Wi-Fi drivers aren't installing properly, or not at all

[Smiily]

Good morning, afternoon, or evening, wherever you are, whenever you are, I'd appreciate any form of help regarding my seemingly odd problem with a Wi-Fi PCIe adapter.

2 days ago, I bought the Cudy New AX3000 Wireless Wi-Fi 6E PCIe Card for my gaming PC (says AX5400 on Amazon, but I couldn't care; fine with the one in the picture anyway),
needing it mainly for the Bluetooth as my motherboard didn't come with one (bummer).

The next day, it arrived, and I immediately started working on it. I turned off the PC, removed the PCIe slot cover, and inserted the Wi-Fi adapter into the motherboard (in one of the PCIe slots below the GPU). I connected the Bluetooth cable to the USB port and added the dual antennas that came with the card.

Firing up the Windows 10 PC, I installed the drivers according to the manual's driver website (Wi-Fi and Bluetooth) while connected to the Ethernet cable, as it required a connection to download them.

Bluetooth worked flawlessly; I didn't even need to restart it for it to work. However, things started to look worrying, as the Wi-Fi adapter wasn't showing anywhere!
I'm talking Device Manager, Windows Troubleshooter, and even the recommended Intel Driver & Support Assistant couldn't see the Wi-Fi card.

Here were my ways of troubleshooting so far:

1. Restarted after driver downloads:
2. Window's Troubleshooter: 
3. Window's updates w/ optional ones: 
4. Network reset: 
5. Checking for driver in device manager: 
6. Re-installed Wi-Fi drivers (same Wi-Fi driver to "repair"): 
7. CMD - ipconfig /flushdns: 
8. CMD - netsh winsock reset: 
9. CMD - netcfg -d: 
10. Device Manager - Add legacy hardware (for my model): 
11. Services - Manually started WWAN AutoConfig: 
12. Services - Restarting WLAN AutoConfig: 
13. Downloaded the driver manually from Device In Box and Snappy Driver Installer (just crashes for me): 

All of the steps mentioned went through many PC restarts. The only possible remaining option that I can think of is that the PCIe card slot is dead, and that I need to rip out yet another PCIe slot cover to gamble away my chances of success. However, it doesn't make sense that the slot is dead since Bluetooth seems to be working fine (inform me if I'm wrong).

Here are my PC specs:

• Motherboard: MSI B450 Gaming Plus  Max
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
• RAM: 8x2 GB DDR4 Ballistics 3200MHz
• GPU: MSI Ventus RTX 2070 super OC edition
• PSW: Aorus 750W 80+ Gold Fully Modular
• Case: Deepcool MATREXX 50 ADD RGB 4F
• Storage:
• 1- Crucial M.2 512 GB (main windows)
• 2- SSD Samsung 512 GB
• 3- SSD Crucial MX500 2TB
• OS: Windows 10 Pro 22H2

I've attached images that could help in visualizing the problem.

So, are there any other methods that I have yet to try? At this point I'd accept any to be honest.

NOTE: I'll admit that there's a possibility that the PCIe card itself is a bit loose as I'm unable to screw it to the case without a flexible shaft screwdriver (coming today). However, lights DO come out of the card, so it should presumably be connected fine. Again, any support is greatly appreciated.

[n_scott_pearson]

Are you using a PCIe x1 slot? These cards notoriously do not work in x4, x8 or x16 slots.
...S

[Smiily]

Yes, since it's only logical for it to fit in a PCIe x1 slot due to its small size (x4 an others seem too large)

Here's an image of the PCIe card installed:

 

[n_scott_pearson · Accepted solution]

Have you tried those other x1 slots?

Have you looked to see whether there are any unrecognized devices?

Have you tried doing a clean install? That is, with your internet connection disabled throughout, uninstall the Bluetooth and Wireless packages, reboot and then reinstall the Bluetooth and Wireless driver packages. I unplug Ethernet cable to accomplish the disabling.

Hope this helps,

...S

[Smiily]

When I try doing a clean install again (without ethernet the whole process), I can't seem to be able to delete the Wireless driver package (it seems to not exist at all). Also no unrecognized devices present (in the taskbar).

However, as much as I dislike it, looks like I'll need to use the other PCIe slot.

I'll update whenever I finish changing the PCIe slots.

[Smiily]

Huh, would you look at that, it actually worked!

 

It seems that either the previous slot was dead, or that it was improperly plugged in.

Now I'm left with an open PCIe cover, being honest though, no problem, at least it worked.

 

Thank you so much for your support, kudos to you!

[n_scott_pearson]

You are welcome, enjoy!

...S