Windows 10 S Surface Laptop (1st Gen) - No wifi adapter after update

angrymillenial · 22 Sep 2019

Hello,

I've just updated my surface laptop to the latest and "greatest" firmware/drivers. However this has removed my WIFI and BLUETOOTH options in network settings. They no longer exist, they are not hidden in my device driver. They do not show up at all in my network settings or task bar. I cannot roll back the drivers, as they do not exist according to Windows.

Here's what I've tried:
- Running troubleshooter (it just tells me there is no driver, it does not give me an option to fix)
- Turning it off and on again
- Restarting multiple times
- Letting the machine cool down
- Running a disk check (nothing wrong)
- Setting the laptop to never sleep/turn off network
- Uninstalling windows updates
- Going back to a previous restore point
- Recovering from a USB with image downloaded from microsoft for my specific device
- Installing an individual driver (.INF found from Microsoft and another website)... says it's complete but no driver appears
- Device manager: scanning for hardware changes & showing hidden devices
- Flush dns
- Restarted modem
- Reset the tcp/ip stack
- Airplane mode seems to be off, can't toggle it. Can still connect using ethernet.
- Reinstalling Windows 10 (twice, two different USBs and downloads)

Windows 10 S
Surface Laptop (1st Gen)
Model 1769

Nothing seems to restore the wifi adapter driver.
This laptop was bought in May of 2019... not that long ago....I'm extremely frustrated right now.

If anyone can find an older driver.. I can try installing that instead. It seems finding individual drivers is extremely difficult now, especially for older products or versions of the product.

dalchina · 22 Sep 2019

Welcome to tenforums,

This could be part of a known issue with Surface devices:
Some Surface Users Facing WiFi Connection Issues Following Firmware Update - Thurrott.com

and as you say, downgrading the driver would appear appropriate - but that's the problem as you say... you may be able to use the download links posted in the News section of the forum.

Search it for Surface.

E.g.
Surface family May 2019 firmware and drivers update

Section
Surface Laptop (1st Gen)
- there's a download link.

You may find such articles of different dates.

Future:how do you protect yourself from this sort of thing and save a huge amount of time?
Use disk imaging routinely e.g. Macrium reflect (free/paid). Repeatedly recommended here.

angrymillenial · 23 Sep 2019

I did find the download link, however the May 2019 update did not seem to fix my issue. Still missing a a wifi/wireless driver.

I believe it might be firmware related. The "resets"(not full windows installation) don't seem to change firmware or roll them back. There is no downloadable installation for Windows 10 for the surface laptops that is specific to the surface laptops (that I know of). I've tried downloading a general copy of Windows 10 for a fresh install (not just a reset), but I'm still missing the driver I need. System never seems to detect the wifi adapter/card.

bro67 · 23 Sep 2019

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/down....aspx?id=55489
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4023502

Some devices are not compatible with 1903. Try this. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4023506
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...update-history

angrymillenial · 27 Sep 2019

I brought it to Microsoft, and it seems it was literally impossible to get the driver back. Even the technician could not restore the driver. They just replaced my surface laptop with a new one. Thank you for trying guys, but in the end it wasn't possible to do.

dalchina · 28 Sep 2019

Well- can't argue with that.... I guess.

Now do start a regime of disk imaging - e.g. Macrium reflect (free) +external storage for image files.

If you have a recent image of your Windows - and any other partitions- you can restore them to a previous good state- even if you need to replace the dsk- relatively quickly and without tech help. Much less stressful.