Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX210 160MHz -- no Wi-Fi or Bluetooth

[Makuta__Xarath]

Bought it a few days ago for my Windows 10 PC (MSI X570-A Pro motherboard, AMD Ryzen 9 5900X CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 TI GPU, 4x 32GB G.SKILL DDR4 RAM). Arrived in the mail, installed it, downloaded and installed drivers, worked great. Finished what I needed to do on the PC for the day, shut down, went to bed.

Next day, hop on the PC to do some browsing, only to be met with no internet connection. I expanded the dialogue box only to see that the wi-fi card couldn't detect any wi-fi network. I made sure the networks were actually working on my other devices, and, sure enough, they were. So it's an issue with the card. Opened up device manager, opened up the menu for the card, checked events, and sure enough the device says it can't start. Good thing I was using ethernet before and the RJ cable is still routed.

Why would it work one day, then stop working the next? If anyone knows a way to fix this thing, please let me know. Otherwise I will be returning it for a full refund.

Also, see the attached screenshots for the necessary error code info.

[Makuta__Xarath]

Also, I forgot to mention, never had an option for bluetooth, either from the dialogue box for internet connection on the taskbar, or in settings.

[n_scott_pearson · Accepted solution]

I have seen many reports of this issue occurring over the past couple of years. I can only guess that Windows installed some sort of update that affected the part's operation.

What I suggest you try first is power cycling your machine (i.e., shutdown, unplug from A/C, press and hold power button for a few seconds to drain residual power, plug back into A/C, power on and test.

If this doesn't work, then I would next suggest that you do a clean install of the drivers. Here is my process for doing so:

1. If you haven't already, download - but do not install just yet - the latest Bluetooth and Wireless driver packages for your adapter. Here are the current links for downloading these drivers: Wireless: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/19351 and Bluetooth: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/18649.
2. Most important! Disable Internet access. Unplug Ethernet cable and/or disable wireless. Keep disabled until told to re-enable. Note: This Wireless disable *must* be of type that will persist (i.e. stay disabled) across reboots.
3. From the Apps & Features applet, check for instances of Intel PROSet/Wireless Software and Intel Wireless Bluetooth. If none, skip forward to Step 6.
4. Uninstall each instance of Intel PROSet/Wireless Software and/or Intel Wireless Bluetooth that is present. When prompted, choose to "Discard Settings".
5. Manually reboot your computer, keeping Internet access disabled throughout.
6. From the Device Manager applet, check the Network Adapters section for an entry for Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210 and check the Bluetooth section for an entry for Intel Wireless Bluetooth that has an Intel driver associated with it. If neither is the case, skip forward to Step 12.
7. Right click on the entry for Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210 and select Uninstall Device. In the dialog that is then presented, choose to (checkmark) Delete the driver software for this device.
8. Repeat step 7 until the option to Delete the driver software for this device is not offered (i.e., is greyed out).
9. Right click on the entry for Intel Wireless Bluetooth and open its properties. If it has an Intel driver associated with it, then uninstall it, choosing to (checkmark) Delete the driver software for this device.
10. Repeat step 9 until the option to Delete the driver software for this device is not offered (i.e., is greyed out).
11. Go back to Step 5.
12. Install the downloaded Bluetooth driver package you downloaded earlier (my rule: always install Bluetooth first).
13. Install the downloaded Wireless driver package you downloaded earlier.
14. Manually shutdown and reboot your computer.
15. Reenable Internet access. Restore Ethernet cable and/or reenable wireless.
16. Test.

Note: It sometimes takes multiple uninstall (and reboot) cycles to clean out the old installations, so don't give up on the process. If you get to, say, 10 cycles, stop there and attempt the installation of the latest drivers.

Hope this helps,

...S

[Makuta__Xarath]

I don't know how exactly this worked, but it did. After trying this solution a few times and having no luck, I was discouraged and let my computer sit until today. When I booted it up and checked the message center for update info after my long absence, lo and behold, there was an option for bluetooth when before there was none. I unplugged the ethernet cable, entered the wifi password, and wouldn't you know, that works too. Thank you, Mr. Pearson, sincerely.

[Makuta__Xarath]

Also, I updated the drivers using the device manager instead of the downloaded ones. Come to find that the newer WiFi drivers downloaded from the website were later in version than the one Windows fetched, and the Bluetooth driver that Windows fetched was later in version than the one from the website. So the Bluetooth driver download from the Intel website is outdated, and the WiFi driver download is unstable and doesn't work. Ha.