I got an MSI laptop (MS-6891) and I have a weird problem with my wireless connection.
I don't know why, but I can't see and connect to wireless routers.
The funny thing is that the wireless "mode" is on. I mean, the green light is working.
I tried installing new drivers but nothing is working.
The wireless works if I use a wireless USB stick.
What can I do to make sure this is not a software problem?
6 Answers
sometimes the wireless radio may be disabled by power management settings on your laptop.
Go to the Power Options for your device and change the settings there so the wireless adapter won't be disabled by low battery triggers or power save profiles.
- Because a wireless USB is working and your wireless network adapter is not, I suggest to uninstall the driver for the internal adapter, go to MSI website and download the 'MSI Live update 5' utility. download and Run it and let it scan your hardware. It will show you any out of date and missing drivers and bios. If you uninstall, it will detect and offer it for download&install.
I have a MSI mobo and utilize this utility once a month just to check my versions. I always recommend getting drivers from the manufacturer (you may have, you didn't note it) as they are specific to the hardware you have from that manufacturer.
2What can I do to make sure this is not a software problem?
You can check the functionality of the WiFi adapter (or other hardware) in a different operating system. Probably most convenient is to use a Live OS from a bootable USB flash drive.
Linux is a suitable OS as it supports a lot of hardware. For the USB flash creation with a wide choice of Linux distributions you can use UNetbootin. Practical Linux distribution for this use could be Ubuntu as it is easy to use, is frequently updated and has a wide user base.
Hi I had a similar issue and I'll tell you how I fixed it.
I was on steam and tried downloading a patch for a game. It wouldn't connect to the steam server. My wifi was working fine at this point. I decided to restart the computer, and see if that made a difference. If did... I couldn't see any networks on my wifi when it came back on. There were no windows updates or anything like that.
This issue keep on happening the next day. I looked at downloading the Live Update 6 from the msi website. That didn't work in windows 8.1. I didn't try that hard to get that working to be honest. I just moved on..
I then went into "system" then "Devices" then disabled the wifi device and re-enabled it and it started to work again. I assume the power switched off, and it never got the message to turn on again.
Hope that is all it is.
2Try the following keys: Press Fn+F8 keys several times. It worked for me. I am using MSI CR720 notebook.
This is a typical problem with intel wifi adapter on MSI laptors, specially with ubuntu. You can run the following commands to get it fixed :
sudo modprobe -r iwlwifi
sudo modprobe iwlwifi 11n_disable=1
sudo service network-manager restartNEVER, EVER BUY MSI LAPTOP. IT'S NOT A GAMING LAPTOP - IT'S THE OPPOSITE.
I have the same problem with MSI GS65 on Windows 10 and Ubuntu 20.04. I discovered that when the computer is a little bit hotter than the regular idle computation - it drastically rise the possibility of wifi hardware disable. Then the only solution is to reset the computer and wait to cool.
The problem is persistent especially when I play games. Bluetooth also fails, so don't be surprised if your wireless headphones also crashes.
The problem is Intel's Killer Wifi card which is probably very low quality. Also cooling and designing the laptop case is very poor. If you design a thin laptop you need to do it very carefully. MSI just puts stuff into the case, without any care.
I think that MSI should face some legal issues, because this problem is very common and they are very aware of that: the new firmware for CPU fan is re-calibrated to work on moderate speed all the time (so it is quite loud and annoying) but it at least reduces a bit probability of wifi failure while using Chrome. However it won't help at all while gaming.
