If the Wi-Fi adapter does not work or does not work correctly, the reason for this may be the wrong drivers for it. This article shows step by step how to install and reinstall, update or uninstall the Wi-Fi adapter driver on your laptop in Windows 10, 8 and Windows 7.

Note: If the reason you were looking for instructions on how to download and install the Wi-Fi driver is that it does not work, and a red X is shown in the connection icon, then this article may help you: (as it does not required in drivers).

Often, in order to update the wireless Wi-Fi adapter driver, the user enters Windows Device Manager, selects the desired adapter in the "Network adapters" section, and then on the "Driver" tab, clicks the "Update" button (or "Update driver" in the context menu ). And it receives a logical system report that the driver does not need to be updated.

It is important to understand here: this message does not mean that you have the correct driver installed - it only says that there is no other driver in Windows and in the Update Center (in the same way, the message in the manager “The device is working normally” often means only that it does not cause conflicts and errors in Windows, but not that it really works as it should.And as a rule, all these issues are resolved by installing the original driver specifically for your laptop model.

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On this page, we will explain how to install the Wi-Fi adapter driver in Windows 10 on a laptop and a desktop computer, and most importantly, how to do it correctly. You will find answers to many questions and be able to solve various problems associated with installing wireless module drivers. We will analyze various situations when a problem with the USB driver, PCI or PCI Express Wi-Fi adapter and Internet connection occurs on a Windows 10 laptop. You will also learn what to do if you have an old laptop that does not support Windows 10 and does not have official drivers.

What are Wi-Fi adapters

As already mentioned, there are several types of wireless adapters by connection type: laptop (mPCI, mPCIe), for stationary PCs with PCI or PCIe interfaces, and universal, plugged into the USB port of any computer, laptop or even TV.

laptops

All laptops and netbooks must have a Wi-Fi module. You can see how it looks in the picture above. Wireless modules are always made by some reputable manufacturer. For example, Intel, Atheros, Broadcom, Ralink. Therefore, one of them will be installed in your laptop, no matter what brand the laptop itself is Asus, HP, Acer or Lenovo. Most of the problems I met with Ralink. However, all these problems were purely related to the lack of drivers for Windows 10, while the modules themselves are of high quality.

When installing Windows 10 on most laptops, the Wi-Fi adapter driver is installed automatically from the Microsoft database. If this is exactly what happened to you, this is very good, because. you can immediately connect to the wireless network of the router, connect to the Internet, download programs, codecs and missing drivers. Moreover, the standard Wi-Fi adapter driver often works flawlessly and satisfies the user with everything. If this is how things are for you, everything works and pleases you, it is better not to touch anything. For example, sometimes a native driver can give great speed, but work unstably, and the wise saying “the best is the enemy of the good” comes to mind.

Stationary PCs

Site photo tp-link.com

Desktop computers usually do not have a built-in Wi-Fi adapter (they are only in expensive, top models of motherboards). Therefore, to connect a PC to a wireless network, network adapters are used that connect to USB, PCI and PCI Express. Here, as a rule, drivers are not installed on them themselves and they need to be downloaded and installed manually from the supplied disk or downloaded from the site.

Common problems with Wi-Fi adapter drivers in Windows 10

Situations when you need to find, download and install a Wi-Fi adapter driver:

  • The driver is not installed. The wireless module is shown as an undefined device in device manager. As users often say, "it was installed, but removed."
  • The driver is installed, the Wi-Fi adapter is detected, but works at a low speed. This is what I think a lot of people have experienced. This is when the Wi-Fi speed of 300 Mbps is declared on the module box (or in the characteristics of the laptop), but in reality the connection speed is 72 or 150 Mbps. Here, of course, it is worth mentioning that the adapter driver is not always to blame for the connection speed, because. it is also affected by the speed of the router module with which the connection is established, and the wireless network encryption algorithm specified in the settings of the router or access point.
  • The driver is installed, but the Wi-Fi on the laptop does not work. The problem can manifest itself in different ways: a laptop or PC connects to a Wi-Fi network, but soon loses connection, connects, but there is no Internet - for example, a yellow triangle is displayed on the network icon in the taskbar, or there is an endless Connecting... or Getting an IP address.

How to check if a Wi-Fi adapter driver is installed

You can check if the wireless adapter driver is present on the system or needs to be installed using the following methods. Moreover, the first one is much more preferable.

In Device Manager

Press key combination Win+X, select Device Manager, expand the section Network adapters by clicking on the icon + «:

Under Network connections


Attention! If the Wireless network is on the list, but Wi-Fi is not working, check if the connection is active. Right click on it and select Turn on:

4 Ways to Download and Install Wi-Fi Adapter Driver in Windows 10

Drivers can be downloaded both on the laptop manufacturer's support and software download page, and on the official website of the Wi-Fi adapter manufacturer. When installing the Wi-Fi module driver manually, it is very important not to overshoot and download the correct driver for the desired operating system (for example, Windows 10 64 bit) and the desired adapter model. There is where to get confused. Sometimes you need to correctly determine not only the model, but also the module.

Be careful, and better yet, postpone reinstalling or updating the driver until you return home or to the office, where you will be able to connect to the Internet using a cable in case of problems with Wi-Fi drivers.

How to find out the model of the Wi-Fi adapter if the device is not recognized

If the previous item did not help you, and even the device is not defined and is displayed in the Manager as “unknown”, there are ways to find out its model.
Method one: download the AIDA64 program, you can trial version. In chapter Network > PCI/PnP Network you can see the adapter model, even if it is not displayed in the device manager:
Method two: look for a driver on the DevID.info website, enter the hardware ID in the search and look for software for Windows 10. We wrote about this service in detail in:

Method 1: Download the drivers from the laptop manufacturer's website

Using the ASUS FX553VE laptop as an example


Method 2: Search for a driver for Wi-Fi for Windows 10 on the website of the manufacturer of the wireless adapter

In most cases, this method is suitable only for owners of USB, PCI and PCI Express adapters, which are usually installed in desktop computers. If the device is not recognized, you will first need to find out its model. This is written above. After you have found out the model, go to the manufacturer's website or find it in the search. For example, we will take the TP-Link Archer T6E Wi-Fi card.

How to find and download a driver for a wireless USB/PCI adapter for a desktop PC.


What to do if there is no driver for Windows 10

Sometimes it happens that the Wi-Fi adapter is not so old (a couple of years from the date of purchase), but there is no driver for Windows 1o. In this case, try installing a driver for Windows 8.1 of the same bitness. Sometimes it fits, sometimes it doesn't. Not so long ago, I installed the TL-WN722N V1 adapter on a PC, and in my case, the driver from Windows 8.1 was installed on the top ten:

Do not try to download drivers for a different hardware version. They will not work, and if they are installed, a blue screen failure may occur.

How to install the downloaded driver

If you're not 100% sure you've downloaded the correct driver (for example, the laptop's support page suggested Broadcom, Atheros, and Intel drivers, or you couldn't find the hardware version of the adapter), the best thing to do is to do the following. Unzip the archive, but do not run the setup file Setup. Go to the device manager, open the properties of the adapter, go to the tab Driver, click Refresh, Search for drivers on this computer

and try one by one to specify the folders with the unpacked drivers. For example \TL-WN722N_V1_140918\Windows 8.1 64bit\ and press Further.

If the driver matches, the installation will continue; if it doesn't, you'll see a message that no matching drivers were found.

Method 3: Installing a standard 802.11 driver available on the system

Once we described this procedure in detail as a solution to the problem with the low speed of the module.

Method 4: Install the driver from Microsoft using the online update

Often there are problems associated with the fact that the site does not have drivers for a particular version of Windows. For example, if your laptop was sold with Windows 8.1, it may be that the laptop manufacturer's website does not have software for your current version of Windows 10. In this case, you need to try installing the driver from the Microsoft database (or update server). Unfortunately, the older the laptop model, the less likely it is that the manufacturer's website will have drivers for Windows 10.

Windows 10, unlike the "seven", is able to find a very large number of drivers in its database. However, as I explained at the beginning of this article, drivers downloaded this way from the Windows Update site can be simplified and stripped down. With them, the Wi-Fi adapter may not work at maximum speed. Use this method only if:

  • you cannot find a native driver or there is no version for Windows 10;
  • you found it, but you can’t download it yet (for example, you distribute the Internet via Wi-Fi from a phone where traffic is limited);
  • when installing native Wi-Fi drivers, the adapter works with the problems that are described in the previous paragraph.

To search for software for your wireless module, connect your laptop (or PC) to the router using an Ethernet cable, right-click on the problematic device in the Device Manager, select Update driver and then Automatic search for updated drivers:

If an updated driver is found, you will see the message: Software update for this device completed successfully.

What to do if the Internet is lost after updating the Wi-Fi adapter driver

If you have access to the router, that is, you can connect your laptop to the router at any time using an Ethernet cable, then you basically do not risk anything. However, if you are trying to update a malfunctioning or slow driver in a McDonald's cafe or in any other situation where you do not have a physical connection to the router, for example, you are connected to your neighbor's wifi, then you risk losing the ability to access the Internet if you Install the wrong driver, so if after updating the wi-fi driver, the adapter stopped working and connecting to the access point, you need to go to the device manager, select your wireless adapter, go to its properties and roll back the driver by clicking the appropriate button

If before that the wireless adapter worked and somehow connected to the Wi-Fi network (even if at a slow speed),

  • click Win+X,
  • select Device Manager,
  • In chapter Network devices find your adapter
  • double click on it to call properties,
  • go to tab Driver,
  • press the button rollback.

If the adapter didn't work or rolling back the driver doesn't help, you can try installing the default driver.

How to install wi-fi adapter driver on an old laptop

If your laptop is very old, like 10 years old or so, most likely you will not find drivers on the website of the laptop manufacturer, not on the website of the manufacturer of the wireless wi-fi module. In this case, you need to connect the laptop using an Ethernet cable to the Internet, go to the device manager, select your wi-fi adapter, right-click on it and select "update driver" (method number 4 described above). You may be able to install a standard driver from the Microsoft database in this way.

Method of last resort

If none of the advice helped to find and install a successful driver, there is another method to do this. Try DRP (DriverPack Solution). Perhaps one of the packs will suit you. I used this method once in the distant past, and when there was no hope of finding a driver, DriverPack unexpectedly picked it up. By the way, then it was also about the network board.

In our today's article, we will discuss with you such a thing as drivers for Wi-Fi adapters. As many of you may already know, these devices are mostly in the form of a built-in module for laptops, but there are also cases when desktop users also install Wi-Fi adapters in their systems. Who wants to mess around with wires, right?

All devices in the PC will not function correctly and perform the work assigned to them by developers without certain software, i.e. drivers. Wi-Fi adapters also need drivers to work properly. But what drivers need to be installed on the system and how to do it? Let's look at these questions and more.

Installing the Wi-Fi adapter driver

So which drivers do you need to install? Well, the Wi-Fi adapter installed in your laptop or, possibly, PC requires the installation of the same driver that was provided by its developer. You can find these drivers on the official website of the device developer. Among other things, your system may try to automatically find the correct driver for the Wi-Fi adapter on the network and install it, but this does not always work correctly.

Now we will walk you through in detail the steps required to install the Wi-Fi adapter driver on computers running operating systems such as Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10. It is worth noting that these operating systems differ from each other in terms of user interface, especially Windows 10 and Windows 7, however, the driver installation process is absolutely identical on all of them, which is good news.

Automatic installation of the Wi-Fi adapter driver

Perhaps, let's start with the most elementary way to install drivers for any device in the system. So, you can not bother installing the Wi-Fi adapter driver at all - and put this problem on the shoulders of your Windows operating system. Your OS will try to find the correct driver for your Wi-Fi adapter on the Internet and install it. The downside of this installation method is that the system quite often simply cannot find the necessary driver, as a result of which you have to resort to the manual installation method.

However, sometimes the system still manages to find the driver and install it correctly. Typically, when accessing the Internet, the operating system will attempt to install the driver on its own, however, often this may not happen. To start the automatic driver installation for the Wi-Fi adapter, you need to do the following:

  • press combination Windows+R;
  • enter the command in the line devmgmt.msc;
  • press Enter;

The note: your Wi-Fi adapter may be in this section for a very obvious reason - the system did not install drivers for this device or could not do it the first time.

  • click on device right click;
  • select the item "Automatically search for updated drivers ...";

After selecting the above item, your operating system will automatically search for and install the same drivers found for the device, which in our case is a Wi-Fi adapter. The OS may or may not install the driver. Here's how it works. However, don't worry if the OS fails to auto-install, as you can do it yourself...

Manual installation of the Wi-Fi adapter driver

Let's now see how to manually install the driver for the Wi-Fi adapter. So, there is nothing easier than installing a driver for any device: we go to the official website of the manufacturer, go to the download section, download the necessary driver on the PC and install it into the system using the most convenient installation package.

If you own a laptop, then you need to go to the official website of the manufacturer of the laptop itself, for example, ASUS, Acer or Lenovo, for the driver. If you encounter any problems installing the driver through the downloaded installer, then you can apply, so to speak, the semi-automatic installation method - through the Device Manager, specifying the driver directory on the PC.

To do this, you will need to do the following:

  • go to the download section of the official manufacturer of your Wi-Fi adapter (or laptop);
  • download a pack of drivers to your computer;
  • press combination Windows+R;
  • enter the command in the line devmgmt.msc;
  • press Enter;
  • find the section "Other devices" in the list;
  • find the Wi-Fi adapter in the list of other devices;
  • click on device right click;
  • select "Properties" from the context menu;
  • go to the "Driver" tab;
  • click on the "Update driver ..." button;
  • click on the item "Search for drivers on this computer";
  • click on the "Browse" button and specify the directory where the downloaded drivers are located, for example, Desktop";
  • click on the "Next" button and wait for the driver installation to complete.

Reinstalling the driver for the Wi-Fi adapter

There is a chance that after installing the driver for your Wi-Fi adapter, you will encounter a number of not very pleasant problems, for example, the adapter will not work correctly or function at all, despite the fact that it is displayed in the Device Manager. A complete reinstallation of the installed driver can help in this situation.

You can do it with the following steps:

  • press combination Windows+R;
  • enter the command in the line devmgmt.msc;
  • press Enter;
  • find the "Network adapters" section in the list;
  • find the Wi-Fi adapter in the list of other devices;
  • click on device right click;
  • select "Delete device";
  • click on the "Action" button in the menu bar;
  • select "Update hardware configuration".

The system will try to automatically update the driver for your Wi-Fi adapter when it is found in the computer's hardware list. If she fails, you will have to download the driver to your computer, and then install it through the installer from the manufacturer or through the Device Manager.

Found a typo? Select the text and press Ctrl + Enter

Often, after reinstalling the operating system or after cleaning the computer from viruses, users experience various kinds of problems with Wi-Fi adapters - either they do not work correctly or do not receive at all, and this causes a lot of inconvenience. Today we will talk about how to install a driver for a Wi-Fi adapter and update it, and for starters, how to find out if you have any driver in principle.

Basic check

So, in order to understand what kind of situation we are dealing with, first you need to determine whether you have any driver or not. To do this, you need to enter the "Start" menu and click on the "My Computer" icon - an additional menu will open in which we click on "Properties".

After that, another small window will open in front of you. It will contain a sorted list. We click on the line "Network adapters" and in the tree that opens you will find all the devices. We are interested in something like the name Wireless Network Adapter. If it is listed, but the device is not working, then double-click on it and go to the "Driver" tab - most likely, you will be told that it is not installed.

How to get the right driver

There are several options in this situation. Ideally, you should have been provided with a disk with the necessary driver, but in practice there is usually none, so you have to get out based on your own knowledge. Usually this situation applies to a laptop, so the first thing you need to know is its model and company - this can be indicated on the box or on the laptop itself. Next, you need to go to the official Russian-language website of the manufacturer and there, in the section with all other programs, download the driver for the Wi-Fi adapter. Then you just open the file and confirm the installation.

As you understand, you will have to load the software by connecting via a cable to the Internet directly or from another device.

The second way is to turn to specially compiled driver packs that are updated every month. These include Driver Pack Solution, which can be downloaded from the link by clicking on the button. The online version downloads only the client, which already downloads the necessary drivers, while the regular version weighs much more, but comes with all possible programs.

After downloading, you need to run the program, and it will already determine what you are missing and offer to install it.

It is worth noting that such a pack will also help you select a driver for the USB Wi-Fi adapter automatically if it is connected at the time of hardware scanning.

Reinstalling software

Sometimes it happens that you just need to reinstall the driver. To do this, follow the beginning of the instructions, where we checked for the presence of equipment - repeat the same chain and when you get to the "Driver" tab, you need to find the "Delete" button at the bottom, click on it, and then confirm your choice. Don't worry, nothing will break.