Windows 10 Modem Not Connecting To Internet After Recent Windows Update

[Adam McKay]

The other day my laptop went through one of those scheduled updates (the one that installed Paint 3D), and when I started it back up again, I found that my dongle won't connect to the internet as normal. It won't even search for a signal, it'll just sit there saying that "the device is disconnected or unavailable". I know it's connected though, because the light on the dongle goes from red to flashing blue like it normally does when I use it after I've plugged it in.

This is what happens when I click the "Connect" button. At the bottom, between the MTN logo and the red arrow, a signal bar and 4G usually pops up when the dongle's ready to connect, but it doesn't even get that far. So maybe it's having trouble initialising the entire connection process? Hell if I know.

I know that this dongle isn't damaged - I keep it in a case when it's not being used. Its contract isn't up either, and I know that I have data loaded on it. By all means it should be ready to go, and I'm not sure why it isn't.

I can't be 100% sure that it was the update that messed it up, but it seems like too much of a coincidence to just stop working straight after an update. And if I remember correctly the update dealt with an improvement to privacy, etc. Is there a setting in the control panel that I can change to make my laptop read it again?

I'll be happy to answer any other questions I might have left out and I hope for a speedy reply

Thanks in advance!
Adam

UPDATE: I fixed the problem and a new one took its place! I fixed it by going to the Network section of the Control Panel and resetting my networks (or something like that). Now when I connect the dongle, it connects properly, but now when I click connect, it loads for a few moments before getting disconnected again.

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Hi and welcome to the forum
Sorry about your problem. Can you tell us the Make/Model of your Wi-Fi dongle please? And the Make/Model of your computer. HW specs often help us to provide a better customized solution for you.
In the meantime, if you have all your personal data backed up to external media, you can attempt some repairs that generally fix this kind of problem. If not, you should do that now in order to avoid any irretrievable data loss in the future!

The first thing we recommend is to attempt to use the built-in SYSTEM RESTORE tool in W10 and "rollback" your computer to a time prior to your computer getting updated; say prior to last Tue. April 11th the day the Update first appeared. If your Wi-Fi dongle began to work again properly, it most likely got damaged by a driver update from the W10 CU (Creators Update) update. The W10 CU installer program didn't like the driver you had on your computer and replaced it--however, the one they put in their wasn't compatible with your Wi-Fi dongle as you surmised. This fix would get your computer running again! Of course, you still need to fix the problem on the new W10 CU and that means you need to re-run the update and try again.

If the Restore fixed your problem, and you are ready to try the update again, I'd recommend that you REMOVE the device from your computer, and then run the W10 CU update again. Once completed, plug in the Wi-Fi dongle and see if it will work using the driver supplied by the W10 installer program. If it does, then your set to go!

If it doesn't, I'd recommend you go to Control Panel and Device Manager and uninstall the existing driver (put their by the W10 installer program). Then visit the website of the company who made your Wi-Fi dongle such as MTN or Netgear and download their W10 driver for your device. Pay close attention to any warnings about having to update the firmware on your Wi-Fi device however. If you fail to do this, their new W10 driver may not work with your particular device! If you flash your device with their firmware upgrade, and then reinstall their W10 driver, it should fix the problem.

If the firmware upgrade and the MTN driver for W10 process fails, you're device is simply not compatible and must be replaced. Other options are you could call the MTN people and have their Tech Support assist you with the problem. If they can't fix it, they will tell you and recommend you replace it with a new version of their device known to be compatible with W10. If they tell you they don't have one available yet; simply buy one from another company such as Cisco/Linksys or Netgear.

The other possibility is that your device has failed. The only way to know that for sure is to install it on another computer or laptop and test it with W10 CU. If it fails on another computer, your device is bad, regardless of what you think and again it needs to be replaced.

Try these solutions and let us know how you get on.

Best of luck,
<<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>>

 

[Adam McKay]

Hi and welcome to the forum
Sorry about your problem. Can you tell us the Make/Model of your Wi-Fi dongle please? And the Make/Model of your computer. HW specs often help us to provide a better customized solution for you.
In the meantime, if you have all your personal data backed up to external media, you can attempt some repairs that generally fix this kind of problem. If not, you should do that now in order to avoid any irretrievable data loss in the future!

The first thing we recommend is to attempt to use the built-in SYSTEM RESTORE tool in W10 and "rollback" your computer to a time prior to your computer getting updated; say prior to last Tue. April 11th the day the Update first appeared. If your Wi-Fi dongle began to work again properly, it most likely got damaged by a driver update from the W10 CU (Creators Update) update. The W10 CU installer program didn't like the driver you had on your computer and replaced it--however, the one they put in their wasn't compatible with your Wi-Fi dongle as you surmised. This fix would get your computer running again! Of course, you still need to fix the problem on the new W10 CU and that means you need to re-run the update and try again.

If the Restore fixed your problem, and you are ready to try the update again, I'd recommend that you REMOVE the device from your computer, and then run the W10 CU update again. Once completed, plug in the Wi-Fi dongle and see if it will work using the driver supplied by the W10 installer program. If it does, then your set to go!

If it doesn't, I'd recommend you go to Control Panel and Device Manager and uninstall the existing driver (put their by the W10 installer program). Then visit the website of the company who made your Wi-Fi dongle such as MTN or Netgear and download their W10 driver for your device. Pay close attention to any warnings about having to update the firmware on your Wi-Fi device however. If you fail to do this, their new W10 driver may not work with your particular device! If you flash your device with their firmware upgrade, and then reinstall their W10 driver, it should fix the problem.

If the firmware upgrade and the MTN driver for W10 process fails, you're device is simply not compatible and must be replaced. Other options are you could call the MTN people and have their Tech Support assist you with the problem. If they can't fix it, they will tell you and recommend you replace it with a new version of their device known to be compatible with W10. If they tell you they don't have one available yet; simply buy one from another company such as Cisco/Linksys or Netgear.

The other possibility is that your device has failed. The only way to know that for sure is to install it on another computer or laptop and test it with W10 CU. If it fails on another computer, your device is bad, regardless of what you think and again it needs to be replaced.

Try these solutions and let us know how you get on.

Best of luck,
<<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>>

Thanks for getting back to me! I tried a few fixes but nothing so far has seemed to work. I rolled my windows back to an earlier version, I searched for possible modem driver updates (there weren't any), and I tried it on a friend's laptop and it had the same problems as before.

I'm not too sure about my dongle's make/model, but after searching for a while, I found "SCD Control Port (COM 14) SCD-MBB" Does that help? My laptop is a Lenovo G50-80.

I'm not too sure what else I can do in the meantime. Perhaps uninstall my driver data and reinstall everything from scratch?

Again, I'm sure this thing isn't broken but at this point maybe I'm wrong?

Thanks for the help so far!

 

[Adam McKay]

The problem fixed itself! I left it alone for a few days and tried it a few minutes ago. It's working perfectly for some reason. Maybe it was just in a bad mood Or perhaps there was a problem with the provider. Either way it's solved.

 

[Age]

I am having a similar problem as It now say Network 2 instead of Interent connected.I am not on router and this is casing serious lagging in gaming and streaming.It really gets bad on mmos and sever does not respond.How do i change this back and it ask me some security and everytime i want to use chrome it prompts to edge.FF is my default browser.I am only on modem no router.

What can't i ask a questing or make new thread up instead of just poll?

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Hi Age,
Did you try my suggestions from Post #2 yet? System Restore for a Rollback of your system? Is your PC connected via a wired Ethernet connection to your Modem or via a Wi-Fi connection? If it's connected your Modem via Wi-Fi; try connecting via an Ethernet cable. If the problem goes away, and your network connection returns to your computer, the Wi-Fi in your Modem may have gone out. This happens all the time here with Verizon-Frontier DSL modems. I replace several each year from this problem.

Another thing that often needs to be done, especially if your Broadband Cable Modem or DSL Modem is a combo-unit; that is it possesses at least 1-4 Ethernet ports for hardwired connections, AND also contains a built-in Wi-Fi router function to allow connections in your home from various mobile devices (desktop PC/laptop/tablet/smartphone). Last ditch effort you can try if this occurs, is to perform a factory reset on your Modem. Sometimes, this will fix things, if the circuitry in your Modem combo-unit simply hung up and temporarily disabled your Wi-Fi capability. This can also happen in the reverse, where all your wireless devices mentioned above in your home are working Ok on the Internet, but your PC (desktop? gaming PC?) is connected with an Ethernet cable directly to the router port(s) on the Modem combo-unit and it's not working. Resetting the Modem might fix it. If it doesn't you either have to replace it out of your pocket or contact your local ISP if you are leasing or renting the Modem from them. Often they will ship out a new one to you in 2-10 days or so.

Have you taken your PC to a friend's home who has Internet (must be Broadband/DSL), and plugged in over there? If it still doesn't work, you could have had drivers corrupted by virus/malware or from something like the recent W10 CU update (v1703). In that case, if the Rollback with System Restore doesn't work, or driver uninstall/reinstall you may need to run hardware testing and more advanced windows repair such as Windows reset or factory OS reinstallation.

Let us know how you get on. If these solutions don't work; we can explore other options.

Best of luck,
<<BIGBEARJEDI>>

 

[Age]

No.i didn't do that yet but was thinking of it.I am not on any wifi network and I don't like wifi a lot of leachers out there and I don't care what other say about pw encryption.I like solid plug ins and if using router wifi disabled..No I am not on a wifi connection direct modem to pc.I don't believe my drivers are corrupted.I haven't done an update lately.

I can't even do any updating since this Network 2 came into effect and my internet has been sluggish can't even update Java.What happened on April 11th?I have disabled some stuff running in the background but it is still making my internet lag.