Windows 10: the wifi adapter and the wifi icon have completely disappeared

Yesterday and without my consent, my hp laptop update to the windows 11 version. Not even 24 hours later, I discovered that the wifi network wasn’t connected. When I clicked to see why, there was literally no Wifi Icon and when i went to settings and control panel to look for the wifi, I also discovered that there was no wifi adapter at all. All I found was ethernet. This is incredibly annoying and inconvenient as I have so much work to do then sit there and play hide and seek with the wifi option on my device. Ive tried restarting it, trouble shooting, tried the “Network and sharing center” t

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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?

 

Wifi adapter disappears - goes 'hidden'


Running Windows 10 on an Acer laptop. Over the past month, the wifi connection dropped without explanation/warning.

First time, the adapter was visible in Device Manager (with a yellow triangle next to it). An interent search found the suggestion to uninstall it and restart. That worked.

Today, the connection dropped again. In Device Manager at first I could not see the wifi adapter listed. I clicked to see hidden devices and found the adapter and the Bluetooth (which I had not noticed was missing).

I again uninstalled, restarted, and both the wifi and bluetooth have returned.

Anyone any ideas as to what is happening, why it's happening, and what I need to do, please?

I have attached a screenshot of the DM windows as it is now, showing the wifi adapter name, etc.

Thanks very much

WG

 

WiFi Adapter question

To be honest, I keep losing my wifi connection and Im almost positive its not due to my internet connection or Router or anything like that. VERY often, everyday, all day it keeps happening. The troubleshooter always resolves it by "reset wifi-adapter" (I believe this is the step it takes that resolves the problem) before it happens again anyways.

Its driving me nuts !

Most time when it suddenly goes out (the connection) all the networks that should be in "show available networks" or all but the one I was connected to, disappear. I run the troubleshooter and it ends in resetting the wifi adapter. And it works. 10 minutes later, it happens again. Im trying to pin down the problem here.

Thank you for your help.