Wifi adapter completely disappeared, not listed in Device Manager

I'm asking this question not for myself but for anyone who might run into the same problem as me in the future, to save them a lot of time and possibly panic.

I had a BSOD (an undiagnosed graphics issue that is triggered by Skype conference calls). When I rebooted, my wifi adapter had completely disappeared (a Qualcomm Atheros QCA61x4A; the computer is a Lenovo Yoga 710-14IKB). The network troubleshooter couldn't bring it back and it had completely disappeared from Device Manager. I plugged in an ethernet adapter and tried downloading and twice reinstalling the driver and then rebooting, but that didn't work. I ran "DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth" and then "sfc /scannow" in an adminstrator PowerShell, but still no joy. I then booted into MX Linux from a USB stick, but that couldn't see the wireless adapter either. By this point I was convinced that the BSOD had killed the wireless adapter hardware, but I tried one more thing. I rebooted into the UEFI settings and looked to see whether the adapter was listed as enabled there. Apparently it was, so I changed nothing and then selected "save and exit". When Windows started up again, the adapter was working. I then tried rebooting into MX Linux and the adapter was working there too.

Which of the steps I took is most likely to have resolved the problem? Was it when I opened the UEFI settings and saved them without changing them?

ricecrispies said:

I'm asking this question not for myself but for anyone who might run into the same problem as me in the future, to save them a lot of time and possibly panic.
I had a BSOD (an undiagnosed graphics issue that is triggered by Skype conference calls). When I rebooted, my wifi adapter had completely disappeared (a Qualcomm Atheros QCA61x4A; the computer is a Lenovo Yoga 710-14IKB). The network troubleshooter couldn't bring it back and it had completely disappeared from Device Manager. I plugged in an ethernet adapter and tried downloading and twice reinstalling the driver and then rebooting, but that didn't work. I ran "DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth" and then "sfc /scannow" in an adminstrator PowerShell, but still no joy. I then booted into MX Linux from a USB stick, but that couldn't see the wireless adapter either. By this point I was convinced that the BSOD had killed the wireless adapter hardware, but I tried one more thing.


I rebooted into the UEFI settings and looked to see whether the adapter was listed as enabled there. Apparently it was, so I changed nothing and then selected "save and exit".

When Windows started up again, the adapter was working. I then tried rebooting into MX Linux and the adapter was working there too.

Which of the steps I took is most likely to have resolved the problem? Was it when I opened the UEFI settings and saved them without changing them?

I would have been inclined to start with a simple reboot or two and see if the adapter suddenly appeared in the device manager, maybe you already did that. I've had the experience more than once where windows seems to lose it's brains and contact with installed devices and a few boots later, it suddenly wakes up.


I also wanted to draw attention to one small detail I saw in your post above. Please don't take this for more than a constructive criticism, I'm only trying save you potential grief in the future. When exiting the Bios settings or any program or control system (even a non-windows device), if you didn't make any changes, don't use the save and exit or save changes option. Exit without saving.

I've always use this as a SOP with any system after learning the hard way.

There's a myriad of items in a typical Bios settings environment, If you didn't make any changes, you really don't want to save any possible unintended adjustments.

Try3 said:

I have seen people report that the act of looking in the Bios made a piece of hardware start behaving itself again.

I have also seen people report that the act of toggling a Bios setting off then on again {with a reboot in between} made a piece of hardware start behaving itself again.
Denis

My old Dell laptop intermittently decides to not charge the battery. The only fix is to disable/enable the charger in Bios settings.

Try3 said:

By the way, SFC - TenForumsTutorials suggests running SFC and only then, if SFC reports that it cannot repair some faulty files, running that Dism command {a command which should normally be run whilst you are online because it looks online for replacements for the faulty files - advanced Dism users also know other methods for allowing Dism to find replacements}.

^^^^^^ Yup

W10 Tweaker said:

I also wanted to draw attention to one small detail I saw in your post above. Please don't take this for more than a constructive criticism, I'm only trying save you potential grief in the future. When exiting the Bios settings or any program or control system (even a non-windows device), if you didn't make any changes, don't use the save and exit or save changes option. Exit without saving.

My thinking was that since things weren't already working properly, I did want something to change.