Acer Laptop Screen Flashes and Refuses to Connect to Wifi

I have an acer Aspire SW5-011, 32 bit, running windows 8.1. It is up to date on all drivers. On October 29th, I found that it was no longer connected to wifi, and every time I try reconnecting, the screen flashes suddenly, turning black and back on again and closes the networks window as if I had never opened it at all. Sometimes it does this as soon as I click on the network, sometimes I can get all the way to entering the network security key and hitting enter. It happens every time, and only when I open that window and try to connect to an internet connection. I've tried restarting, adjusting network setting, forgetting and logging back into my wifi, doing network diagnosis troubleshoots, updating drivers (how I know it's all up to date), checked to make sure my antivirus wasn't affecting it, and nothing seems to be working. Most of the time when I do diagnosis it doesn't give me any error code, but one time it gave me a "this computer was manually disconnected from (my wifi network)" error, but gave no solutions to fix it. I'm kind of at the end of my rope here, so any help you all can give would be greatly appreciated.

Accepted answers

TeganRowsell

Oh, well. It would appear this problem solved itself. A wifi technician came out for a reason I thought was unrelated (internet on other devices going in and out), and it turned out a squirrel partially gnawed through an external cable on the outside of my apartment. After it was fixed, my acer computer was able to connect to wifi again. It's working perfectly fine now. I'm not sure why the half chewed cable made SOME devices connect to the internet and not others, but I'm glad it got fixed! Thank you for trying to help me, I really appreciate it.

JackE

Thanks for reporting back on the fix for the squirrel issue.

Jack E/NJ

All comments

JackE

Open DeviceManager. Please post a screenshot of result if possible. Jack E/NJ

TeganRowsell

This is what the device manager for my wireless adapter looks like. If you'd like me to go to any specific tab, check out a specific dropdown, let me know! I've seen mentions of low power settings shutting off the internet on other acer laptops, but it doesn't look like that's even an option for mine.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/ek/p459m8w1rflj.jpeg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/27/s7r8u7hbgofa.jpeg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/pe/9ou9p2asy5mj.jpeg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/4x/bia5b4w9cg6r.jpeg

JackE

Sorry no. Just the DeviceManager main folders screen. No subfolders or properties screens yet. Jack E/NJ

TeganRowsell

Oh, ok! Here we go:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/j2/j8n1un1otoqt.jpeg

(Have to use my phone camera for these, as I don't have internet on the laptop to take proper screencaps.)

JackE

>>>32 bit, running windows 8.1>>>

Was Win8.1 or Win10 factory installed? Jack E/NJ

TeganRowsell

I believe this laptop originally had windows 7 installed when I first got it, it was later autoupgraded to windows 8.1 when it came out, and it is still on 8.1.

JackE

Shut down Windows normally. Turn machine back on and immediately start tapping the F2 key to enter the BIOS menu. Make sure the F12 and D2D options in the MAIN tab are both enable. Please post on phoneshot of the BIOS BOOT tab if possible. If not possible, is secure boot enabled or disabled? Jack E/NJ

TeganRowsell

Oh, well. It would appear this problem solved itself. A wifi technician came out for a reason I thought was unrelated (internet on other devices going in and out), and it turned out a squirrel partially gnawed through an external cable on the outside of my apartment. After it was fixed, my acer computer was able to connect to wifi again. It's working perfectly fine now. I'm not sure why the half chewed cable made SOME devices connect to the internet and not others, but I'm glad it got fixed! Thank you for trying to help me, I really appreciate it.