Wifi symbol disappeared overnight, driver says is disconnected

[DavidC831]

Between shutting down last night and this morning, the symbol for wifi disappeared and Settings shows no wifi. There is a driver in Device Managers, which says it is "working properly," but in "Control Panel>Network & Internet>Internet connections" "Broadband connections" says it is disconnected. I contacted Microsoft, but after some clicking around the agent provided a new upload of Windows 11 - which made no difference at all. I tried to update the driver but Windows says it is the most recent version (though it says it is 2015 and there is a 2024 version.

[BeemerBiker · Accepted solution]

This is a January 2024 Realtek driver.  I assume your device manager show Realtek for WIFI

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp150501-151000/sp150994.exe

If the WiFi works for a while, but fails to work when the laptop wakes up, that is a different problem although the above driver may solve that also.

[DavidC831]

Thanks for your reply.. I would love to update the driver but don't know how to do it. I'd appreciate detailed instructions, if possible. Thanks.

[DavidC831]

Update: Today I booted up the computer - and wifi was back. Probably related to updating the driver. As a confirmed pessimist I'll wait to see if it stays fixed. But for now, thanks.