Fix Surface Laptop 3 Wi-Fi Issue
There are numerous Surface Laptop 3 owners reporting an issue where wifi options just disappear from the screen. If you are a Surface Laptop 3 owner and your Wi-Fi options go “missing”, today’s post will explain how to fix the issue.
The missing Wi-Fi issue appears to be for owners of Surface Laptop 3 machines with Intel Processors. When the issue happens, the laptop owner no longer see an option to select for Wi-Fi.
What User Sees During Issue
One of the 1st things you will notice, when you click on the network connection in the lower right corner, there is NO option showing for Wi-Fi.
At this point you go to Device Manager. To access Device Manager, go to the search box (on the lower left) type Device Manager and select it when it appears. This will open the Device Manager window, where you will find a yellow triangle next to the Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160Mhz driver. That is what controls your wifi.
When you double-click the driver, you will find that it says The Device Cannot Start (Error Code 10). Rebooting, disabling, and reenabling nothing seems to fix the issue.
How To Fix Missing Wi-Fi Connection Issue
The fix to this issue has 2 versions. In both versions, make sure you save/close any open programs or documents as your machine will be rebooting.
- Version 1
Select Start -> Power -> Shutdown. Let your machine completely power off, then wait 10 seconds (or more). Now turn your device back on by pressing and holding the power button until the logo screen appears, disappears, and then reappears.
Version 1 comes from Microsoft as an official process to correct the issue. However, we have come across a few Surface Laptop 3 machines, where holding the power button during boot does not show the logo as described. That is where version 2 comes in
- Version 2
This version involves not doing a proper shutdown. For this version, just hold the power button until the device turns off. Once it’s off, keep holding the power button until the device turns on again. Once it’s on, keep holding the power button until the device turns off for a 2nd time. In total this was about 2 minutes. After the device turns off a 2nd time, let go of the power button, give your device 1 minute, and then turn on the device normally.
Final Thought
Microsoft lists this issue in the Surface Laptop 3 Update History.
And we have had this issue happen on a Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 running Windows 10 in December of 2021. This has also happened to a Surface Laptop 3 running Windows 11 in January of 2022. Both machines had all Windows updates installed, and the latest drivers. Hopefully, Microsoft will correct this with an upcoming driver release.
Source
- Microsoft – Surface Laptop 3 Update History
