Brand new ZBook: No WiFi networks when installing Windows 11

[DannyB07]

Hello Community,

I have a brand new ZBook Firefly 14 G11A which was delivered with FreeDOS. I am trying to install a fresh copy of Window 11 23H2 (May 2024 Update) which requires network access. However, during install, the WiFi is not showing any available networks. On my other laptop, I can see around a dozen secure and public networks plus my mobile hotspot.

I ordered the laptop to have both Wifi and SIM (WLAN and WWAN) capabiliy and I have checked the BIOS and both appear to be enabled. I have tried to use a SIM to perform the install but it is also not detected during Windows 11 installation. I can confirm that the SIM does work in my other laptop.

I have tried to bypass the network requirement so that I can install a local user (https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/all/set-up-windows-11-without-internet-oobebypassn...) but my keyboard is non-responsive at the command prompt. However, my keyboard DID work when typing the diskpart commands to configure the hard disk prior to installing the operating system.

The steps to bypass the network requirement does work on my other ZBook (Studio x360 G5) and I am able to install a fresh copy of Windows 11 23H2 (as above). 

Given the outocme of the above steps, this problem seems to be an issue that occurs while installing Windows 11 on the Firefly G11A.

Can anyone please advise me what I can do next?

Thanks in advance.

DannyB07

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

The only suggestion I can offer would be to either use a USB desktop keyboard to execute the command prompt to bypass the W11 setup internet requirement or use a USB Wi-Fi adapter that has native support for W11, so that the USB Wi-Fi drivers are automatically installed, and you can continue on with the setup process.

Once you can get into Windows, you can install the drivers you need.

[DannyB07 · Accepted solution]

I've been running Windows 11 (23H2) successfully for nearly two months now and I thought I should share the steps I followed in case anyone is interested.

I considered using USB keyboard and mouse (thanks @Paul_Tikkanen) but during my investigation I found other forums where members had a similar problem to mine and still could not connect with a USB keyboard during install (e.g. https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/cannot-setup-windows-11-due-to-network-keyboar...).

So I found articles on how to create a custom Windows 11 ISO with the required drivers

I used:

1. A seperate Windows laptop
2. A Windows 11 ISO image. I already had one but I believe it can be downloaded from this page (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11/)
3. The Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit. Download link is on the following page (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/get-started/adk-install)
4. The Firefly G11A device drivers from support.hp.com
   To include Firefly G11A drivers to win11 ISO image, I followed these intstructions (https://woshub.com/integrate-drivers-to-windows-install-media/)
5. I copied the resultant files to a dual-sided DVD (the total size of the ISO came to over 7.5GB). I was able to boot from the DVD, bypass the network requirement to install a local user (link to seperate instructions in original post) and install Windows 11 23H2.

I hope this helps anyone in a similar position. I wouldn't say it was very easy but I managed to do it all in one go without mistakes.

Good luck