Swift 1 won't connect to internet

My Swift 1 bought August 2021 won't connect to the internet. This has happened several times over the past few weeks. The serial number is NXA77EK*********************
I was able to fix it initially by uninstalling and then reinstalling the network driver. Then that stopped working.
I then reset the laptop which was a bit of a pain. Again, this worked initially and then stopped working.
I took it back to the shop I bought it from and they had a look. They said I hadn't kept up to date with Acer updates. I didn't realise that I had to go looking for these updates. The shop installed the relevant Acer updates. There were also a few windows updates that I hadn't been prompted to install. The shop installed them.
The laptop worked for 24 hours and then stopped being able to access the internet.
I've now got a call into the tech support at shop (JOhn Lewis) and they are going to call me either this evening or tomorrow.

Is this a common fault with the Swift 1? Does anyone have any ideas? THis is my first Acer laptop and I'm not feeling very positive about Acer at the moment.

{ Edited the content to hide sensitive information }

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JackE

No, not common. Is your laptop connecting to the router but the router isn't connecting to the internet through your internet service provider? You can tell this if the wifi icon in the tray has a world symbol or hovering over it with a mouse it'll say 'no internet access'.

phinea

It's not connecting to the router. There is world symbol in the wifi icon

JackE

(1) When you hover the mouse over the world symbol, what does it say?

(2) Open Device Manager. Post a screenshot if possible but don't manually try to expand any folders.

billsey

I believe you model is one of the SF114-34 series, there have been hundreds of different SF114-34 models and lots of different Swift 1 series... In your case I think that all those had the Intel AX201 wireless card installed, so that helps simplify things. Most driver updates are handled through Windows Update, but it usually puts the drivers in the option updates category instead of installing them by default. Intel though has done a lot more updates than WU has shown, so there is likely one that's newer than what is installed now. I install my Intel WiFi and Bluetooth drivers directly from Intel's support site using the Intel Driver & Support Assistant.

Now, let's try and pin your issue down a bit. If you are having the problem and you move the laptop until it is right next tot he router does it then work? If so one or both of the antenna cables may have come loose. I expect that's not the case since the shop should have seen that if they opened things up. It's possible something is messing with your WiFi network settings. Malware can do that, pointing you at an external server that monitors your full activity, instead of the normal gateway and that will show up with your symptoms if their server is down. You can also see it if your router is acting up, do you have other devices on it that are working well?

We can do a much better job of diagnosing if we have details concerning your network. Right click on the world icon and choose Network & Internet, then click on Properties for your network (it should show you connected to wireless, but without internet) and capture a screen shot to show us. If it shows you not connected to the wireless click on WiFi and on Show Available Networks and capture that for us.

phinea

billsey said:

I believe you model is one of the SF114-34 series, there have been hundreds of different SF114-34 models and lots of different Swift 1 series... In your case I think that all those had the Intel AX201 wireless card installed, so that helps simplify things. Most driver updates are handled through Windows Update, but it usually puts the drivers in the option updates category instead of installing them by default. Intel though has done a lot more updates than WU has shown, so there is likely one that's newer than what is installed now. I install my Intel WiFi and Bluetooth drivers directly from Intel's support site using the Intel Driver & Support Assistant.
Now, let's try and pin your issue down a bit. If you are having the problem and you move the laptop until it is right next tot he router does it then work? If so one or both of the antenna cables may have come loose. I expect that's not the case since the shop should have seen that if they opened things up. It's possible something is messing with your WiFi network settings. Malware can do that, pointing you at an external server that monitors your full activity, instead of the normal gateway and that will show up with your symptoms if their server is down. You can also see it if your router is acting up, do you have other devices on it that are working well?
We can do a much better job of diagnosing if we have details concerning your network. Right click on the world icon and choose Network & Internet, then click on Properties for your network (it should show you connected to wireless, but without internet) and capture a screen shot to show us. If it shows you not connected to the wireless click on WiFi and on Show Available Networks and capture that for us.

Thank you billsey for taking the time to post such an informative post. I've actually got it working now by resetting the router and then resetting the network. (I'd already done a reset several times to no avail). I'm not sure how long this will last. If it goes again, I will do what you suggest. Thanks again

phinea

JackE said:

(1) When you hover the mouse over the world symbol, what does it say?

(2) Open Device Manager. Post a screenshot if possible but don't manually try to expand any folders.

Thanks JackE for getting back to me. I've actually got it to work by resetting my router and then doing a network reset. I'd done a network reset several times to no avail, but doing it after the router reset seems to have done the trick. If it goes wrong again, I'll get back to you. Thanks again.

JackE

Thanks for reporting back. I too usually have to reboot my router & modem a few times a month. Good luck.

billsey

Heh, my router decided yesterday that it would connect my 5GHz band with 802.11a instead of 802.11ax (10Mbps or so instead of 900Mbps). They just seem to be somewhat unstable in the long run, even after numerous firmware updates... Hence the option many have to automatically reboot daily or weekly.

Ovaltine

Hi all,

I have a similar problem to Phinea.

Mine is ACER swift 5 SF514-54GT-78Y7 which I bought in Nov 2020 and since then on and off it is giving me problems.

The latest is this connectivity issues to wifi and Bluetooth. Out of the sudden, I just couldn’t connect to internet anymore because “no internet access, no connections available”. The wifi option and icon (and Bluetooth) has also totally disappeared!

Throughout the process, I have tried many methods (after browsing through for solutions), such as going to device manager to reinstall driver, reset my internet connection, reboot/reset my laptop, etc. Suddenly it works again (which during this “on” time, I have updated and installed all the necessary windows update and intel updates from the intel website too).