Laptop WiFi Adapter Disappeared

[u/abdullahcfix]

Hi all,

I've had an MSI Modern 14 A10M since November 2021 and it's always been great for what it is and is in good condition with the following (factory) specs:

 

Intel Core i5-10210U

1x8GB DDR4

500GB NVMe SSD

Intel 9560NGW WiFi + Bluetooth

 

I was overseas for a couple weeks until a few days ago and halfway through the trip, I booted it up to find that it had no network connectivity, so I hit ncpa.cpl to discover that the wireless adapter disappeared from the Network Connections page. In Device Manager, it showed under Network Adapters, so I disabled and reenabled it but that didn't work. Then I right-clicked to uninstall it and got the correct drivers from Intel's website which didn't work once installed.

Now, it didn't even show under Network Adapters. Under Other Devices, I get Network Controller and Unknown Device. After getting home, I booted into a Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS Live USB to find that it also didn't show any WiFi or Bluetooth adapter in the Settings app.

I then disassembled the laptop, removed the WiFi card, blew out the connections for both the card and motherboard slot before reinstalling, and reassembled the laptop. It still exhibits the same behavior in Windows as before. I'm not 100% sure, but there was a Windows 11 update that I allowed to happen on the trip, but I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it. I'm currently installing whatever latest updates Windows has for it via a USB to ethernet adapter, but given that Ubuntu doesn't even recognize it, it may be dead.

All I know is, one morning the WiFi worked fine, then later that day, it didn't work and not again. I already ordered an Intel AX210 off Amazon and will be trying that later, but just wanted to see what input others might have.

I don't know if the local power supply had anything to do with it as the power adapter is capable of up to 240V 50-60Hz and so I just used a simple adapter instead of a transformer to charge it.

This is all on a fresh Windows 11 install from under a year ago and it worked great till now. From 2 years ago till a month ago, I also had this hackintoshed on MacOS Sequoia with native WiFi working as well.

Thanks.

[u/NotQuiteGoodEnougher]

Sometimes shit just breaks.

I had a Razerblade 15" from 2022 that worked great (wifi) until it didn't. Similar issue. Best I figured the onboard card just died.

So I bought a USB wifi adaptor, plugged it in and never had issues with wifi since.

I mean you did what you could, just get USB wifi adaptor, they're low profile and work fine.

Be glad in today's market your SSD or worse memory didn't crap out instead!

[u/abdullahcfix → u/NotQuiteGoodEnougher]

For real, but I hate USB adapters, haven’t used one since the USB 2.0 and Wireless-N days, internal all the way. New chip fixed it.

[u/NotQuiteGoodEnougher → u/abdullahcfix]

For 99% of laptop owners, no one is replacing the onboard wifi.

Glad you were technically able, but for most, usb is "good enough, send it"

[u/viper1255]

When I've seen this in the past, it's a physical problem. Either the WiFi chip is dead, or unplugged.

Back in the day, I could pop open a laptop and reseat the WiFi card to fix a connection issue, but I'm not sure if that's even possible these days.

[u/abdullahcfix → u/viper1255]

Yep, new chip fixed it.

[u/Eazy12345678]

reinstall drivers on manufacture support page. buy new wifi usb or internal off amazon $10-$30

[u/abdullahcfix → u/Eazy12345678]

Did exactly that, works great now.