Notebooks & Netbooks

[aylee]

Hi

I am using Acer Aspire S3-951 and recently ran into wifi connectivity issues. I tried updating the drivers and accidentally installed a version that was not compatible with my network card - Atheros Ar5bwb225. 

This caused the computer to detect that my own drivers were uninstalled, so I tried to uninstall the incorrect driver and ran into trouble because these new drivers were not displayed in device manager, despite different attempts to show them. Until I manually uninstalled the installation program for the incorrect driver, the setup for the driver provided on the Acer website could not work. 

When I finally managed to get the setup to work, it stated that my network adapter has been unplugged/is not found. Obviously the adapter is internal so it can't be unplugged. Even with system restore, and other attemps through different forums and multiple restarts I could not get my computer to recognize the adapter anymore. It refuses to connect to wifi saying the drivers are not found, and the driver setup says the adapter is not found. 

Is there anything I can do?

Thanks

[aylee]

I should add that when I used the HWVendor Detection from the Acer website, the Atheros WLAN network adapter is found, but it just still isn't available when I try to set up the driver, and also in device manager.

[IronFly]

On device Manager, click on View and select Show Hidden devices.

can you see the Atheros wifi?

[aylee]

Thanks for the response IronFly.

Unfortunately no, it does not even display under hidden devices.

Suppose a factory reset will do the trick? I'm trying to consider other options first though!

[IronFly]

On Device Manager, if you choose "Scan for hardware changes"....?

the last icon under HELP (the little magnifier lens over a PC)

Your S3 has hardware or software switch to activate wifi connections?

[aylee]

Tried that,

Also tried using cmd to reconfigure device manager to show all devices. None works!

There is a button on the keyboard that allows me to switch it on/off but the funny thing is the button now doesn't do a thing.. So essentially the computer seems to be unable to connect with the adapter at all. But the HW device scanner from Acer found it, which I find rather odd.

[IronFly]

Any Yellow exclamation mark on Device manager list?

[aylee]

No,

There are no unknown devices, nor anything with a yellow flag. Also no devices that even resemble the Atheros adapter. Went to BIOS as well, but it seems this laptop doesn't have many options for BIOS setup so I couldn't check if LAN is enabled. Pretty sure it is.