Hi, I'm having a really strange Wi-Fi problem on my desktop and I'm running out of ideas.
My Wi-Fi suddenly disappeared after a Windows update. There is now no Wi-Fi option at all in Windows Settings, and my Wi-Fi USB adapter doesn't appear under Network Adapters in Device Manager.
My PC:
- Motherboard: MSI PRO H610M-G DDR4 (MS-7D46)
- CPU: Intel i5-12400F
- Windows 11
- Wi-Fi is NOT built into the motherboard – I use a USB Wi-Fi adapter.
The Wi-Fi adapter:
It's a USB AC1300 dual-band adapter with Bluetooth 5.0 and two flip-up antennas. It says "2.5G and 5G" on it.
I tested the exact same adapter on another laptop and it works perfectly, so the adapter itself isn't dead.
On the working laptop, Device Manager identifies the Wi-Fi adapter as:
Realtek 8822BU Wireless LAN 802.11ac USB NIC
Hardware IDs:
"USB\VID_0BDA&PID_B82C&REV_0210&MI_02"
"USB\VID_0BDA&PID_B82C&MI_02"
The strange part is that on my desktop, Bluetooth from the same USB adapter works. If I unplug the adapter, the Bluetooth device disappears from Device Manager; when I plug it back in, it returns as:
Realtek Bluetooth 4.0 Adapter
However, the Wi-Fi portion never appears.
What I've tried:
- Restarting Windows multiple times
- Unplugging/replugging the adapter
- Trying different USB ports
- Checking Device Manager
- Enabling "Show hidden devices"
- Checking Network Adapters
- Checking Bluetooth
- Checking Other Devices
- Checking USB controllers
- Windows network troubleshooting
- Windows Network Reset
- Full network reset
- Installing/reinstalling the Realtek driver
- Scanning for hardware changes in Device Manager
- "pnputil /scan-devices"
- "pnputil /enum-devices /problem /deviceids"
- Installing the Realtek 8822BU driver package manually from Microsoft Update Catalog
I downloaded the current Microsoft driver package for Realtek 8822BU (1030.52.1216.2025) and extracted/installed it with:
"pnputil /add-driver C:\8822BU\*.inf /install"
It reported:
"Driver package added successfully. (Already exists in the system)"
So Windows now definitely has the driver package installed.
I then scanned for devices again, but the Wi-Fi adapter still didn't appear.
I also checked for problem devices with:
"pnputil /enum-devices /problem /deviceids"
and it returned no devices.
The only part of the USB adapter Windows seems to enumerate is the Bluetooth interface. The Wi-Fi interface ("MI_02") isn't showing up at all.
I've also checked BIOS, but my motherboard doesn't have built-in Wi-Fi anyway.
What I'm trying to figure out:
Why would Windows detect the Bluetooth portion of the USB adapter but completely fail to enumerate the Wi-Fi portion, even though:
The adapter works perfectly on another laptop.
Windows has the correct Realtek 8822BU driver installed.
There are no problem devices showing in Device Manager.
Scanning for new hardware doesn't make the Wi-Fi interface appear.
Is there anything else I can check to force Windows to enumerate the Wi-Fi interface?
I'd really rather avoid doing a full Windows reset if possible.
Any help would be massively appreciated because I've been troubleshooting this for ages.