My friend has an odd issue. His internet stopped working after an update. It turned out that he no longer has a wireless adapter "installed." I went to HP's support site, but they only had drivers for Windows 8.1, and there were 5 different ones, at that. I tried installing them one at a time and rebooting, then uninstalling, but none of them re-enabled the adapter. I'm stumped on this. I tried tethering my phone and checking Windows Updates, but there's none. So how do I get this driver working again? It's an HP Envy dv6.
If you uninstall the wireless device in Device Manager and reboot Windows should find a new device and install generic drivers for it.
He can try uninstalling the update just to make it work again if he needs the computer badly. But try the suggestion above me first.
What does device manager show for a wifi adapter if at all?
There is no WiFi adapter in Device Manager. That's what I mean by "disappeared."
You should be able to go to the HP support page for that Envy model, and download the Wi-Fi driver (you may even be able to get the site to recognize the PC and look up its configuration). If you reinstall the driver manually, it should once again appear in DevMgr. I've had similar problems on HP and Dell laptops and tablets when a new install doesn't include drivers for the network adapter in use. This is also painfully and especially true for the Atheros/Killer network interfaces (my son has a Dell XPS2701 AIO machine that is prone to losing its Wi-Fi interface for this very reason).
HTH,
I took out the battery and found the exact model the WiFi interface is, but the drivers don't seem to work. Nothing new is appearing in the Device Manager and I've tried installing "legacy hardware" and selected the x64 Win10 inf, but the Manufacturer and Device columns are empty and I can't move forward.
I forgot to mention, the Wireless button on this laptop (F12) is and always is orange, and pressing it enables or disables airplane mode. Doesn't turn on wireless or Bluetooth.
EDIT: One of the drivers from the HP support site created a Ralink WiFi adapter in the Device Manager, that only shows when hidden devices are shown. The properties/status says driver is installed but the device is not connected. WTF?
Bump.
Click on start button select Settings from menu, select Network and Internet, select WiFi and make sure it is turned on.
If wireless is on, search for HP connection Manager using Windows search and see if it will allow you to turn wireless on.
If not search for Windows Mobility Center using Windows search and see if you can turn on wireless there.
If all of the above fails uninstall the HP Connections Manager. Repeat step 1 above and see if that changes things
HP requires a special driver installed for the Wireless Button to work, it could be this driver is not installed or not installed properly. Try re-installing the wireless button driver.
