Laptop connectivity issues, need some help please!
 

So I bought my daughter an ASUS K200MA laptop a few months ago that came with Windows 8.1. First off I cant stand this OS, but that's not what the thread is about so I digress.

It has worked fine until yesterday it showed there were no network connections available. This is obviously untrue since there are about 30 it and every other wireless device in my house can normally see. I tried reinstalling the WLAN drivers but it didnt help. I went to the network settings to make sure airplane mode wasn't on and not only was it off, right under it in the "Wireless devices" section it said "We couldn't find wireless devices on this PC". When I go to device manager only the ethernet adapter shows up under network adapters, no WLAN. So I figured she must have a virus or something since her antivirus was expired.

I did a full wipe and reset of Windows and after that everything was fine...for a few hours. Now its doing the same exact thing and I know there are no viruses this time. I checked to see if there was an external switch somewhere that would turn off WLAN but there isnt. I cant think of anything else to try other than doing a full wipe/reset again. I thought yesterday it was for sure a hardware issue but since it started working again after the full wipe/reset for a few hours now I'm not so sure.

Anyone have any ideas?

did you see if they didnt manually turn off wifi? my mom does that shit ALL the time. there is usually a combination of key's that turn off wifi so you cant find any signal.

Check this out:

http://www.sevenforums.com/network-s...us-laptop.html

That's what I was asking at the end, I dont know how or where to look...this is the first time Ive ever messed with Windows 8 and I cant stand it. I checked the manual and couldn't find anything about manually shutting it off.

EDIT: Found the key combo, its fn + F2. It wasn't off.

My daughter's wireless device is built in and its Windows 8 not 7 but I'll give that a shot and see what happens.

EDIT: Yeah that's not going to work for me because when I go to network adapters in device manager the wirless adapter doesn't even show up, only the ethernet.

Scroll down to "wireless" and download the appropriate driver.

http://www.asus.com/us/Notebooks_Ult...Desk_Download/

^^^Ive tried that man, I said so in my OP.

I finally found my wireless network adapter in device manager after going to View>show hidden devices. When I check the properties it says its currently not installed. WTF

Remove the device from Device Manager - right click and uninstall it (don't just disable it). Reboot your machine - it should automatically pick the driver back up and install. If not, your wifi card/on-board may be toast.

Not the end of the world -- you could easily pick up a min-usb wifi adapter for under $20. Sucks to give up a USB port for that but if the device isn't in warranty - might help.

Windows 8.1 is awesome, IMO. Be sure to set it to "Boot to Desktop", which will make it look closer to Win7. There are free ware shells out there that will make it look exactly like Win7 but honestly, I prefer 8.1 to Win7.

I tried that just now and it didnt work. If the onboard wifi is toast why did it work after I completely wiped my drives and reinstalled Windows? That's what is so damn confusing about this. The only culprit that could explain that is a virus but I know there isnt one. Im going to drive-wipe/reinstall Windows one more time then if it does it again Im sending it back, it is still under warranty.

I'm still thinking it's a driver issue with how it is showing in device manager.. I'm also betting you wiped the recovery partition with all the formatting.
Uninstall and reinstall both of the different wireless drivers.
Update the computer's firmware.

Don't know what else to tell you. Good luck.

My daughter came to me 2 days ago upset because her Asus couldn't find a network connection. The computer wouldn't even look at my wi-fi floating around and everything else in the house was still working.

All she had to do was restart the computer and let the updates install.

I hope you tried restarting it before you did all the other stuff. :)

Oh yeah, Im no stranger with computers.

I ended up doing another reformat and reinstallation of Windows, this time its still not recognizing my WLAN adapter. I think you're right QS, the onboard wireless adapter is toast.

format c: |y

here ya go

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...PR8J6VDRS7TYV1

I have a couple of those lying around but this thing isn't even 6 months old yet and it is a replacement of another one that lasted a week before the screen went out so it's going back. And needless to say I won't be buying an ASUS laptop again.