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Do you have a technical question that keeps you up at night? We’d love to answer it in a future Tech 911 column! Describe your problem in an email to david.murphy@lifehacker.comand make sure to include “Tech 911” in the subject line.
Cant resist a good wireless puzzle and this week’s question writer for Lifehacker Tech 911 has a good problem – a problem that you don’t think about until it happens and that occupies you as you try every trick in the book to get your WiFi back on.
I’ll let Lifehacker read Joe to explain:
I lost my WiFi after the last update and after reinstalling W10 and the pending updates. I lost the WiFi again when I turned off and restarted my laptop. So I did it again, no updates, and set it to never turn off. So far, so good. But of course I can’t leave it like that. Any suggestions?
Drivers, Drivers, and More Drivers
My first guess, Joe, is that there is some kind of driver problem that is causing havoc with your laptop’s wifi card. It’s somewhat indicative that you can get a working wireless connection if you have a barebones installation of Windows 10, but you lose your ability to connect when you install new updates. Obviously, either something in the update (or something that was downloaded and installed alongside) is causing your mayhem.
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However, I don’t think the long term answer is to never upgrade your laptop. And never turning it off is an even worse idea for the longevity of your laptop and your monthly utility bill. It is always ideal to have a system that is as updated as possible so that any vulnerabilities or other security issues in the operating system are fixed. The same goes for system stability issues, feature updates, or anything else that brings Microsoft to a boil. I wouldn’t run an operating system that wasn’t updated to the latest and greatest version – at least not if I had a choice between Windows 10 (the old version that came with my laptop) and Windows 10 (the latest version). .
I would suggest contacting the manufacturer of your laptop on the internet – while you still have an internet connection. There should be a way to find your specific laptop model somewhere in the support section of their website. Once you do, you will either be presented with a list of drivers that you can download manually, or possibly even a tool that you can install on your system that will get the latest drivers (and / or firmware) directly from the manufacturer.
Note that your manufacturer’s installations may be different from what Windows tries to install through the Windows Update app (in case you ever find yourself wanting to get updated wireless drivers, for example). Normally I would use Windows for convenience, but it is possible that in this scenario it will mess up your connection.
So you want to download the latest version of the Wi-Fi and / or network drivers on offer from your manufacturer’s support website. And while you’re there, make sure you’ve got all of the available BIOS updates for your laptop installed (just in case).
Update your BIOS and install the wireless and / or network drivers that you downloaded onto your system. You should still be able to handle an Internet connection well. You can then download and install any pending Windows 10 updates and see what happens. If you lose connectivity, reinstall the wireless and / or network drivers above. That should, in theory, fix anything affecting your system.
Apart from that, you can also go to the Windows 10 Device Manager, find your WiFi adapter, right click and select properties, Click on that Driver tab, and “Roll back” the driver. No guarantee this will fix your problem, but it’s worth a try. (You can also try uninstalling the entire device and then reinstalling the manufacturer’s drivers above to see if this helps.)
Finally, you can try looking for drivers directly from the manufacturer of your network card – for me, that’s Intel, see image above. It is possible that a new (or beta) driver will help you, but I would try this option last. In general, drivers offered directly through Windows or drivers from the laptop manufacturer (probably older) are the best choices. But something is better than nothing if you still find yourself unable to make wireless connections from your laptop.
And if none of these solutions work, you might just want to pull the trigger cheaply USB WiFi adapter. It’s an awkward solution, and I hate the idea of spending money on something that should just work, but it’ll cost you less than $ 20 to reconnect wirelessly on your laptop. I would do this before at least having an unprotected PC turned on all the time.
Do you have a technical question that keeps you up at night? Tired of Fixing Windows or Mac? Are you looking for advice on apps, browser extensions, or utilities to accomplish a specific task? Let us know! Let us know in the comments below or by email david.murphy@lifehacker.com.
