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Drivers & Software

astro46
Journeyman III

Realtek lan driver update breaks wifi

Since Aug, 2018 i am finding that if Realtek lan driver gets updated on my HP Pavilion Desktop 580-137c , either through Windows update, or through HP Support Assistant (SP 82711 , ver 2023.66.1104.2017),  It immediately breaks wifi.    rebooting doesn't help. Installing driver directly from realtek site also breaks wifi.  I can't find any setting to restore it, and tech at Microcenter, where I bought the 5 month old computer, had no solution.    Luckily i had an image from before the "update". and, I use W10privacy, which can run win10 update and allow me to choose which updates to not install.  

Why is AMD/Realtek releasing an driver update that breaks the device?

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1 Solution
georges
Challenger

AMD has nothing to do with Realtek lan drivers

View solution in original post

20 Replies
georges
Challenger

AMD has nothing to do with Realtek lan drivers

somehow, I had gotten the impression that AMD owned Realtek.  My mistake.

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No, he/she doesn't mean audio drivers , but lan drivers from Realtek

Ooops

Try reinstalling the latest from Microsoft:

https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=realtek%206.0.1.8419

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those seem to all be audio drivers.

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tried the rtl8723BE 2023.76.0617.2018.    killed wifi.  every update attempted from various sources kills wifi.

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I don't know if this fix in the latest Microsoft Windows Update concerns your problem or not. But I figure I will post the fix here anyway since it concern WiFI:

  • Addresses an issue that causes the Wi-Fi EAP-TTLS (CHAP) authentication to fail if a user saves credential information before authentication.
  • Addresses an issue that causes devices that have 802.1x Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) enabled to randomly stop working with the stop code ”0xD1 DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL”. The issue occurs when the kernel memory pool becomes corrupted. Crashes will generally occur in nwifi.sys

Is your WiFi a WiFi card connected to a M.2 on the motherboard?  If it is a separate card, it is possible the WiFi Card is bad.

Try and use HP Support Hardware Networking diagnosis done via online from HP Support from here: HP Diagnostic Solutions

Maybe the HP Online Diagnostic  may determine if your WiFI card is good or not. Or if it is something else causing the intermittent WiFi.

thanks for the suggestions.  the whole wi-fi questions is moot at the moment.  Yesterday the screens flickered off and on a few times, then black for good.

system mostly doesn't get past the "pick an op sys" menu (a few times the desktop flashed on screen, but with no icons). then monitors alternate between active and sleep mode. both effectively the same: black screen. I can't boot into macrium, so I know the screens and video are ok, and likely the motherboard. f12>escape  gives a message about not being able to locate boot files, which have been repair twice through macrium.  I am thinking it is the hard drive. this likely has nothing to do with the lan driver issue (which is not intermittent, btw,  it was either working or not).

A call to HP about  this 4 month old desktop is getting me a box to return it to them for repair, and likely reinstall opsys.   I'll see that fixes the lan driver issue. I am not thrilled about the several days it will take to set up the system again.

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Yeah, it does seems like hardware failure.

It is possible it could be a failing Hard drive. A bad or failing Hard drive will definitely cause Windows OS or software Corruption. The sectors on the Hard drive that stores data goes bad thus corrupting whatever data was written on it.

You can probably find out by running Seagate's Seatools in DOS from a USB Stick which will check your hard drive. https://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/

Well, At least, it is under Warranty and it is going to be repaired or replaced.

I ran the seagate Seatools.  all four tests.  Passed all of them. I then tried booting again.  this time I got to the desktop. then black screen.  Its a mystery.  Seemingly the drive is ok.  since I can run bootable programs from flash drives the monitors are ok.  Maybe it is needing a reinstall of windows?  I'll likely send it back to HP and let them check it out anyway, rather than go through reinstalling windows and progs and find the same issue later.  I guess that I need to find out if reinstalling Windows is the first thing that they will do anyway, so I may as well do it myself. and save the shipping time.

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From a another Forum that specializes in BSODs in Windows. They said if you make a fresh clean Windows Install and still BSODs than it is most likely a Hardware problem.

Before you do a clean Windows installation. try booting into a Clean Windows 10 Desktop. This will eliminate all 3rd party software from running that may be causing conflicts with Windows. If everything works correctly in a Clean Desktop, Then start enabling one or two 3rd party software and see if the problem reoccurs. Here is how to do it from Microsoft: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows.

I believe your Anti-Virus won't be disabled by this method, my wasn't. So, just for troubleshooting purposes, disable your 3rd party Anti-virus temporarily and let Windows Defender be your Anti-virus program while waiting to see if you have any issues. Many times, Anti-virus programs has conflicts that causes problems in Windows and 3rd party software.

Could you do me a favor and upload a DXDIAG.txt to this post. Sometimes that is useful and finding out what programs are having problems including Windows services.

Sometime newer GPU drivers will cause Black screen as soon as it is loaded. What GPU does your computer have installed? What version of Display driver do you have installed?

I think that I have to use a win10 recovery, or install disc program to do a safe mode startup.  perhaps I can try that tomorrow.

re: the dxdiag.txt.   where do I find that? in system32.   since computer doesn't boot, I won't be able to create the file. but I can use other programs to access the hard drive.

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I not sure if you can run DXDIAG without Windows running. So skip this step since you are not able to boot into Windows Desktop.

DXDIAG.exe is located in C:\Windows\System32\Dxdiag.exe

Windows 10 has a feature that if you restart the computer three times in a row, one after another,  before Windows loads and past BIOS boot up, it will automatically go and load the Repair Menu after booting past BIOS without needing a Windows Installation disc.

If that happens, use the Repair method that Windows won't start up feature and see if it fixes it or not. If it says it can't then you have no choice but to do a clean Windows install. IF it doesn't, then you need to use the Windows Installation disc to repair Windows Startup or reinstall Windows 10 which Windows 10 will advice you to do if it fails to repair Windows from starting.

But not sure if that is wise to do. It may be best to leave the computer unbootable so that HP Support can figure out what is wrong with the computer and see for themselves that problem you are having.

But, then again, HP Support may ask you to do a clean Windows installation to see if it fixes the computer. If the computer continues to not boot after installing a clean Windows 10 after it installs then it most likely a hardware issue rather than software.

by the way, if you decide to install a Clean Windows 10 make sure to delete the partition on the hard drive and then make a new Partition before installing Windows again. This way you are sure that there is no remnant of the corrupt Windows left on the hard drive.

I've decided to leave computer unbootable (assuming it doesn't boot when they turn it on).  It is boxed up and going back to HP tonight.  I may get it back with op sys reinstalled, and have to spend days setting it up again, but figure it is better to have them check the hardware before I spend time on that.

I'll see what happens.

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I believe that is a wise idea to do.

That way HP Support can see and find out exactly why your computer won't boot and repair it.

Hopefully if it is a hardware replacement that doesn't include the C:\ drive, Maybe they won't install a new Operating System if the computer boots up with the Windows you have installed and it checks good after they replace the faulty hardware.

But if they should reinstall Windows and they do a clean installation and not an Ingrade Repair, you can always restore the Backup you have with Macrium to your computer. If you see you have to many problems with the backup you installed, then you can do a Ingrade Repair.

Ingrade Repair is installing Windows 10 (same version on the computer) via the Desktop and using the Creator's Tool to install Windows or use a DVD/USB installation drive to reinstall Windows via the Desktop.

This way you have all your personal programs with the new Windows installation. The only thing you need to do is reconfigure Windows again and use "Disk Cleanup" under C:\ Driver "Properties" to delete Windows.old from your hard drive or you can leave it there and after, I believe, ten days it will automatically be deleted. So you have ten days to reinstall the old Windows you had before (Your Backup restoral).

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Have you run a virus check? Try Malwarebytes and do a whole system scan > Malwarebytes Download - Free Virus Scan & Virus Protection Tool | Malwarebytes

I do a scan with mbam at the end of every month.  bitdefender is active.

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Seems like Bitdefender affect Wifi connections according to Bitdefender website: https://www.bitdefender.com/support/i-cannot-connect-to-the-internet-865.html

I cannot connect to the Internet

You may notice that a program or a web browser can no longer connect to the Internet or access network services after installing Bitdefender.

In this case, the best solution is to configure Bitdefender to automatically allow connections to and from the respective software application:

To add or edit an application rule, proceed as follows:

  1. Open the Bitdefender window.

  2. Click the Settings button on the upper toolbar.

  3. Click Firewall on the left-side menu and then the Advanced tab.

  4. Under Firewall Rules, click Application Rules.

  5. To see the rule created for an application, click the + box next to the respective application or simply double-click it.

  6. To modify the rule for the blocked application, double-click it again. Go to Permission and select Allow.

  7. If you want to add an application rule, click the corresponding button.

  8. Click Browse and select the application the rule applies to.

  9. Select all the network types available.

  10. Go to Permission and select Allow.

Close Bitdefender, open the software application and try again to connect to the Internet.

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I have bitdefender free running all the time. wi-fi breaking was seen immediately upon driver update.  nothing about a program not connecting to internet.

also, I don't know about the other versions of bitdefender, but the free version doesn't have an options menu.  short of turning off protection, there are no settings. Also bd notifies when it reacts,  so if the new driver got bd's attention, it would have said something, and I would see in the quarantined and blocked lists.

thanks for finding that, though.

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