My phone and laptop connect to the Wi‑Fi normally, but my desktop PC suddenly stopped connecting. It was working earlier today, and the only change I can think of is that I moved the tower. I've already restarted the router and PC, uninstalled and reinstalled the Wi‑Fi driver, and run the network troubleshooter. Sometimes Windows says there are no available networks; other times it only shows my network and a hidden network. What should I check next?
3 Answers
Power-cycle everything in order: turn off the PC and other connected devices, unplug the router for about two minutes, plug the router back in and wait until it is fully online, then start the PC. If the PC still cannot see networks, test it close to the router or connect by Ethernet if possible. That will help determine whether the problem is signal-related or specific to the wireless adapter.
Since the tower was moved, start with the physical connection. Make sure the Wi‑Fi antennas are firmly attached to the back of the PC and that the adapter or USB Wi‑Fi device hasn’t been knocked loose. If the PC uses internal Wi‑Fi, try repositioning the antennas and restarting it.
The missing-network behavior could be caused by the adapter being disabled or by a driver issue. In Device Manager, check the network adapter for a warning icon, then disable and re-enable it. You can also open the adapter’s properties and confirm that it is set to use both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks if those options are available.
Also check whether Airplane mode or a physical Wi‑Fi switch was accidentally enabled. A full shutdown, followed by unplugging the PC for a minute, can sometimes reset a wireless adapter that is stuck.