R
Robert_750
This is a long topic which has a bit of a backstory, so bear with me.
About a week ago, I fired up my ~3 year old, custom-built gaming desktop running Windows 10, and was greeted by the following symptoms:
1. The 'No Network Available' icon was visible on the bootup screen and in the taskbar once booted.
2. The computer could see both of the two WiFi channels from our Router at full strength and was attempting to connect to them
3. Periodically, it would report having reconnected for a brief period, only to go back to disconnected immediately. If I attempted to visit any website during this disconnected period, it would immediately disconnect.
4. If I manually directed it to connect to one of the networks, after giving it the correct password (and verifying it with other devices) it would tell me 'Can't Connect to this Network'
Following this discovery, I attempted the following:
1. Restarting my PC. Did not fix it.
2. Restarting the Router. Did not fix it.
3. Updating Router Firmware. Did not fix it.
4. Swapped the WiFi antennae on the back of my PC for a more powerful antenna, did not work.
5. Followed multiple guides on this and other sites to reset the drivers for the Wireless Card. This was initially successful, as my computer was able to reconnect and stay reconnected after this point for an evening, but the next night the problem returned and this solution no longer worked.
6. Did a complete network configuration reset, no effect.
7. Did an IP Config flush and assorted other command prompt commands as detailed in a guide elsewhere on this site. No effect.
At this point, only my PC was suffering from this, and not any other device in the home. Internal diagnostics on the installed hardware reported that the card was functioning properly, so I figured that it was a problem with the Router itself.
I then decided to replace the router, a Netgear Nighthawk R7000, with a newer model: the Netgear Nighthawk AX6. This did not correct the issue, and I was thus forced to manhandle my very awkward gaming PC across the house to link it to the router via an Ethernet cable (due to the layout of our home, running a direct line to the PC is infeasible). This restored the internet, and repeating Step 5 from above, I was able to reset the network card drivers and get WiFi back on the PC. I returned it to its place, and for a few days it functioned normally, before the issue returned again.
At this point, I decided to try my wife's gaming PC (also custom built) only for it to produce a whole new error: it can't even detect the new Wireless network channels at all, even after multiple restarts and flushes of the IP system. A quick check revealed that not only both of our desktops were having this connectivity issue, my HP work laptop, and my ASUS gaming laptop were suffering a similar issue of not being able to see the Wireless network. None of the other wireless devices in our home have these issues; only our Windows laptops and PCs are unable to reliably connect to the Internet via WiFi. Currently, I've configured the old Router to act as a wireless bridge and am using a direct ethernet connection to access the internet. However, again, the geometry of the computer room (plus the ongoing lockdown), it is infeasible to use Ethernet cables for our Windows devices.
I've narrowed it down to a Windows 10 issue after some experimentation, but we have a Macbook, iPhone, Galaxy S10, Xbox One, and PS4 that are all able to see and connect to the WiFi router with no issues.
Currently, the only solution that is working is to keep my wife's desktop permanently plugged into our 'Bridge' router, and periodically connect my desktop to it to delete the network adapter card drivers and reinstall them fresh, which seems to keep the device happy for a few hours at a time at the very least. However, such a system is... impractical and headache-inducing to say the very least.
Has this happened to anyone else? Does anyone have any permanent fixes for something like this? I'm doing all I can, but I am far from very computer literate when it comes to the nitty-gritty of how to make the various systems/subsystems play nice with one another.
Specs for the various systems:
ISP: Cox
Primary Router: Netgear Nighthawk AX6; HW Version: RAX45; Firmare V 1.0.2.10_2.0.26
Bridge Router: Netgear Nighthawk R7000
Modem (supplied by Cox): Aries Touchstone CM82000
My PC (can see networks, will not reliably connect to them)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z270X-Gaming SOC
OS: Windows 10, 64-bit version 10.0.18363
Wireless Card: ASUS PCE-56 802.11ac PCIe adapter (PC reports as Broadcom 802.11ac on internal specs list); Driver Version 7.77.113.0 (on last check)
Wife's PC (cannot see networks beyond a handful of our neighbor's networks at very low strength)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 5-CF
OS: Windows 10, 64-bit version 10.0.18363
Wireless Card: integrated on Motherboard
Gaming Laptop: ASUS ROG GL 753V
OS: Windows 10, 64-bit version 10.0.18363
WiFi Card: unknown, integrated on-board, 802.11ac
UPDATE: I rolled back the drivers on my Desktop's WIFI card to their previous incarnation (which was ~6 years old). This seems to have resolved my issue of the connectivity dropping, but I'm not sure if I want to keep 6 year old drivers on my PC. Considering that the most recent Driver was installed 3 months ago and this issue only cropped up last week, I suspect that a recent Windows 10 update caused some sort of software conflict.
Continue reading...
About a week ago, I fired up my ~3 year old, custom-built gaming desktop running Windows 10, and was greeted by the following symptoms:
1. The 'No Network Available' icon was visible on the bootup screen and in the taskbar once booted.
2. The computer could see both of the two WiFi channels from our Router at full strength and was attempting to connect to them
3. Periodically, it would report having reconnected for a brief period, only to go back to disconnected immediately. If I attempted to visit any website during this disconnected period, it would immediately disconnect.
4. If I manually directed it to connect to one of the networks, after giving it the correct password (and verifying it with other devices) it would tell me 'Can't Connect to this Network'
Following this discovery, I attempted the following:
1. Restarting my PC. Did not fix it.
2. Restarting the Router. Did not fix it.
3. Updating Router Firmware. Did not fix it.
4. Swapped the WiFi antennae on the back of my PC for a more powerful antenna, did not work.
5. Followed multiple guides on this and other sites to reset the drivers for the Wireless Card. This was initially successful, as my computer was able to reconnect and stay reconnected after this point for an evening, but the next night the problem returned and this solution no longer worked.
6. Did a complete network configuration reset, no effect.
7. Did an IP Config flush and assorted other command prompt commands as detailed in a guide elsewhere on this site. No effect.
At this point, only my PC was suffering from this, and not any other device in the home. Internal diagnostics on the installed hardware reported that the card was functioning properly, so I figured that it was a problem with the Router itself.
I then decided to replace the router, a Netgear Nighthawk R7000, with a newer model: the Netgear Nighthawk AX6. This did not correct the issue, and I was thus forced to manhandle my very awkward gaming PC across the house to link it to the router via an Ethernet cable (due to the layout of our home, running a direct line to the PC is infeasible). This restored the internet, and repeating Step 5 from above, I was able to reset the network card drivers and get WiFi back on the PC. I returned it to its place, and for a few days it functioned normally, before the issue returned again.
At this point, I decided to try my wife's gaming PC (also custom built) only for it to produce a whole new error: it can't even detect the new Wireless network channels at all, even after multiple restarts and flushes of the IP system. A quick check revealed that not only both of our desktops were having this connectivity issue, my HP work laptop, and my ASUS gaming laptop were suffering a similar issue of not being able to see the Wireless network. None of the other wireless devices in our home have these issues; only our Windows laptops and PCs are unable to reliably connect to the Internet via WiFi. Currently, I've configured the old Router to act as a wireless bridge and am using a direct ethernet connection to access the internet. However, again, the geometry of the computer room (plus the ongoing lockdown), it is infeasible to use Ethernet cables for our Windows devices.
I've narrowed it down to a Windows 10 issue after some experimentation, but we have a Macbook, iPhone, Galaxy S10, Xbox One, and PS4 that are all able to see and connect to the WiFi router with no issues.
Currently, the only solution that is working is to keep my wife's desktop permanently plugged into our 'Bridge' router, and periodically connect my desktop to it to delete the network adapter card drivers and reinstall them fresh, which seems to keep the device happy for a few hours at a time at the very least. However, such a system is... impractical and headache-inducing to say the very least.
Has this happened to anyone else? Does anyone have any permanent fixes for something like this? I'm doing all I can, but I am far from very computer literate when it comes to the nitty-gritty of how to make the various systems/subsystems play nice with one another.
Specs for the various systems:
ISP: Cox
Primary Router: Netgear Nighthawk AX6; HW Version: RAX45; Firmare V 1.0.2.10_2.0.26
Bridge Router: Netgear Nighthawk R7000
Modem (supplied by Cox): Aries Touchstone CM82000
My PC (can see networks, will not reliably connect to them)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z270X-Gaming SOC
OS: Windows 10, 64-bit version 10.0.18363
Wireless Card: ASUS PCE-56 802.11ac PCIe adapter (PC reports as Broadcom 802.11ac on internal specs list); Driver Version 7.77.113.0 (on last check)
Wife's PC (cannot see networks beyond a handful of our neighbor's networks at very low strength)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 5-CF
OS: Windows 10, 64-bit version 10.0.18363
Wireless Card: integrated on Motherboard
Gaming Laptop: ASUS ROG GL 753V
OS: Windows 10, 64-bit version 10.0.18363
WiFi Card: unknown, integrated on-board, 802.11ac
UPDATE: I rolled back the drivers on my Desktop's WIFI card to their previous incarnation (which was ~6 years old). This seems to have resolved my issue of the connectivity dropping, but I'm not sure if I want to keep 6 year old drivers on my PC. Considering that the most recent Driver was installed 3 months ago and this issue only cropped up last week, I suspect that a recent Windows 10 update caused some sort of software conflict.
Continue reading...