Win8.1 Wireless Adapter Not Detecting Anything

[James Barclay]

Hi everyone,

Problem: My computer will not detect any wireless routers/hotspots/devices. Whenever I open up the wireless panel it simply says "No connections are available".

Note: Until I attempted to uninstall and reinstall the driver, my computer was able to pick up networks with no problem. (Even with a poor, ping, that'll get mentioned further in the post.)

I'm new here, but after reading through some of the threads that describe similar issues to mine I felt the need to post this in order to ensure that every angle is covered off. Quite a few previous posts have been lacking in information and haven't followed the "do's" format found as a sticky at the top of the forum.

Hopefully this thread will be able to answer many people's questions (including my own) and I'm praying that one of you will have the solution tucked away in your arsenal of networking awareness!

Essential Information:

Router: BT Home Hub 5 - Type A
Computer: Self-built Desktop

• 
  Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H
  Power Supply: BeQuiet 530W
  WiFi Adapter: TP Link TL-WN823N
  Operating System: Windows 8.1

ISP: BT Broadband
Other Devices: Six. With no problems whatsoever.
Error Messages: "There might be a problem with the driver for the WiFi 2 adapter"

That error message comes up when I go into "Network Connections" and hit the "Diagnose" option that appears after right clicking the device.

Timeline of events to ensure I've missed nothing:

• 
  *Began getting horrific lag whilst streaming & using online games.
  Attempted to resolve by doing:
  • 
    Basic RegEdit on pings (made no difference)
    Flushing DNS
    Trying other USB ports
  *Checked adapter in other computers, all worked fine. Lag problem narrowed down to my own machine.
  *Tried alternative adapter in my machine. Could not get adapter to function at all. Came up with all the same problems I'm about to describe
  *Uninstalled drivers & removed adapter. Flushed registry of any previous driver entries.
  Reinstalled driver & adapter.
  NOTE: This is the point that I lost all forms of Wireless connectivity rather than just having lag problems
  *Attempted several different driver versions directly from the TP-Link website as well as the driver that Windows installs when the device is plugged in. None of this worked. Every time I uninstalled a driver to try a new one I CCleaner'd the registry just to be sure nothing was left behind.
  *Right Clicked "Enable" however it does not Enable, it remains grayed out and disabled.

So, this is where I've got to. I'm running out of options and my known internet resources have been sapped dry. I'd be so grateful to anyone that could contribute to resolving this problem and I'm quite sure that many others would be too.

I've tried to be as thorough as humanly possible with the original post in hope that it cuts straight to the core and provides all the information from the off. However if I've missed anything please tell me and I'll both post it as a reply & edit it into the OP.

Thank you,

James.

 

[markwp]

Have you tried a different usb port for the adapter? Have you tried a different usb device (keyboard/mouse) in the port you are using for the dongle?

 

[srobin]

I would delete the adapter from device manager and have windows rescan and install.