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#1 June 26 2019

LifeEngineer
Member

PC no longer connects to any wifi network

So I have a PC and a wifi USB Tp-link wireless network adapter connected to get wifi network.
Had HDD issues on my secondary storage so opened the PC and changed the SATA cables to fix it.
Main SSD storage having Windows 10 and the whole stuff is still intact.

Since putting back the PC, it no longer connects to a network through wifi.
-The wifi USB still seemingly works, flashes green and lights up, detects the router and connects to it but no internet whatsoever (used to work flawlessly).
-Tried to also connect the wifi USB to my phone's wifi hotpsot and it also didn't work (used to work flawlessly).
-All the USB ports on the PC still work fine, both data and internet through USB tethering from my phone.
-All other devices connect to the router and work fine with it.

Following the above, it seems that the issue is on the PC side obviously. So I'm not sure it's hardware or software. I don't think it's hardware (like a loose cable or unplugged plug) since the USB ports work fine.
Actually, the only way to give some internet to my PC now is through USB tethering from my phone.

I tried lots of stuff to fix it, but to no avail:
-Rebooted both my router and the mini-link installed on the roof (since I'm on cable connection).
-Rebooted PC many times (obviously).
-Tried to "forget" the network and connect to it again.
-Stick the wifi USB into all other USB ports.
-Checked the router software (logged into it from browser and checked it) and there's no restriction/issue whatsoever.
-Uninstalled the USB tp-link device drivers and installed it again.
-Reset the network settings through windows 10 settings (settings => Network & internet => Network reset).
-Used windows built-in troubleshooter/diagnose features and it fixed nothing.
-Flushed DNS cache.
-Turned off all sort of power management on the USB ports of the PC and turned off the selective USB shut off feature in the power plans. Like that I can be sure it's not a power issue or windows is shutting it off for some reason.
-Finally got a new wifi USB Tp-link wireless network adapter and it still didn't work.

I'm out of ideas. Any help? Thx

Last edited by LifeEngineer (June 26 2019)

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#2 June 26 2019

xazbrat
Member

Re: PC no longer connects to any wifi network

Edit:  saw you got another one.  GTG now, but I think it might have something to do with sharing.  Will check it when I get back.

Last edited by xazbrat (June 26 2019)

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#3 June 26 2019

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: PC no longer connects to any wifi network

xazbrat wrote:

Edit:  saw you got another one.  GTG now, but I think it might have something to do with sharing.  Will check it when I get back.

You're right but that's because I don't have another PC.
However, since I got a new wireless adapter and it still didn't work; and since I still see that the old one detects the router, I supposed it's not there the issue.

EDIT: Thanks mate, much appreciated!

Last edited by LifeEngineer (June 26 2019)

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#4 June 26 2019

duke-of-bytes
Member

Re: PC no longer connects to any wifi network

is the new wifi dongle the same as the old ?!
do you see your SSID ?
what error are you getting ?

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#5 June 26 2019

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: PC no longer connects to any wifi network

duke-of-bytes wrote:

is the new wifi dongle the same as the old ?!
do you see your SSID ?
what error are you getting ?

Yes same wifi dongle.
Yes I see my SSID.
I'll try to share the error when I'm home.

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#6 June 26 2019

duke-of-bytes
Member

Re: PC no longer connects to any wifi network

LifeEngineer wrote:
duke-of-bytes wrote:

is the new wifi dongle the same as the old ?!
do you see your SSID ?
what error are you getting ?

Yes same wifi dongle.
Yes I see my SSID.
I'll try to share the error when I'm home.

if same dongle then it might be the same driver error
you need to remove the driver completely ( including the driver stores inside the windows share )
use this to remove any leftover as well : https://www.guru3d.com/content_page/gur … r.htmlThen

Last edited by duke-of-bytes (June 26 2019)

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#7 June 27 2019

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: PC no longer connects to any wifi network

Thanks guys for the feedback.
Sorry couldn't get the screenshots coz I'm having power issues at home and had to suddenly turn off the pc yesternight before finishing.

@xazbrat
I made sure that sharing options in both public and private are to share network/discoverable.

@duke-of-bytes
This tool removes ALL GPU and audio drivers from the PC so I was honestly afraid of using it and didn't.
Tried the casual windows remove/uninstall driver and reinstall but that didn't solve the issue.

Yesterday did some tests and stuff.
At first had some issues connecting to the router. A couple of tries and it connected but without internet access.
When troubleshooting using windows diagnose feature "it says invalid ip address" or something like that.

Then, I stumbled upon a page online similar to this: https://www.drivethelife.com/windows-10 … ws-10.html
However it had this order of cmd commands in administrator mode:
1- ipconfig /release
2- ipconfig /flushdns
3- ipconfig /renew
4- netsh int ip reset
5- netsh winsock reset

I went through the first 3 commands and suddenly the yellow exclamation mark on the wifi icon disappeared as if it worked!
Yet, I was stupid enough to continue with the last 2 commands thinking that those will make the fix stick.
However they screwed it up again! It requested a restart, I restarted and it didn't work anymore.

I tried going through the above again and it said something like this:
ipconfig /release ==> something like "failed because there was no IP address assigned to begin with "
And when using ipconfig /renew ==> something like "failed to connect to DHCP server and request timed out".

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#8 June 27 2019

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: PC no longer connects to any wifi network

Oh and BTW when I try to connect to my phone wifi hotspot, it connects and internet works for like 30 sec before failing again.

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#9 June 27 2019

xazbrat
Member

Re: PC no longer connects to any wifi network

Sorry to hear the issues you are having with it---I think it is a driver issue also, but you seem to have done almost everything to get it sorted out.  Maybe try another brand --try borrowing one from a friend or family member and 'trade' if it turns out to work.  Try this.  uninstall everything under Universal Serial Buses (USB) in device manager---there is certain order you have to do it in otherwise you can't uninstall them all.  Reboot and voila

Maybe it works??

Anyhow, good luck.

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#10 June 27 2019

duke-of-bytes
Member

Re: PC no longer connects to any wifi network

any router logs ?

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#11 June 28 2019

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: PC no longer connects to any wifi network

@xazbrat
yeah man great idea. I'm new to the PC scene and all my friends still on PS4. So I know no one who has a wifi dongle.

@duke-of-bytes
No not really, how can I do that?



I've done yesterday some more testing and discovered that it seems the issue is either in the DHCP client/server on the PC side or the wifi dongle itself acting up.
- I discovered that because after I reset all cache, flushdns, reset network etc... I connected to my router. To my surprise, checking through ipconfig on cmd, the ip addresses the dongle acquired were nothing similar to what they should be! My router has the ip address 192.168.31.1 so the ip address acquired by the dongle should be similar where the last number is between 100 and 250, right? It wasn't. It was something totally different and nothing relevant.
- To this point I thought it's the DHCP. I google a way to force close it and reboot it. It didn't work because it said "access denied"!!!
- So next, I tried disabling DHCP and I chose my ip addresses manually. Also set DNS to google's DNS.
- It worked, displayed Internet access, yellow exclamation mark gone, checking ipconfig on cmd showed the right ip address.
- I was happy... for like 30sec. After that, it redisplayed "no internet access", yellow exclamation mark came back. Checking ipconfig on cmd showed the same correct ip addresses. Go figure!
Now I'm completely lost and desperate! Could it be the drivers (although I uninstalled them like 10 times already)? Could it be the dongle itself? Could it be something else on my PC?! I just don't know.

Last edited by LifeEngineer (June 28 2019)

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#12 June 28 2019

bobo619
Member

Re: PC no longer connects to any wifi network

My best advise after what you have been through is to backup and restore windows. It may be time consuming but should most probably fix your problem. You can try driver booster also to check for newest drivers but i doubt that would work.

Last edited by bobo619 (June 28 2019)

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#13 June 28 2019

VincentKeyboard
Member

Re: PC no longer connects to any wifi network

Is your router also a tp-link? if so, what is the "Group Key Update Period"?

Setting it to less than one minute often causes issues.

Last edited by VincentKeyboard (June 28 2019)

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#14 June 28 2019

xazbrat
Member

Re: PC no longer connects to any wifi network

maybe see if it works in safe mode--if it works there, try my method to attempt to fix it or try another brand of dongle.

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#15 June 28 2019

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: PC no longer connects to any wifi network

Thanks guys for all your help. I'll try the safe mode tonight hopefully.

Router is a Xiaomi Mini Router: http://www.techetron.com/16159/xiaomi-m … er-review/

@bobo619, how to do that now?! I mean I didn't make a backup before having the issue (coz obviously I didn't suspect I'll have an issue), so how to do a restore now while making sure there aren't gonna be any issue there?!

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#16 August 1 2019

LifeEngineer
Member

Re: PC no longer connects to any wifi network

Remember this issue guys?! I tried every possible solution I could find under the sun and nothing worked.

After lots of issues facing the connection between my motherboard and the HDD, I finally decided to get an SSD for my games storage (already have one where windows is installed).

The moment I unplugged my HDD, installed the new SSD, booted and bam! Wifi working great again!
Dunno how and why a storage HDD would have affected my wifi dongle, especially that all operating system, drivers, etc.. are installed on the other SSD.

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