Laptop can't see the wireless adapter

[Epic Fail]

My lenovo x61 laptop suddenly stopped recognizing the wireless adapter, didn't install any update only a wake up from sleep mode. I know there is a hardware control to turn the adapter on/off and it's still in the on position.

How likely is it a hardware failure or is there a possible driver issue?

 

[Jeff7181]

Open up your network connections and disable the wireless adapter. Give it a few seconds to fully disable, then enable it.

 

[Epic Fail]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
Open up your network connections and disable the wireless adapter. Give it a few seconds to fully disable, then enable it.

It's not there anymore and it's not listed in the network adapter in device manager.

 

[Jeff7181]

Turn the switch off, reboot the computer, turn the switch back on.

 

[Epic Fail]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
Turn the switch off, reboot the computer, turn the switch back on.

That did the trick, thanks!

What's the reason behind this?

 

[Jeff7181]

Couldn't tell ya... it used to happen to my R61 every now and then. Now the only problem I have is that it won't reconnect to the router every now and then. Broadcasting the SSID on the router helped that problem for the most part. Once or twice a month it can't find the access point after resuming from sleep, but usually works fine.

 

[Epic Fail]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
Couldn't tell ya... it used to happen to my R61 every now and then. Now the only problem I have is that it won't reconnect to the router every now and then. Broadcasting the SSID on the router helped that problem for the most part. Once or twice a month it can't find the access point after resuming from sleep, but usually works fine.

Yup, about once a month I have the same problem of not being able to connect after a resume from sleep, but this is the first time the adapter disappeared all together and a reboot didn't help.