AX211 - Cannot See Any Wireless Networks

[pengc99]

I have a Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon with the soldered-in AX211 WiFi 6E adapter. I am running Windows 10 x64 22H2.

When I first got the laptop it was great, WiFi was fast and worked as expected. After a few months, the WiFi card refused to show any wireless networks and I was unable to connect to any networks, resorting to an external USB WiFi adapter or a USB Ethernet connection. I had Lenovo come out and troubleshoot, and they diagnosed the logic board was bad and I had the logic board replaced under warranty.

Fast forward a few months from that repair, and I'm once again having issues with WiFi - the list shows no wireless networks available, but the device manager shows the card is enabled and is functioning properly. There is a single Error level entry in Windows Event Viewer:

Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX211 160MHz: The network adapter has returned an invalid value to the driver.

I was wondering if anyone else has seen intermittent issues with the AX211, or the sister card the AX210. There's a lot of chatter in the Linux side of things with issues initializing the AX210 card with some kernel bugs, but I don't think that applies my case because I'm running Windows 10. Just hoping someone could help me out before I send this laptop back to Lenovo again.

I've attached a copy of the output of the Intel SSU utility. In this run, I am running 22.190.0.4 version of the driver from Intel, but the situation does not change if I switch to the official Lenovo release from their support page. 

There are additional symptoms too when this the WiFi card is stuck in this state. The laptop never actually shuts down, the screen will go dark but the power light is still on and the fan is spinning. It does not respond to the power button in this state, and will sit here until the battery dies or until I press the reset button on the back of the laptop. On bootup, it takes a very long time to boot and once booted the audio and the Windows Hello camera do not work, in addition to a non-working WiFi adapter. I've tried everything, including reinstalling windows 10 with a fresh SSD with no effect and cannot get it working. 

[pengc99]

I should mention that I tried upgrading to windows 11 to see if it had any effect on the WiFi adapter. The fist time I upgraded to W11 the Wifi adapter appeared to work, so I downgraded back to W10 to reproduce the problem (successfully), then upgraded back to W11 to see if it fixed the problem. Unfortunately, the second time I upgraded to W11 it stayed broken. 

I noticed in the Event Log there are several errors listed with the WiFi adapter:

Device PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_51F0&SUBSYS_00908086&REV_01\3&11583659&0&A3 had a problem starting.

Driver Name: oem192.inf
Class Guid: {4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
Service: Netwtw12
Lower Filters:
Upper Filters: vwifibus
Problem: 0x0
Problem Status: 0xC00000E5

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello pengc99,  

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities. I am sorry to know that you are having issues with your Intel® Wi-Fi 6E AX211. 

In order to better assist you, please provide the following:  

1. Is this the original adapter that came pre-installed on your computer or did you change/install the adapter to this one?   

2. Is the Bluetooth working?  

3. Is the issue still present in Windows 11 (after the 2nd time you upgrade it)?

4. Did you try the driver from Lenovo?

5. Did you run all the Windows optional updates?

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[pengc99]

---

@DeividA_Intel wrote:

Hello pengc99,  

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities. I am sorry to know that you are having issues with your Intel® Wi-Fi 6E AX211. 

In order to better assist you, please provide the following:  

1. Is this the original adapter that came pre-installed on your computer or did you change/install the adapter to this one?   

2. Is the Bluetooth working?  

3. Is the issue still present in Windows 11 (after the 2nd time you upgrade it)?

4. Did you try the driver from Lenovo?

5. Did you run all the Windows optional updates?

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician 

---

1. This was the original adapter that came installed on the laptop. This is a Lenovo X1 Carbon, which has the WiFi card soldered to the board and is not removable.

2. Bluetooth works fine. I am using a Bluetooth mouse. 

3. Problem persists in Windows 11, even after an additional reformat and fresh install.

4. I did try the Lenovo driver AND Intel drivers with no success.

5. I did do all of the optional updates with no success. 

[Smooth]

Why does Intel only send us to the manufacturer?

Does Intel recognize that it is a driver issue? lenovo, samsung, etc.. The same manufacturers fail with the ax211 wireless LAN card.

I have the same error..

netwtw12, vwifibus, this is a terrible error.

Internet connection is lost, network is down when network load is started, or Wi-Fi is temporarily unavailable when computer is started

I understand that different computers can have different errors.

Why doesn't Intel fix this problem when the same error is posted on various computers??

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello pengc99, 

Thanks for your response. Based on the troubleshooting performed I recommend you try the following:

1. As a test, perform a clean install of the Intel driver:

• Steps: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000022173.html
• Driver: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/19351/windows-10-and-windows-11-wi-fi-drivers-for-intel-wireless-adapters.html

2. Try the "Recommended Settings for 802.11ax Connectivity":

• https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000057574/wireless.html

3. Check with Lenovo to confirm if there is any malfunction with the laptop.

Regards,   

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician

[pengc99]

Hi;

I have attempted the steps multiple times with fresh installs of Windows 10 and 11 and it still does not work. I have tried multiple versions of the driver with 22.220 (the linked on) being the most recent one tried. 

Since this has happened before with my laptop, Lenovo has offered to replace the logic board (again), but it is strange that this is the second time in a row this has happened to my X1's logic board, with the exact same symptoms with the exact same hardware (Intel AX211 network).

[3Fees]

Sorry to hear your having problems.

Windows 11 has native support for Wifi 6 and Wifi 6E , Wifi 6E requires Windows 11 and Wifi 6E router. *For connecting to 6Ghz Wi-Fi-6E band Microsoft Windows 11 and WiFi 6E router are required. Microsoft Windows 10 only support 2.4/5Ghz. AX211 is a tri-band Wifi card 2.4/5/6Ghz and it appears does play nice being throttled down. Get a wifi 6E router and see if you can save your investment, also use M$ 11.

I run  Wifi 6 AX201 and was using an a very good quality wifi ac router and it would barely connect, bought a wifi 6 router and not one problem since then,  connects up 2.4Gbps, running 1.2Gbps not an issue.

Also my ac equipment had no problems with the ac router, yet my ax laptop had serious issues, with wifi 6 router both ac and ax equipment has no issues.

AX Wifi 6 and 6E cards have many features in them that don't exist with AC-Wifi 5 routers, these features are in Wifi 6 and 6E routers.

Your all welcome in advance.

Cheers

3Fees

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello pengc99, 

Thanks for the confirmation. As 3Fees, make sure that your router is compatible and supports the 6GHz network.

Also, since Lenovo offered you a replacement for the board I would like to know if you want to continue with the support or if agree to close this thread.

I will be waiting for your confirmation.

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[pengc99]

I don't think it's my router or access point that is causing issues because it works perfectly for a few months and the stops out of nowhere. I also live in a dense urban environment where at any time there are at least a dozen networks visible in the WiFi list, whereas the problem right now is nothing at all is showing up in the WiFi list. No wifi 6/5/4 networks at all, which also makes it impossible to join any networks at all.

I haveny sent the laptop back for replacement yet, so I'd appreciate it if you could keep the thread open so if there's anyone else that needs me to gather logs or more information I can do so.

[pengc99]

Are there any debugging drivers with verbose logging to help chase down this problem?

[3Fees]

What does device manager show for this network adapter ? The device is working properly ? or giving you an error code ? is the network adapter even showing in device manager ?

The people that have hookups to the laptop or computer and test the functions is the factory that made the laptop, its the last test made before its boxed up and sent to distributors or retailers. Its possible a service company would have some facsimile of it yet not the complete testing suite. I'd stick with Lenovo tech.

FYI: the test suite is a computer station with wire leads and connectors all over the place, they connect all the connectors in to all sockets and plugs, usb, wifi, ect and type in make and model then basically test all the components including the lcd screen ect.

If this is a hardware issue with wifi only lenovo or a valid lenovo support specialist can fix this under warranty.

The only time I have seen where there is no list of wifi routers is when the wifi radio button is toggled off in windows itself.

Again, your all welcome in advance.

Cheers

3Fees

[3Fees]

What Intel chipset does this laptop have ?

Device Manager> Expand System devices> Look at Intel(R) LPC Controller (xxx)

Is that number in parenthesis 670 ? If not what number ?

Cheers

3Fees

[pengc99]

5182

In reply to your previous question, yes it just behaves like a hardware WiFi switch was toggled off. Nothing shows up at all, and I live in a dense urban environment where at any given time there are 20+ WiFi networks visible. No errors in the device manager, nothing disabled. WiFi...simply doesn't work. 

Lenovo has replaced this motherboard four times, most recently about two weeks ago. All of my other laptops work fine in this environment so I'm at a loss as to why it's not working. Debug driver with access to the symbols would be great.

[3Fees]

Press Windows Key + X on keyboard and select device manager.

In device manager click view and select "hidden devices" and see if your wifi  adapter shows up.

Next right click the top symbol and scan for hardware changes and see if the wifi adapter shows up.

Open control panel, select network and sharing center and select change adapter settings and see if the wifi adapter is in the window.

Cheers

3Fees

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello pengc99, 

Thanks for the confirmation. At this ponit, the only option would be to check with Lenovo so they can check and run tests on their machine to confirm if there is any malfuction with the adapter of the laptop.

Please keep in mind that this thread will no longer be monitored by Intel.  

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[TH3_5H4RK]

Hey, did you fix the issue?

I have a Lenovo Thinkpad T14S with a WIFI 6E AX211 160MHZ with the same probleme "No wifi network available" while its showing on device manager with no probleme.

I have problems while turning it on from the button but when I keep trying it finally works. I also try to update and re-update the drive until the wifi works or I disable and enable it multiple times.

[pengc99 · Accepted solution]

No, I never got this fixed. I had my logic board replaced six times under warranty and after the sixth time Lenovo just sent me a new laptop. The new laptop works as expected. Very frustrating that the root cause was never identified.