Wi-Fi Broken after downloading updates.

[MikalE]

I'm working on an Acer Aspire system for a client and have reloaded the O/S without a hitch...until I downloaded 119 Important (not the optional) updates and then rebooted the system.

After rebooting the system I found that the Wi-Fi would no longer work. "No Networks Available" I believe was the message in the connection box when you click on the icon in the tray. Even hardwired it would not connect to my router.

So I deleted and re-installed the Atheros drivers for the card and re-installed and still nothing. The Device Manager said there were no drivers installed for this device which I found strange since it was working with these drivers before the updates were installed and I had in fact just re-installed the driver.

Instead of going through 119 updates and deleting each one to see if I could isolate the update I just reloaded the O/S once again. After installing the wi-fi driver everything is back the way it should be and is working correctly...without those 119 updates. I did install a couple of .NET updates and Malicious Software Removal update but wi-fi was not affected.

Now, I could find nothing on the internet about any updates breaking the wi-fi on Windows 7, but plenty of complaints about one update or the other breaking the wi-fi in Windows 10. Apples and oranges.

Does anyone know which KB # could be breaking the wi-fi on this system? Almost all of the updates were 'security' related as MS likes to call them but who knows what else is rolled up in all of that crap.

[MikalE]

I found two updates for Win 7 that are screwing up wi-fi connections.

It was very early this morning when I was searching for this (0130 local) so I'm sure I either missed it or wasn't using the correct search terms.

They are KB4088875 and KB4088878.

[MikalE]

After checking for downloads out of the 118 (and 62 optional), those two KB updates do not appear in the list of updates available for download.

Now I'm right back where I started. Still don"t know which update breaks the wi-fi.

[axur-delmeria]

Was a new driver among the updates?

[MikalE]

No, there were no equipment updates for Acer or components in any of those updates. Further, the driver was identical both before and after the updates.

I guess I will end up installing these updates in batches of five and reboot after each batch until I find the update that causes this problem. I have since downloaded and installed the Service Pack 1 update and the computer still connects normally.

[shawross]

Earlier this year on Windows 7 some hardware was causing WIFI issues after updates and "KB4099950" was put out as a fix.

Might be worth a try if you haven't already.