesn't recognize me as an administrator, I can't access the device manager at all to see if the adapter is enabled.

bro67 · 09 Nov 2016

SidearmSinker49 said:

Well the problem is since my computer doesn't recognize me as an administrator, I can't access the device manager at all to see if the adapter is enabled.

That is a completely different topic. You need to now do a repair in place, in order to get access to the machine back. What ever you were changing, it caused issues.

Even if you can get it to go into a Repair mode, it still will not let you get back your account if you try a System Restore point.