Wireless Capability is Turned Off, Wi-Fi On/OFF button Greyed Out

[sandeeptalan]

Hello,

I have been facing this issue for a a long time.

On Network Diagnosis, It is giving this error :

Wireless capability is turned off

I did not have any hardware button that can Turn Off/On wifi device on my keyboard, see below image for example :

I never turned off the wifi physcal device directly or from BIOS.

Tried the "f12" Airplane Mode also, that also didn't help.

Anyways I have tried following things till now, nothing helped :

1) Reseting the HP BIOS using HP Usb Disk

2) Updating the Broadcom wireless drivers using HP Support Assistent

3) Re-installing the Broadcom Drivers

4) Installing the Realtek Drivers

5) Restroing the complete Windows 8.1 from recovery Disk.

6) Installed Linux (Ubuntu/Fedora), but in that also wi-fi is not showing.

Please guide me what can be the possible cause for this problem.

[doughjohn]

Hi

Normally Linux will connect to an ethernet automatically and perhaps a Wi-Fi, but the usual thing is to search out the Wi-Fi drivers and install them.

So if you have tried the hardware in more than 1 OS with the best drivers available then it suggests the hardware has failed.

I suggest trying this simple batch file in the hope it will show a defect somewhere, and perhaps the Flow Chart.

If in doubt please ask.

:: NetFix.bat, Copy, Paste and Save As
:: using a text editor like Notepad.
:: You can edit the file to your needs.
:: EG-Removing the :: in front of
:: ::ipconfig -all >> IPs.txt to create
:: a text file called IPs.txt to study.
@ECHO THIS MIGHT HELP TO REPAIR/RECTIFY
@ECHO SOME SIMPLE NETWORK DIFFICULTIES.
@ECHO NetFix.bat, based on work by
@ECHO Kevin Arrows, Jim Eshelman et al.
@ECHO ....................................
@ECHO.
@ECHO THE RESULTS MAY VARY ACCORDING TO
@ECHO YOUR CONFIGURATION AND USER LEVEL
@ECHO A RESTART SHOULD BE MADE AFTER
@ECHO THE RUNNING OF THE ABOVE TESTS
@ECHO ....................................
:MENU
@ECHO.
@ECHO ....................................
@ECHO.
@ECHO TYPE IN THE RELEVANT MENU NUMBER
@ECHO.
@ECHO ....................................
@ECHO.
@ECHO 0 - GET_MAC Obtain MAC address(es)
@ECHO 1 - GET_IPs Lists all IP addresses
@ECHO 2 - ADDRESS Force/Renew IP address
@ECHO 3 - DNS_FIX Flush and Register DNS
@ECHO 4 - WINSOCK Reset to remove errors
@ECHO 5 - IPV4_V6 Reset to remove errors
@ECHO 6 - PING_LO Ping tests to Loopback
@ECHO 7 - NETSTAT All Network Statistics
@ECHO 8 - SYS_SUM System Summary Windows
@ECHO 9 - EXITNOW Close this Command Box
@ECHO.
@ECHO ....................................
@ECHO OFF
COLOR F1
SET /P M= Choose from 0 - 9, then press ENTER:
IF %M%==0 GOTO GET_MAC
IF %M%==1 GOTO GET_IPs
IF %M%==2 GOTO ADDRESS
IF %M%==3 GOTO DNS_FIX
IF %M%==4 GOTO WINSOCK
IF %M%==5 GOTO IPV4_V6
IF %M%==6 GOTO PING_LO
IF %M%==7 GOTO NETSTAT
IF %M%==8 GOTO SYS_SUM
IF %M%==9 GOTO EXITNOW
::
:GET_MAC
getmac | more /c
:: getmac >> GetMac.txt
:: Notepad GetMac.txt
GOTO MENU
::
:GET_IPs
ipconfig -all | more /c
:: ipconfig -all >> IPs.txt
:: Notepad IPs.txt
GOTO MENU
::
:ADDRESS
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
GOTO MENU
::
:DNS_FIX
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /registerdns
GOTO MENU
::
:WINSOCK
netsh winsock reset catalog
GOTO MENU
::
:IPV4_V6
netsh int ipv4 reset reset.log
netsh int ipv6 reset reset.log
GOTO MENU
::
:PING_LO
ping LOOPBACK
GOTO MENU
::
:NETSTAT
nbtstat -RR
netstat -e -r -s | more /c
:: netstat -e -r -s >> NetStat.txt
:: Notepad NetStat.txt
GOTO MENU
::
:SYS_SUM
msinfo32
GOTO MENU
::
:EXITNOW
EXIT

[sandeeptalan · Accepted solution]

The issue seems to be with my wifi hardware chip. 

Eventualy I had to take the laptop to Service Center. The guy tried everything that I did again.

Finally the problem is resolved, he plugged out the wifi hardware chip, cleand its both ends a little bit using a eraser, and inserted again and voila, it got detected. He said it could be the issue of carbon lodged on chip's connecting ends.

Since then I have faced same issue several times, and All I do is open my laptop, plug out WiFi chip from motherboard, clean it a little and plug it again.

And It starts working like a charm.

May be it is loose or I don't know what is the exact problem.

But it still has a problem with Antenna, I recieve very low signal from my wifi, even I am within decent range of wifi router.

[sandeeptalan]

Thanks for your reply 🙂 , but my issue was hardware related.

Please check my reply.