Buzz
Sometimes, you might accidentally press the wifi function key on your laptop. This causes the laptop to not detect wifi even after trying many methods. Therefore, when the laptop cannot detect wifi, you should immediately check if the wifi was accidentally turned off using the function key. The wifi function keys for different laptop models can be found here: Wifi function keys
2. Missing or conflicting drivers
If your wifi network is still active but your laptop cannot detect wifi, you need to check your wifi network driver. It's possible that your wifi driver is not installed, outdated, or conflicting. Here's how to check:
Step 1: Open Control Panel on your computer. Instructions for opening Control Panel on different operating systems can be found here: How to access Control Panel
Step 2: Within Control Panel, click on Device Manager
Step 3: Locate the wifi driver under Network adapter. Each laptop will have different wifi drivers, if unsure, look for drivers containing wireless, 802.11, etc.
There are several possibilities regarding wifi drivers
- Wifi driver not found. Your laptop cannot detect wifi because the driver is missing. You need to find and install the wifi driver. You can download and use Easy Driver software to automatically search for and install wifi drivers.
- Wifi driver shows a yellow exclamation mark: Your wifi driver may be conflicting, you need to uninstall and reinstall the wifi driver
- Wifi driver has a black arrow pointing down: Your wifi driver has been disabled, the solution is simple, right-click on the wifi driver, click Enable, and reconnect
3. Wifi unable to connect, with a yellow exclamation mark
Wifi with a yellow exclamation mark indicates that wifi is connected to the Modem but there is no Internet. When encountering wifi with a yellow exclamation mark, you need to restart the Modem, then reconnect. Additionally, the cause may be due to the wifi access password being changed, you need to forget the wifi network before reconnecting. The steps are as follows:
For Windows 8, 8.1
Step 1: Press the Windows button then type PC Settings then search to find this feature and open it
Step 2: Click Network in the settings list in PC Settings
Step 3: Select Connection and Click Manage known network in the Wi-Fi section.
Step 4: Here you will see the wifi networks you have connected to displayed in the Manage known network section
Step 5: Next, you Click on the wifi network name you want to remove and click Forget
For Windows 10
Step 1: Press the Windows + I key combination or click Start, type Setting to open Setting App. Choose Network & Internet
Step 2: Select the Wifi option, click on Manage known networks
Step 3: Click on the wifi you want to remove, then click Forget.
After completing the above steps, you enter the new wifi password to reconnect to that wifi.
4. Issue caused by antivirus software
Sometimes antivirus software may interrupt your computer's connection to the wifi network or the services of antivirus software may conflict with wifi drivers. In this case, you should temporarily disable antivirus software or temporarily uninstall it to check wifi connection. Note: Uninstalling or disabling features in antivirus software may affect security issues on your computer.
5. Restart Wifi network management services
You should restart this service if your laptop cannot detect Wifi. For Windows XP, this service is called Wireless Zero Configuration, for Windows 7 and above, this service is called WLAN AutoConfig. The steps to restart the service are as follows:
Step 1: Press the Windows + R key combination to open the Run window, enter the command services.msc, then click OK
Step 2: In the service panel, find Wireless Zero Configuration for Windows XP or WLAN AutoConfig for Win7 and above. Right-click and select Restart.
Step 3: Restart your computer and reconnect to wifi
6. Clear DNS cache
Step 1: Press the Windows + R key combination to open the Run window, enter the command cmd, then click OK
Step 2: In the Command Prompt window, type each command line below one by one
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig / release
ipconfig / renew
Step 3: Restart your computer and reconnect
7. Network card error
If all the above solutions fail to address the issue, you need to check the hardware (wifi network card). You should ask a technician to check the hardware issue and proceed with repairs to be able to reconnect to wifi normally.
These are some troubleshooting steps for a laptop not detecting wifi. You should try basic troubleshooting steps before seeking hardware assistance. Additionally, testing wifi during the laptop check process before purchasing is also important, please refer to how to check a used laptop on Mytour for the most comprehensive check method
