Aspire AO756-887B with Windows 8.1: Intel wlan disappeared

cosmos
cosmos Member Posts: 9 New User

Hello all,

 

had bought this system 1.5 years ago. Initially installed Windows 8.0 64-bit. Worked fine, no issues. At some point updated to Windows 8.1 and later to 8.1 update 1.

 

Yesterday, I suspended the system while working with wifi. When it booted up, it showed a red X over the network icon. Additionally, the intel wifi card had disappeared from the network adapters. The only netwotk card visible was the (wired) Broadcom Netlink, which works just fine.

 

Pressing Fn+F3 did not do anything at all. Rebooting with/without removing the battery pack first did not help. In device manager, if show hidden devices is enabled, I can see a grayed out "Intel Centrino Wireless-N 105" card. Double clicking on it shows that the device is probably missing (error code 45).

 

Finally, booting with a Linux rescue cd and doing an lspci does not show anything at all hardware-related.

 

This is not the first thing this has happened. The other times though the problem was automagically fixed. The issue has now persisted more than a day and I am clueless what might have happened here...

 

One interesting thing though is that browsing support for this netbook, there are NO 8.1 x64 drivers for the Intel wlan card!

 

If it was a desktop system I'd most likely remove and reinsert the wlan card/usb stick whatever. I do not know if (a) the wlan module is easily accessible on this netbook and (b) if it is, if removal/reinsertion would violate the guarantee.

 

Any help will be appreciated, I am at loss what has happened here...

 

BTW, this is a BIOS- (ie, not UEFI-) based system.

Answers

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer

    To access the wifi module, you need to completly open the back of your laptop, obvious the warranty will cease.

     

    Under linux you were able to connect by Wi-Fi?

     

    At least you can try to uninstall the Intel wifi from Device Manager, reboot and see if it appears as available.

     

    About drivers, double click on the Intel WiFi on Device Manager, click on Details tab, on drop down menu choose HardwareID, highlight the first value and copy/paste here.

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • cosmos
    cosmos Member Posts: 9 New User

    Will simply opening the back of the laptop kill my guarantee? Would adding more memory (for example) void my guarantee?

     

    Under Linux, no wifi is present at all.

     

    Running the intel wifi diagnostics throws an error that no adapter is present!

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer

    Yes and no.

     

    I don't know Acer warranty politic about upgrading ram by yourself.

     

     

    Can you post a picture of the back of your laptop?

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • cosmos
    cosmos Member Posts: 9 New User

    I have attached an image of the back. Only a single screw is there.

     

    BTW, I must say I am a bit disappointed here, since no Acer engineer has responded so far...

     

     

    I have attached the image you are asking for.

    IMG_20140805_072848_783_2.jpg

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer

    Thanks!

     

    yes, you will avoid warranty if you will open it (even for ram upgrade), because you need to open all the back.

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • cosmos
    cosmos Member Posts: 9 New User

    This laptop will drive me crazy. The wifi re-appeared, out of the blue, without changing anything, without even pressing Alt+F3, without reinstalling drivers...

     

    One more for the X-Files unsolved cases.

  • cosmos
    cosmos Member Posts: 9 New User

    ... and the issue reappeared! Smiley Mad

     

    Is this a totally unknown issue. Isn't there any Acer support engineer that could share his/her wisdom with me on this?

     

    The laptop is still under warranty, however I would like to exhaust all options, since I'd have to format the drive before handing it to service and then reinstall the zillion apps/settings, after getting it back...

     

    Help!

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer

    I think it's an hardware problem and we can't solve it here.

     

    Contact your regional Acer service support

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • cosmos
    cosmos Member Posts: 9 New User

    Same feeling here... Contacting support seems inevitable after all.

This discussion has been closed.