Question Gigabyte B650m Aorus Elite AX rev. 1.0: Ethernet and built-in Wifi not recognized.

[lonepeakbeast]

Hey all! Wondering if anyone has a solution to the ethernet and built-in Wifi adapters not being recognized on a gigabyte b650m Aorus Elite AX (rev. 1.0) motherboard. Bluetooth still works (somehow) despite it relying on the same RZ616 driver that the built-in wifi module does. I can connect to the internet using a USB wifi dongle; however, I really need to get the built-in wifi and especially the ethernet working or else this computer will be practically unusable for my purposes (and unfortunately, I was an idiot and painted the m.2 cover and heatsinks white before building and testing the system, so I almost certainly will be unable to RMA the board).

So far I have tried:
-Updating the BIOS to the current version (F30) and enabling "network stacking" in the BIOS menu.
-Reinstalling Windows 11 and even cleaning my hard drive to do a clean, cloud install of Windows.
-Downloading all prompted drivers (importantly, the AMD chipset drivers) from Gigabyte Control Center and installing all Windows updates (interestingly enough, I am never prompted to download any wifi, Bluetooth, or LAN drivers from the Gigabyte Control Center upon installing windows, which seems odd and a possible symptom of the issue).
-Downloading wifi and LAN drivers from Gigabyte's website (I have tried installing both the AMD and Intel wifi drivers as well as the Realtek LAN driver.)
-Downloading the Realtek 2.5Gb ethernet driver from Realtek's website; when I tried to install the driver, a popup appeared saying that there was no relevant hardware or adapters to which the driver could belong).
-Performing a "network reset" from Windows Settings that removes and reinstalls all network adapters.
-Performing a CMOS reset on the motherboard.
-Turning the system off and holding the power button to drain the system of power before rebooting it.
-Disconnecting and reconnecting the ethernet cable and wifi antennae (I'm using a cat6 ethernet cable).

I've tried all of these steps in various orders to no avail. Neither the built-in wifi nor the ethernet adapters show up in the Windows Settings or the Device Manager, even if I try to "show hidden devices" or "scan for hardware changes". If I try to "add drivers" in the device manager and select the wifi or ethernet drivers I've downloaded from Gigabyte's website, it will say that the driver "was successfully added on 0 devices". Somehow, my computer isn't recognizing that the motherboard even has the hardware or adapters for wifi 6E and 2.5Gb LAN that the motherboard comes with. I suspect it is an issue with the adapters themselves and not the drivers because the drivers cannot find any recognized adapters to go to, and, as I stated earlier, the bluetooth does work properly using the same RZ616 driver that the wifi adapter should use.

Has anyone else encountered this and found a solution? I've read posts on many forums documenting issues with wifi and ethernet on various Gigabyte motherboards (including the Aorus Elite AX and Gaming X AX), but none of the solutions offered have worked in my situation. Are there any additional methods I can try to get my wifi and ethernet to work? Or is there more likely an issue with my motherboard itself and its hardware that would necessitate me rebuilding the system and getting a new (probably never again Gigabyte) motherboard? (everything else in the computer works properly, and it performs as expected in benchmarks; I just really can't rely on wifi and will need ethernet for my projects).

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Updating the BIOS to the current version (F30)
Did you clear the CMOS after verifying your BIOS was flashed to the latest version?

Downloading all prompted drivers (importantly, the AMD chipset drivers) from Gigabyte Control Center and installing all Windows updates (interestingly enough, I am never prompted to download any wifi, Bluetooth, or LAN drivers from the Gigabyte Control Center upon installing windows, which seems odd and a possible symptom of the issue).
You manually download all drivers from the motherboard's support site, here;
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B650M-AORUS-ELITE-AX-rev-10-11/support#support-dl-driver-audio
The only exception is the chipset driver that you source from AMD's support site, instead of using an app like Control Center.

Reinstalling Windows 11 and even cleaning my hard drive to do a clean, cloud install of Windows.
You mean you didn't recreate you bootable USB installer for the OS and installing the OS in offline mode? you're advised to install the OS like the sentence prior then manually installing all drivers in an elevated command, then connect to the internet once you've installed all drivers, manually.

(and unfortunately, I was an idiot and painted the m.2 cover and heatsinks white before building and testing the system, so I almost certainly will be unable to RMA the board).
Might want to elaborate how you painted the heatsinks on the board, something tells me your tear down might be related to the WiFi conking out.

 

[lonepeakbeast]

Thanks for the quick response!

-Yes, I cleared the CMOS after updating the BIOS to F30

-Yes, I downloaded the wifi and LAN drivers from the gigabyte website listed above (making sure it was the right revision (1.0) as well). I also downloaded the chipset drivers from AMD's website. As mentioned, I even tried downloading the LAN driver listed in the motherboard manual from Realtek's website itself and installing it that way after the driver from Gigabyte's website didn't do anything.

-This PC was a new build with a new hard drive; I first used a USB stick with Windows Installation Media to install Windows. After some attempts to download network drivers and troubleshoot, I used the "windows repair tool" in Settings to reinstall windows in-place. Finally, I reset the PC completely and selected the options "cloud install" and "clean hard drive". Would it be worth attempting to reset Windows from a USB stick and to also download and install the drivers from a USB stick rather than from the internet directly?

-Removal of the VRM heatsinks required removal of the I/O plate first, which was attached using 2 screws and a couple of clips; it required some very light wrestling to remove, so it's *possible* that I maybe dislodged both the ethernet and wifi ports in a way that disconnected them from the motherboard. But the force involved was very light (comparable to pulling out an ethernet cable or inserting a USB stick). Furthermore, every other port (HDMI, USB, Audio, etc.) on the I/O still works properly, so it would be an incredible coincidence for only the wifi and ethernet ports (which are on opposite ends of the I/O) to have been dislodged in such a manner. After the I/O plate was removed, the VRM heatsinks were held on with 4 screws and came off with zero effort after the screws were removed. Overall, I don't believe that my removal and replacement of the I/O plate or the VRM heatsinks had any impact whatsoever on the wifi and ethernet functioning, though I could be wrong (this is my first time ever removing and reinstalling a VRM heatsink).