accidentally deleted realtek wi fi adapter

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Your device manager shows no problems.

I would have to say the wireless network adapter has died on you.

It shouldn't have been working one day and disappeared the next.

[autumnrstarr]

So, even if I somehow got my computer restored back to factory settings with Windows 7 or 8, it still would not have the wireless adapter on it, correct?  Plus, I upgraded to Windows 10 more than 6 months ago so I assume it automatically deleted any previous OS.  I've never had this happen before.  Grrr.  My only option is to buy an external USB wi-fi adapter?  Do I need a specific one, or does any kind work?  And once I do get one, I just plug it in, and I should be able to get my wi-fi back?  And this would ultimately allow my router to produce wifi to all of my other devices, i.e. firestick, mobile devices, and a smart tv?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

The only way you can get the original operating system back, would be to order a set of recovery disks from HP.

There is no guarantee that bringing the PC back to the original operating system will restore the wireless.

It may, it may not.  The only reason why it would restore the wireless card would be due to some major corruption that happened in the W10 operating system, that would have caused the wireless hardware to completely disappear as if it wasn't even present.

You can order W8 recovery media from the link below.

http://support.hp.com/us-en/mediaorder/HP-Pavilion-20-b000-All-in-One-Desktop-PC-series/5295901/mode...

You can buy pretty much buy any USB wireless network adapter you want. 

It will do whatever the original wireless card did.

Do some online web surfing and read the reviews on models you are interested in getting.

You may want to get a dual band wireless network adapter which works on both the 2.4 and 5.0 GHz wireless bands.

5.0 Ghz will normally give you less interference and faster connection rates than on th 2.4 GHz band.

[autumnrstarr]

The router was working BEFORE I started messing around with the computer trying to figure out how to fix the issue, I ended up unplugging everything and restarting it all and nothing works on wifi now.  Mobile devices will connect to it, but when it asks to Sign-In for the password, it never loads so it doesn't give any internet access.  It's a good possibility I may be creating a new thread regarding this once I do get the external adapter.  Thank you so much for responding promptly and helping me figure this out!! Hopefully I have no further issues after getting the external adapter. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

For now, I can tell you that the wireless quit working because the adapter is missing from the hardware list for one reason or another.  Probably hardware failure.