My win 8.1 laptop sees router but will not connect to it

[Eddie12345]

Can anyone help me please? I have just changed from ee to TalkTalk however my laptop wont connect to the router. It sees the wifi but when I click to connect it doesn't prompt me for a password it just does nothing. My laptop connects to other routers fine but not this one. All other devices in the house can connect to my router except this laptop. I have tried updating the wifi drivers and still nothing can anyone help please?

[Skynet_TX]

When you updated the Wi-Fi drivers did you install some specific driver you had downloaded, or did you just let windows find and install the drivers it thought were best. I've had issues in the past (not with network drivers, but with other drivers) where I had installed a new version from the vendors website, but windows was actually more stable with the older version of the drivers that were delivered by the windows update process.

Mind you, if you had the same issue with an external USB Wi-Fi adaptor, then maybe it is not a driver specific issue, as presumably that would have been shown as a different device with different drivers.

[KeithFrench]

So it has to be an issue with Windows 8 then. The only help I could offer from now on would be via Google searches that you have probably already done, as I have never had V8. I went from Windows 7 to Windows 10, as there was a lot of negative press at the time concerning that version.

[Eddie12345]

As it happens yes 🙂 Tried it and exactly the same 😞

[KeithFrench]

Do you have a spare USB WiFi adapter that you could try?

[Eddie12345]

Thanks Keith, I did do quite a bit of due diligence before putting a flag up here 🙂

That article was one I worked through. It's killing me this to think I've got super speed broadband now, but the only way I can access it from my main laptop is if I link my laptop to my phone first 😞

[KeithFrench]

Whilst I haven't had a chance to read this article, I did a quick Google search & came up with this:-

https://windowsreport.com/wi-fi-wont-ask-password-6-quick-solution-fix-problem/ 

[Eddie12345]

Away from the pc at the moment I work. Don't think there's an option to forget it's never logged onto it in the first place.

I'm sure I've looked in the past at doing that but its not an option. It sees the network as available but won't log on to it. 

[KeithFrench]

In that case, tell Windows to forget the network. That way it should force you to enter a password.

[Eddie12345]

It won't give me an option to enter a password at all. That's the problem. 

[KeithFrench]

There is nothing obvious there. I know this won't be the case, but I assume that you are using the correct wireless password?

Moving on from this I can only assume that either the driver being used is not correct for Windows 8, just because you connected to other routers, that may have been on the other WiFi band to the one that you are trying to connect to now, or there is too much WiFi interference on the band that you are trying to connect to at home. If you would like my help to identify levels of such interference, let me know.

[Eddie12345]

Thanks for trying to help out again Keith

No updates have been done to the laptop. I was happily using it to connect to my old ee router and several other wifi routers at work. I was never in the habit of updating windows anyway but I thought I would now to see if that made any difference and would help (its been years :D), but it didn't its still the same even after updating windows.

And I did as you said here

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]

(c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>netsh wlan show drivers

Interface name: Wi-Fi

    Driver                    : Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265

    Vendor                    : Intel Corporation

    Provider                  : Intel

    Date                      : 07/11/2019

    Version                   : 19.10.21.1

    INF file                  : C:\WINDOWS\INF\oem108.inf

    Files                     : 3 total

                                C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\Netwbw04.sys

                                C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\Netwfw04.dat

                                C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\vwifibus.sys

    Type                      : Native Wi-Fi Driver

    Radio types supported     : 802.11b 802.11g 802.11n 802.11a 802.11ac

    FIPS 140-2 mode supported : Yes

    802.11w Management Frame Protection supported : Yes

    Hosted network supported  : Yes

    Authentication and cipher supported in infrastructure mode:

                                Open            None

                                Open            WEP-40bit

                                Open            WEP-104bit

                                Open            WEP

                                WPA-Enterprise  TKIP

                                WPA-Enterprise  CCMP

                                WPA-Personal    TKIP

                                WPA-Personal    CCMP

                                WPA2-Enterprise TKIP

                                WPA2-Enterprise CCMP

                                WPA2-Personal   TKIP

                                WPA2-Personal   CCMP

                                Open            Vendor defined

                                Vendor defined  Vendor defined

    Authentication and cipher supported in ad-hoc mode:

                                Open            None

                                Open            WEP-40bit

                                Open            WEP-104bit

                                Open            WEP

                                WPA2-Personal   CCMP

    IHV service present       : Yes

    IHV adapter OUI           : [00 80 86], type: [00]

    IHV extensibility DLL path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\IWMSSvc.dll

    IHV UI extensibility ClSID: {1bf6cb2d-2ae0-4879-a7aa-a75834fbd0e3}

    IHV diagnostics CLSID     : {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}

[KeithFrench]

Have there been any updates on your PC lately? 

Please open a command prompt window by going to:-

Start > Accessories > Command Prompt

Please enter this command, pressing enter after each one and wait for the response. Then copy and paste the output into your reply.

netsh wlan show drivers

Then I will be able to see both the driver information & the WiFi chipset of the card.

Thanks.

[Eddie12345]

Looked in the windows event log and it's not pulling up anything unfortunately. I've tried clicking it while the log is open as well to see if anything new shows and it doesn't. I can't understand why every other device in the house will connect but not this one. I had no issues with my last ee router with this laptop and it connects via my phone as a hotspot as well no issues. But I can't keep relying on my phone as a wifi hot spot 😞

[Eddie12345]

OK thanks agafor your help Skynet

And  will look at that when I get a chance. It will contect via phone as a hot-spot though, it doesn't crash then. Will check and update.

[Skynet_TX]

From that video it looks like Windows Explorer might be crashing and restarting, as it redraws all of the icons on the taskbar when you try to join the network. Are you able to look in the windows event log to see if there is any error in there that might help narrow down the cause.

[Eddie12345]

Thanks for taking the time to come on board and help out with a possible solution Keith. As I appreciate everyone else's input as well.

Work has been so manic at the moment I have been struggling to get onto trying to resolve this so my updates and input here has been a bit slow and limited.

To answer those questions about the router and wireless adapter in the device.

I have an i7 machine running windows 8.1 a Lenovo ThinkPad yoga. The wireless adapter in this machine is an Intel (R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265.

As for the router itself its a DG8041W-2.T5

This shows what happens when I try to connect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzHL_vv6yBs

[KeithFrench]

@Michelle-TalkTalk has asked me to help you. What make/model of router are you using as well as the make/model of WiFi card in the pc? 

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Hi,

@KeithFrench - Would you be able to offer any additional assistance please?

Thanks

[Eddie12345]

The router just will not prompt me for a password even though it sees a full WiFi signal connection. 

[Eddie12345]

I haven't resolved this yet due to extended work commitments and this maybe the case again tonight.

I do need to get this resolved and won't go away and will update here as soon as I do.

I did have a quick look at splitting the channels last night but I could not see an option to rename the two just the main channel in general. I will get back to this as soon as I can.

All other laptops can connect to it except this windows 8.1 machine and as its my main laptop its very frustrating. I can connect to the Internet via my phone as a hot spot but this is less than ideal as I don't want to go through my phone everytime I connect to the Internet.

Will be back to resolve this.