Wipe is not an option, don鈥檛 read further if you plan on suggesting it.
I don鈥檛 necessarily think I鈥檒l get help here, but I love Lemmy and it constantly surprises me, so I鈥檒l shoot my shot.
The other day I downloaded and installed driver updates for my motherboard and then a BIOS update as well. I鈥檓 paranoid about stuff so even though I鈥檓 experienced with this stuff for the most part I still followed the instructions step by step to a T and made sure it was for my correct motherboard.
After rebooting my internet wasn鈥檛 working so I checked device manager and it was showing an error for my network adapter which along with other drivers was among the updates. So I tried various things with that for hours and never made any headway. Internet over bluetooth doesn鈥檛 seem to want to work or be detected, my phone won鈥檛 tether Internet over USB correctly either or it鈥檚 not being detected by the PC. So I ordered both a PCIe LAN card and a PCIe WiFi card. The lan card uses the same drivers apparently and so it鈥檚 just an additional error鈥檇 out Realtek Family Whatever Whatever; the Wi-Fi card doesn鈥檛 appear at all. Both the lans do light up during booting and in BIOS but shut down once Windows loads it鈥檚 drivers.
I鈥檝e rolled back my system as far as I can which unfortunately do to trying to many other things before the rollback I could only go back to installing one of the first drivers. I鈥檝e tried different drivers and different BIOS. I鈥檝e run SFC but it required Internet for some files, DISM requires Internet or a install image but I don鈥檛 have one and don鈥檛 have room on my phone to download one. I鈥檝e tried in safe mode and I鈥檝e probably tried 30 other things to no avail that escape my mind right now.
Any thoughts will be appreciated. Thanks for reading.
Check the Ethernet adapter model, download drivers directly from manufacturer site and see if that helps. Also possible that the BIOS update changed some settings required for the network adapter. It鈥檚 not uncommon for BIOS update to reset or add/remove options. Find out how to access the BIOS menu on your motherboard and take a look what settings are available. Typically motherboard manufacturer should have a manual/doc of somekind that outlines the options. Also could try redownloading the older BIOS update package again and revert to that, but I would suggest that only as the last option if nothing else helps. Also be careful with yje BIOS settings, some wrong settings there may prevent booting up the PC. Most BIOSes have a way to reset to defaults with a jumper or something similar, that would be good to check from that manual just in case as well.
So I鈥檝e actually tried just about every setting in BIOS and even installed the second most recent BIOS to try that, but I don鈥檛 know for sure what version I was on prior to try specifically it. Sadly the drivers offered on my mobo site are exactly the same as the ones on Realtek from my looking.
OK, based on the new network cards also not working, maybe it could be a PCIe configuration issue? I would check the BIOS again, look for PCIe related stuff like speed or compatibility mode and stuff like that. There could be an OS-support setting too that could cause similar issues. Otherwise maybe some of the Chipset drivers are not correct? Those are annoying to troubleshoot, Windows should revert to default drivers if you delete the currently used driver trough device manager. Good luck!
I鈥檒l check the chipset drivers as that鈥檚 one I updated. BIOS unfortunately has been gone over with a fine tooth comb.