WiFi adapter fails to show in device manager

[DelJo63]

Toshiba Satellite L555D running Win7/64bit Premium less that three months old

Wifi was working fine, but suddenly quit; Using Fn+F8 to toggle wifi off/on, there was an enlarged graphic with the toggle, but it disappeared almost immediately.
Holding just FN, the tool bar is now VOID of the WiFi F8 and attempting Fn+F8 does nothing. On this laptop, there is no physical switch. The BIOS is enabled
for both wired and wireless devices and the Toshiba Hardware applet is also.

Rebooting causes the POST sequence to show the WiFi led for a moment (which looks as if it was found and is active), but no such luck -- The Device Mgr only has the wired RealTek device and 'show hidden devices' doesn't help either.

Plowing thru the Registry, I can find

• RealTek ethernet device (enum = 0007) + the related PCI values
• and the WiFi 8191se device (enum = 0012) + its related PCI values

in ControlSet01, ControlSet02, and CurrentControlSet

the \inf directory shows the oem11.inf and oem10.inf which corresponds to the
drivers in system32\drivers\ and they're both present

If the hardware were good and the drived fouled, I would suspect the DM to show the device. Without the device in the DM, I fear the WiFi adaptor is blown.

Your comments?

 

[LookinAround]

'show hidden devices' doesn't help either

Did you create an environment variable devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices = 1 before opening DevMgr and clicking View->Show hidden?

/* edit */

I fear the WiFi adaptor is blown.

That's my guess as well. i'm guessing you didn't "say the magic words" to see nonpresent ("Ghost") devices

 

[DelJo63]

good tip ... I'll check with the user - -
(a good friend and I'm NOT getting paid for the assistance )

 

[LookinAround]

I'll check with the user - -

if you're going to give them the instructions advise you tell them to note (so they are aware) to define the env varble in system variables so there's no confusion should they login as different users when looking in DevMgr to click View->Show hidden

 

[DelJo63]

user called Toshiba Support which resulted in a day-1 restore attempting to reverse the idea

"some update changed the system"​

when that failed ( :wave: ), the RMA was issued.

box is now in transit ...

thanks for the support - - I learned something anyway :grin:

 

[LookinAround]

user called Toshiba Support which resulted in a day-1 restore attempting to reverse the idea "some update changed the system"

Ha ha. yes, very predictable behavior... Sometimes, depending who i get when i call Tech Support, even as nice and courteous as they might be and happy to listen to the information i try to provide, i can tell when it's all for naught as they go back to reading their standard things "to-do" script off of their Help Desk monitors!

Glad you got it sorted out..

 

[DelJo63]

as you said; predictable. However, it was good for the user (a real newbe) that they said send it back rather than me.

best wishes