No Ralink 3290 802.11bgn listed in Device Manager (not hidden either)

[Speedwagon01]

I no longer see the Ralink 3290 W-Fi Adapter i Device Mgr (doesn't even show when I select "show hidden devices"). How can I reinstall a driver when I don't see the hardware? I checked the BIOS and it reports "WARNING" when I run a diag test and shows "NA" for report info. I'm running a Motorola Surfboard SBG6580 router/modem which is working fine throughout the house (with a range extender).

How can I check to see if the adapter has failed and if it has, what size adapter card do I need to buy to replace my dead adapter? Specific model of PC is HP Envy 700-027c. OS is Win 10 Pro 64bit.

[erico · Accepted solution]

For your own safety, unplug the power plug from the wall socket before opening the case of your PC.

Does your bluetooth still happen to work? It is on the wifi cad.

The first thing you can do is try reseat the PCIe mini-card and disconnect and then reconnect the WLAN antenna.

Be very careful when removing the wifi antenna wire connectors to the card . They are extremely delicate and easily broken.

Use a plastic spudger tool to gently remove them from the card.

See the service videos at the following link for details.

https://h20574.www2.hp.com/results.htm?SID=5358989&MEID=5F10E4A0-69BF-4260-87E8-E4D6CFBCA8DE

See the attached Joshua motherboard image. I pointed out the location of the slot with a red rectangle around the word.

If there is not improvement after reseating the mini-card and the antenna conectors, then remove the card and antenna connections. 

Purchase a PCI x1 wifi adapter and insall it in one of the PCIe x 1 slots. They are mislabeled in the diagram as PCI Express x 16 slots.

Bestbuy has a nice 802.11ac  TP-Link wifi adapter. At $69.00 it is a bit pricey.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/tp-link-archer-t9e-ac1900-dual-band-pci-express-network-adapter-black/76...

ASUS USB-AC55 at NewEgg.com is the simple solution. All that is needed is an available USB port. It is  also 802.11ac.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320216

[Speedwagon01]

I wound up purchasing a USB Wi-fi adapter, which eliminated the issue. I believe the original adapter gave up the ghost. No wif only I could figure why my Network connection continues to time out. 🙂