HP Pavilion Notebook 15 only shows ethernet connection

[inadarkwood]

Logged into my HP Pavilion 15 Notebook, runninng Windows 8, and found all the wifi options had disappeared, it only gives me the option to connect via ethernet. Went into device manager, and at first it said, 'realtek rtl8723be 802.11 bgn wi-fi adapter device cannot start code 10. On restarts, this message appears instead,  under 'network controller', 'currently, the hardware device is not connected to the computer (code 45). I can't update the driver, as it keeps saying it is up to date, and no updates of any kind have occured since this problem appeared. Tried uninstalling the drivers and rebooting, but no change. For a brief moment after installing new drivers, wifi options appeared, but quickly disappeared. Please help me get this laptop working again. 

[DFWTechGuy]

Since the wifi adapter is showing code 10 and then code 45, Windows may not be detecting the wifi hardware properly. Since reinstalling the driver only made wifi appear briefly, try a full power reset first: shut the laptop down, unplug the charger, remove the battery if it's removable, hold the power button for about 15 seconds, then start it again.

If the adapter still shows code 45 afterward, the internal wifi card may be failing or not making proper contact. If you're comfortable opening the laptop, you could reseat the wifi card and its antenna connections.

[inadarkwood]

Thanks for your reply, DFWTechGuy. I just did a full power reset, and while it didn't restore wifi, it did make the 'network controller' throw a different code, which it hasn't done before. It's no longer saying code 45 or code 10, it now says, 'drivers for this device are not installed, code 28.' I clicked on update driver, but it couldn't find any to update it with. Now, to find the driver and put it on a USB stick, but I'm not sure which is the right one for my machine?

Thanks for your help!

[inadarkwood]

An update! The wifi has worked briefly for the first time, but after about 5 minutes or so it cuts out. If I reboot, it works again, but for 5 minutes again. I turned off any power saving options in the device manager for the wifi, and I'm now waiting for the laptop to have a full charge, just to rule that out.