Problems with RTL8821CE on wake and occasional boot

[fazzaan]

Hello!

I have a recurring issue with my WiFi chip. 

More often than not, waking my laptop from sleep results in the wifi chip being missing. It is not visible to the system at all; it is as if it isn't even in the laptop. Device Manager doesn't display it. Toggling aeroplane mode doesn't reactivate it.

To get it working again, I have to reboot the laptop. Sometimes even this doesn't work, and I have to power it off before booting it up again!

I currently have the latest available driver,  2024.0.8.103, from 27/03/2019.

The behaviour has been exactly the same across a few previous drivers.

I have wiped and refreshed the laptop using HP's recovery partition, and I have manually reinstalled each of the networking related drivers, as well as allowed HP's driver updater to do the same.

From my understanding, the issue is probably the hardware. However, the wifi functions flawlessly when the chip is working! Changing/reinstalling drivers doesn't seem to have done anything, but maybe there is a setting somewhere which can prevent this from happening.

My work depends on me having access to a computer every day, so I want to try to find a solution which is not returning my laptop to get fixed by HP. Rebooting occasionally is a smaller inconvenience than returning my laptop for a week!

I'm open to any suggestions!

Many thanks,
Farran

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, Farran:

The problem you are experiencing is widespread with that model wifi card.

Last month, Realtek released a driver update to that problematic wifi card to the Microsoft Update Catalog, and HP doesn't have it yet.

So the only suggestion I can offer would be to try the new driver Realtek released.

04/12/2019,   2024.0.9.101

I have zipped the file up and attached it below.

You will need to manually install it as follows...

Unzip the file to its folder.  Do not do anything with the files in the folder.

Go to the device manager.

Click to expand the Network Adapters device manager category.

Click on the Realtek 8821 wifi adapter listed there.

Click on the driver tab.  Click on Update Driver.

Select the Browse my computer for driver software option, and browse to the driver folder you unzipped.

Make sure the Include Subfolders box is checked, and the driver should install.

Then restart the PC.

[fazzaan]

Hi Paul!

Thank you for your suggestion and the driver!

Unfortunately this has not changed the situation at all.

I've installed the driver using the method you suggested, and when that didn't fix it, I tried entirely uninstalling the device (I also selected "Delete the driver software for this device") and then reinstalling the driver afresh.

In this event, I couldn't work out how to install the driver that you sent, because after uninstalling the device, Windows' Device Manager wasn't displaying the wifi device anywhere in its list.

Eventually Windows reinstalled the driver automatically, to a previous version presumably via Windows Update.

Now I've reinstalled the version that you sent, 2024.0.9.101. After putting my laptop to sleep twice, the wifi chip vanished again.

I don't know what else to do!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Sorry that driver caused those problems for you.

I guess you will have to live with the driver that Windows update installs.

Look at this link from time to time to see if Realtek releases any newer driver updates to the Microsoft catalog update site.

https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=%09Realtek+Semiconductor+Corp.+Net

I see that Realtek has released yet another driver update for their other problematic wifi card -- the RTL8822CE.  1st one at the top of the page.   04/25/2019,2024.0.8.106

Now, you can try this driver, because it also appears to have driver support for your model wifi card, but I don't know what the outcome will be.