My Dell G15 running Windows 11 (OS build 26200.9168) has suddenly lost several hardware functions. The Wi-Fi icon and physical adapter are missing from Device Manager, while Ethernet and Bluetooth are listed but cannot connect. USB devices are not detected in Windows, and the battery indicator has disappeared. Only a hidden Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter remains.
I previously had a recurring Bluetooth problem that temporarily improved after reinstalling the BIOS, but I currently have no working network connection or USB access in Windows. Dell's pre-boot hardware diagnostics report no errors, and the BIOS shows that WLAN and Bluetooth are enabled. A USB stick is detected in the F12 boot menu, so the ports appear to work before Windows loads.
I have already tried loading BIOS defaults, performing a full power drain, resetting Winsock and TCP/IP, flushing DNS, running netcfg -d, repairing system files with SFC, uninstalling the latest quality update, using SupportAssist OS Recovery, and attempting Windows Reset with the option to keep my files. The reset reached about 80% before rolling back and failing. Startup Repair also fails, and there are no restore points available.
Is there another repair method I can try before doing a factory reset or clean installation? Ideally, I would like to preserve my personal files and avoid unnecessary data loss.
1 Answer
The fact that Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Bluetooth, USB, and the battery indicator disappeared together points more toward Windows losing its chipset or ACPI configuration than several independent hardware failures. The successful Dell pre-boot diagnostics also make a Windows-level problem more likely.
Since the USB stick appears in the F12 boot menu, the ports and firmware are probably working. On another computer, create a Windows 11 installation USB and boot from it. Choose the repair option first if you want to try WinRE tools, but if those do not help, you can start Windows Setup and choose a custom installation. Select the existing Windows partition, but do not format or delete it. Windows should move the previous installation, including the user folders, into a Windows.old folder. Your applications will need to be reinstalled, but personal files can usually be recovered from that backup folder.
Before proceeding, copy important files elsewhere if possible, because installation and partition changes always carry some risk. Also check Device Manager for warning icons under System devices; missing chipset or ACPI components there would further support this diagnosis.
There are no warning icons in Device Manager, although AMD SMBus and a Generic SCSI Enclosure Device appear as hidden entries. The USB stick is detected in the F12 menu, and I can choose either Windows 11 installation or repair. I wasn't sure which repair option would be useful because the available boot tools had not fixed the problem.