• Wi-Fi adapter working but icons missing

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    WSspark55
    AskWoody Lounger
    September 7, 2014 at 5:31 pm #496333

    I added an external wifi adapter and its driver via the disk provided. Initially all was well and remains so except I no longer have an icon for it in “Network and sharing center” and it does not exist as a program next to my other Realtek wireless lan adapter in “Programs and features”.
    Should I reinstall it ? How do I overcome its absence in Programs and features in order to uninstall it?

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    • WSSudo
      AskWoody Lounger
      September 7, 2014 at 6:37 pm #1466616

      Is anything showing for it in Device Manager/View/Show hidden devices/Network adapters or is there any listing for Unknown Device and have you disabled the Realtek adapter to run off just the external one ?

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      • WSspark55
        AskWoody Lounger
        September 7, 2014 at 11:27 pm #1466635

        Running Windows 8.1 64bit w/ UEFI. Was unable to follow UR path “Device Manager/ View/…” as specified.
        However, both wifi adapters are Realtek 8188xx’es; xx=CU is external, =EE is internal. Both are shown in Device Manager but as I said not in Programs and features where there is no designation, just Realtek. Networks and sharing>Change Adapter Settings did show both icons after CU was installed but now only EE.
        I had disabled each when after I was told that would improve signal quality– yeh! ha ha. Didn’t believe it now still don’t.
        They were active after the experiment.
        CU works fine as does EE even without the icons in “Network Connections”. EE icon shown as not connected in “Network Connections” when CU in use (wifi-2). EE shows as connected when CU is not connected. At the moment neither is disabled.

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    • Paul T
      AskWoody MVP
      September 8, 2014 at 1:44 am #1466637

      Try this:
      Device Manager > View > Show hidden devices
      Click on the triangle next to “Network adapters” to expand the adapter list.
      From there you can right click on the network adapter to uninstall.

      cheers, Paul

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      • WSspark55
        AskWoody Lounger
        September 11, 2014 at 12:42 am #1466981

        Try this:
        Device Manager > View > Show hidden devices
        Click on the triangle next to “Network adapters” to expand the adapter list.
        From there you can right click on the network adapter to uninstall.

        cheers, Paul

        Thanks Paul. I see both the CU and EE adapters there. Sorry for my delay.
        Since both adapters are functioning correctly for me and the system agrees when I check properties, this seems like just the absence of the icon. Is there a way to cause the software to burp and re-create the icon where it should be?

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    • Paul T
      AskWoody MVP
      September 11, 2014 at 11:09 am #1467040

      The only possibility I can think of is to uninstall and reinstall the adapter.

      cheers, Paul

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    • WSKritzX
      AskWoody Lounger
      September 13, 2014 at 6:49 am #1467245

      You might want to try updating the drivers for your NIC.

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