Windows 10: Windows 10 update killed my Wifi adapter

Hi


One (fairly) recent Windows 10 update stopped my Wifi. However, all the fixes tell you to go into Device Manager and update the drivers. What do I do if it's gone from Device Manager (and is not hidden either) ?


If it had stopped while I was working, I might have blamed the card, but it was working before PC rebooted after upgrade, and had gone away when PC came back online. I actually use Ethernet cable for internet, but I now have a Wifi printer that I'd like to use.


I do get regular notifications that the system cannot find a Wifi network adapter. I know it's in there. Can I wake it up, or check it's functional ?

:)

 

Windows update and killing the network adapter

My update list shows KB4338818 waiting, and the more info lists this update as having an issue which kills the network adapter.

So, why would anyone elect to install this KB knowing it will kill the internet? Right now, for that issue alone, this KB item is not installed on my PC.

There are (manual) workarounds listed, and therefore why hasn't MS embodied them in the KB so this issue just "isn't there"?

 

Update made wifi adapter disapear


If the wifi adapter appears in Device manager without any warning triangle but there is no wifi section in Settings, Networks then reinstall the wifi adapter.

If the wifi adapter appears in Device manager without any warning triangle and there is a wifi section in Settings, Networks then use Settings, Update, Troubleshoot. I'd suggest this sequence:-
Hardware & devices
Network adapter
Internet connections

Best of luck,
Denis

 

Windows update and killing the network adapter

Hi Bill,

Thanks for your effort and the reply. But I already follow those suggestions - it was in the process of checking more info from a "let me choose to install" option that led me to the known issue with the KB I listed.

Your response suggests that you may not have read the KB listed. Could I recommend that, because this question turns on what MS says in that document.

This KB is apparently applicable to all versions of windows - no exceptions or variations were listed. And this KB also apparently caused a number of other issues, which have since been remedied - as listed in the updated KB. The network adapter issue
is only listed with possible manual workarounds. So if it happens, you are dead. The only option is to uninstall the KB, processes you listed. Revert to the restore point created during update, which I have done in the past - usually in safe mode, is probably
less complex and quicker.

So, my comment stands - why would I install this update if MS knows it's going to kill the network adapter (what the KB says under known issues with this update) - the very thing which enables the internet. Until I get a reasonable answer to that, this
is one KB I won't install, even tho MS may think it fixes other issues - a certain fail against a possible future problem just doesn't rate.

What I was after - hopefully - was more information on, or a link to, a method of identifying just which network adapter would stop working (I may not have it in my platform, but I am not going to find out experimentally), or (desirably) an automated fix
rather than the ponderous methods the KB lists. Do you or MS Answers have that sort of info? Or is the current status quo the best that's available right now?