RealTek RTL8821CE Wifi - no networks found

[Annoyed1Now]

Bought my daughter a laptop in August for senior school. She loves it but we've had repeated issues with the wifi not detecting any networks. Definitely not in Airplane mode or disabled. It just seems unable to find any networks and connect.

We've got it back by either rebooting, runnning the troubleshooter to reset things or else more recently deleting the adaptor from Device manager and then re-installing.

The adaptor (Realtek RTL8821CE) seems to be visible in Device manager and reports as working correcly but clearly  isn't.

Its getting to be a pain particularly with home schooling due to COVID. so there is some urgency to get this sorted.

the current driver is version 2024.0.10.220 dated 05/10/2020.. I've run both Windows Updates and HP updates and it's all up to date.

I have found some posts in this community which have directed me to drivers for the laptop but they seem to be older than currently installed.

Please can anyone help as it's causing my daughter to get upset when she can't connect to do he school work.

[Echo_Lake]

@Annoyed1Now

Thank you for posting on HP Support Community.
 

Don't worry as I'll be glad to help, I have a few troubleshooting steps we could try to fix the issue:  

1. In Windows, search for and open Device Manager.

2. Select Device Manager in the menu.

3. Double-click Network adapters.

4. Right-click the name of your wireless network adapter, and then select Uninstall.

5. When the Confirm Device Uninstall screen displays, click OK and then wait for the device to be uninstalled.

   The name of the wireless adapter no longer appears in the network adapters category when it has been uninstalled.

6. At the top of the Device Manager window, click Action, and then select Scan for hardware changes.

   The computer reinstalls wireless network and the wireless network adapter name displays in the Network adapters category.

7. After the network adapter name displays in Device Manager, close Device Manager, and then restart the computer.

8. Try connecting to the Internet again. 

Hope this helps! Keep me posted for further assistance.
Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.

[Annoyed1Now]

I've already tried your suggestion but I've since been using a wired connection so haven't managed to prove if it has sorted it.

Can you please confirm the correct driver to use and if there is an updated driver. when I go to the driver page for my model it actually  lists and older driver than the one currently installed.

As I said before the current driver is version 2024.0.10.220 dated 05/10/2020.

[MetteMM]

Well, I got it fixed. I updated the BIOS on the laptop, and after that it worked. Whether the BIOS did the trick, or it is because the laptop performs a deeper restart to do this I don´t know. I am just happy that it works.

[PG_BOS]

Any steps to update BIOS?

[Echo_Lake]

@Annoyed1Now

Thank you for posting back.

I would request you to contact our Support and our Support Engineers should be able to Remote into your computer and sort this out. HP Support can be reached by clicking on the following link: www.hp.com/contacthp/

Just to make sure, I will keep this case open for a day and check with you after 48 hours.