WiFi Or Wireless Network not found on new Acer Nitro 5 AN515-51

Hey guys!

I came here as a last resource!

My gf bought recently a Nitro 5 laptop on Amazon, model AN515-51. And everything seemed to work good until she updated windows by the first time.

Apparently, she updated via wireless network, but after the update the wireless devices, network, or whatsoever cannot be found at all on the laptop.

I'm going to try to explain myself better, English is not my first language so bear with me please, I apologize in advance.

The problem that we seem to have is that no matter what I do, the wireless connection is not working at all (there are no problems with the Ethernet connection),

The first thing I did was pressing FN+F3 to turn On the Wireless devices, this only lets me turn ON or OFF the AIRPLANE mode, as I said before there's No mention of WiFi network anywhere.

Then I checked the status on device manager and as you can see there are no problems detected (but I can't see a Driver for Wireless networking)

By the way, the OS is in SPANISH, I'm sorry about that...

Then I Did a factory settings reboot because as we were on her house she doesn't have a Wired internet connection, just a hotspot or whatever is called, and the problem still persisted.
Then I took the laptop to my house on a wired connection and the 1st thing I did was update everything, windows, acer care center (didnt show any update) etc. A bunch of things were updated, EXCEPT anything related to wireless or WiFi. And still we have the same issue.

As you can see on the next picture, we have the Network option:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/u8/0c3tmmj7nsor.png

but when you click on it, it only shows up the ethernet connection:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/er/0oglyic9acbp.png

Now, as I said before I updated EVERYTHING, including the Wlan drivers located on the download section of the nitro 5 laptop on acer main site.

https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7312?b=1

there are two, btw...

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/ww/g2utwav6vl9b.png

on a side not, if you go to config and look for the network setup, you will see the ethernet config options, VPN, airplane mode (modo avion, in spanish) etc. And If you write on the search bar "Wifi" or "wireless" whatever related to that, you will see 2 options:

1. Activate or deativate Wireless devices.
2. Airplane mode.

But if you click on any of them, It will take Directly and ONLY to "Airplane mode" as shown on the next picture.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/ok/l6s51vltoy2n.png

See? Is like if WiFI doesn't exist at all on this laptop (and it did! it has to)

I already ran the network troubleshooting and the only message I get is that I dont have an Ethernet cable connected IF I'm not connected to Ethernet, of course.

And on the network devices you can only find this one:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/fy/0oxtpryjigr2.png

Also, I read on google something related to "WLan qualcomm atheros", but as you can see on the device manager that is not listed there, and I also installed both WLAN drivers located on acer support site as I stated previously.

Serously guys, this is driving me insane, This is a new laptop, we live in Venezuela and we got it from Amazon, is not like we can send it back or take it to an official Acer support store, because in this country we don't have any.... I ran out of ideas guys, I have done a few more things that I forgot to list here, just a tweak here and there that I found online, but nothing works...

I appreciate all the help we can receive from you... I'll be aware of this post the whole day!!

Thanks a lot in advance! I hope the message goes loud and clear....

Accepted answers

All comments

Kamalika

Hi Cxzar,
Since you mentioned that wifi was working before the windows update. Please try to do a system restore to a date when the wifi was working.
First and foremost please back up all your data.

On Windows 10, System Restore is turned off by default, but you can use the following steps to enable it:

1)Open Start.
2)Search for Create a restore point, and click the result System Properties.

3)Under "Protection Settings," select the main system drive, and click the Configure button.

4)Enter the description to identify the restore point.

After completing the steps, if something wrong happens while modifying the Registry, installing a new app or a driver, you can use the steps outlined below to use the restore point to undo the changes.

How to undo changes with System Restore

In the case you come across any issues, before reinstalling Windows 10, you roll back changes using a restore point to get up and running again.

2)Open Start.
3)Search for Create a restore point, and click the result System Properties.

4)Click the System Restore button.

Click Next.
5)Select the most recent known working restore point that will help you to fix the current problem.
6)Click the Scan for affected programs button to see the applications that will be removed if they're installed after the restore point was created.
7)Click Close.
8)Click Next.
9)Click Finish.
Once done, your device will go back in time to a previous state where everything was working correctly.

Please let me know if your wifi started working

cxzar

Kamalika said:

Hi Cxzar,
Since you mentioned that wifi was working before the windows update. Please try to do a system restore to a date when the wifi was working.
First and foremost please back up all your data.
On Windows 10, System Restore is turned off by default, but you can use the following steps to enable it:
1)Open Start.
2)Search for Create a restore point, and click the result System Properties.
3)Under "Protection Settings," select the main system drive, and click the Configure button.
4)Enter the description to identify the restore point.
After completing the steps, if something wrong happens while modifying the Registry, installing a new app or a driver, you can use the steps outlined below to use the restore point to undo the changes.
How to undo changes with System Restore
In the case you come across any issues, before reinstalling Windows 10, you roll back changes using a restore point to get up and running again.
2)Open Start.
3)Search for Create a restore point, and click the result System Properties.
4)Click the System Restore button.
Click Next.
5)Select the most recent known working restore point that will help you to fix the current problem.
6)Click the Scan for affected programs button to see the applications that will be removed if they're installed after the restore point was created.
7)Click Close.
8)Click Next.
9)Click Finish.
Once done, your device will go back in time to a previous state where everything was working correctly.

Please let me know if your wifi started working

Sadly, it didn't work my friend

As I stated before I did a complete rollback and also, I didn't mention this I think, But one of the first things I did was going back to the last point before that first windows update, and it didn't work either...

Kamalika

Hi Cxzar,
Thanks for your response. I will request you to perform the following steps. This may sound crazy but it does work at times. That is power drain and BIOS default.

For this take out the charger if connected and press and hold the power button till all lights are off.
Have a look at the bottom of the laptop. Search for a tiny pin hole with a battery symbol by the side of it. If you see the pin hole, take a paper clip and press and hold it down for 30 seconds.
If you do not see the pin hole, then simply press and hold the power button for 30 seconds and let go.
Do try performing BIOS default now.
Steps to follow.
1) Press and hold power button to make sure all lights are off.
2)Now press power button just ones and keep tapping F2 (tap,tap)about 10-15 times till the bios screen doesnt load up.
3) Ones in BIOS, Press F9 one time and hit enter.
4) Press F10 one time and hit enter.
This will restart your computer .Check if wifi working fine.If still not follow the next steps.

Now go to device manager and Go to View from the top of device manager and click on Show hidden devices.
Now check under network adapters do you see the wifi drivers.
If after all this too you do not see the wifi drivers I will recommend you to back up all your data and do a Full factory Reset.
Steps to follow for full Factory reset.
Go to Settings/ Update and security/ Recovery/ Reset the PC/ Remove files and fully clean the drive.
Make sure you have the charger plugged in during reset.
Ones done, computer will come back to day 1 settings. The wifi should work.
If still not working its a hardware issue. SO please contact acer for warranty repair options. at
http://www.acer.com/worldwide/support/

Please let me know if this helped resolve your issue.

DimitrovBG

I bought ACER NITRO 5 AN515-52 two days ago and I already have this problem. But I remember that at the beginning I made some changes in BIOS. Kamalika's post about the BIOS default settings is very helpful. It works...for now

Esotorisk

I followed all of these but nothing worked, finally got a fix by matching the network mode and adapter wireless mode to be same. Read more at http://bit.ly/2zn5soX

amaan797

This happened to me too when mine was new I simply connected my laptop to the ethernet cable and downloaded the WiFi drivers from Intel's website (since I had the Intel variant).
Installed it and it started working.
Hope it helps!

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