HP dv6-6c10us Broadcom 802.11n wireless adapter not working after windows 10 installed

[gb85]

I have an HP dv6-6c10us laptop with a Broadcom 802.11n wireless adapter.  It worked fine on Win 7.  When I upgraded to Win 10, it stopped working.  The driver has not been updated since 6/2/13.

Until the driver gets updated by Broadcom or HP, this computer is now a desktop.

Any suggestions on how to get the wireless adapter doing under Windows 10?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

The only suggestion I can offer would be to install the latest W8.1 driver for that card (if you have the BCM 4313), and see if it works.

HP doesn't have a W10 driver because Broadcom never released one for the BCM 4313, and I doubt they ever will at this point.

6.30.223.267 Rev.A (17 Sep 2015)

This package contains the Broadcom Wireless LAN Drivers that are required to enable the integrated Broadcom Wireless LAN Adapter in supported notebooks that are running a supported operating system.

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp72501-73000/sp72931.exe

Looking at the driver setup information file, it should work on any BCM 4313 with the following hardware ID's:

%BCM4313NG_DeviceDesc% = BCM43XNG2022_NT62, PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4727&SUBSYS_145C103C
%BCM4313NG_DeviceDesc% = BCM43XNG2022_NT62, PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4727&SUBSYS_1483103C
%BCM4313NG_DeviceDesc% = BCM43XNG2022_NT62, PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4727&SUBSYS_1795103C

[gb85]

I ran the sp72931.exe and it updated the driver to 6.30.223.267 but it didn't solve the problem.  The Device Manager, network adapter, Broadcom... says the device is working properly, but the wireless status indicatore in the lower right side of the display either indicates an error condition that the troubleshooter can't solveor is puts the adapter into Airplane Mode.  Same results as before.

[gb85]

The .267 driver didn't work.  However, I reinstalled Win 10 from scratch (from Microsoft, not from the HP recovery partition), and the wireless adapter started working.  I downloaded the Win 10 critical updates during the installation fine, powered down and up, and loaded some other software just fine.  Then the outstanding Win 10 automatic updates got downloaded and installed, and the wireless adapter stopped working.  So, something in the WIn 10 updates is causing the problem.   What can I do now?

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

I recommend you go back and do a system restore to a point before the automatic updates started installing, and where the wireless was working.

Then download this tool, which stops the updates from automatically installing.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3073930

Hide all of them, and then install them one by one until you find the one that is wrecking the wireless connection.

When you find the culprit just hide it again and it won't install.

You may want to do create a system restore point each time you install an update.

Tedious, but it should get you to where you want to be.

[gb85]

Thanks for this explanation on how to weed out a bad update.

Now for the slightly embarrassing conclusion.  I ran the troubleshooter, and instead of pointing to the wireless adapter, it pointed to the router.  There is nothing wrong with the router, so I tried the lowest possible low-tech solution and moved the computer closer to the router.  It worked fine.  I think the reinstall of Win 10 cured the problem, since it was working after that before it stopped.  Who knows why it couldn't make the connection to the router, but after it got the connection it held it when I took the computer back to the original location.

Anyway, thanks for you quick responses and the excellent suggestions.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Glad you were able to sort it out.

Very odd things have been happening with W10 on older PC's, and you have to be real creative to figure out how to get things to work.

I'm very surprised the audio works for you.  Most folks lose the Beats audio when upgrading to W10.

You may want to try that newer BCM driver I posted, but create a restore point first in case it doesn't work.

Or better still...if it ain't broke, don't fix it.