So today, I finally decided to make the switch from Windows 8 to 8.1 on my Acer Aspire V3-551G. After two or three solid hours of installing 8.1 and updating all of my drivers, I finally got everything working except for my wireless chip (Qualcomm Atheros AR5BWB222 Wireless Network Adapter). I have spent the last hour scouring the internet for fixes, and after going through [B]ALL[/B] of them (uninstalling and then installing the latest drivers from Acer, uninstalling and then installing the latest drivers from Qualcomm, going into the BIOS and resetting the values to default, etc.), absolutely nothing has worked. The little wifi switch on the network menu is grayed out and I can't activate it, even after everything I've done. What else can I do at this point?
Ive had the same problem with my windows 8.1 tablet before, I found disabling and restarting then enabling the wireless driver may work.
While I myself doubt it will fix your problem its worthy of trying.
No luck. It's still grayed out. I'm willing to try any other suggestions that I read when I wake up tomorrow morning, but if all else fails, I'm going to have to find a way to roll back to Windows 8 and stick with it.
uninstall the driver and restart your pc/laptop/tablet
[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;46985292]Is a clean 8.1 install viable?[/QUOTE]
I don't have a disc for it, nor can I afford one right now.
[editline]22nd January 2015[/editline]
[QUOTE=Siemz;46986753]uninstall the driver and restart your pc/laptop/tablet[/QUOTE]
Done and done. Nothing.
[QUOTE=Lordgeorge16;46986768]I don't have a disc for it, nor can I afford one right now.
[/QUOTE]
Windows 8 machines don't usually use discs to restore the OS except in catastrophic failures. It probably has a recovery partition on the drive already. Go to the Metro PC Settings, then Update and Recovery, then click Recovery. You can either Refresh or Reinstall Windows. Refresh keeps all files and settings, but Reinstall will completely wipe the Windows install and start the machine from factory.
[QUOTE=Demache;46987548]Windows 8 machines don't usually use discs to restore the OS except in catastrophic failures. It probably has a recovery partition on the drive already. Go to the Metro PC Settings, then Update and Recovery, then click Recovery. You can either Refresh or Reinstall Windows. Refresh keeps all files and settings, but Reinstall will completely wipe the Windows install and start the machine from factory.[/QUOTE]
Finished the refresh, I'm back on Windows 8. It says it deleted all of my programs and apps, but something is still taking up a massive amount of disk space on my hard drive. This Windows.old folder seems to be the culprit. Is it safe for me to delete it or do I need to keep it for some reason?
[editline]22nd January 2015[/editline]
No wait, I see it now. It's filled with all of the content from before. I can just copy/paste all of my old program files and what-not back in without any problems, right?
[QUOTE=Lordgeorge16;46987944]Finished the refresh, I'm back on Windows 8. It says it deleted all of my programs and apps, but something is still taking up a massive amount of disk space on my hard drive. This Windows.old folder seems to be the culprit. Is it safe for me to delete it or do I need to keep it for some reason?[/QUOTE]
Windows.old has the old stuff that used to be on the hard drive. You might want to look through it to see if you have any old files. Otherwise, you can delete it by running Disk Cleanup and cleaning the old Windows install files.
[QUOTE=Demache;46987990]Windows.old has the old stuff that used to be on the hard drive. You might want to look through it to see if you have any old files. Otherwise, you can delete it by running Disk Cleanup and cleaning the old Windows install files.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for your help, boyo. I really appreciate it.
I believe the Qualcomm Atheros AR5BWB222 drivers do not support Windows 8.1 even tho Windows Compatibility Center claims it does just due to the fact that it was supported by windows 8. I had the same issue with my Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG. Acer needs to release a new driver for your network card for it to work.
Is Disk Cleanup supposed to go by wicked slow? The loading bar has been stuck on the last little sliver for about a half hour now.
[QUOTE=Lordgeorge16;46989381]Is Disk Cleanup supposed to go by wicked slow? The loading bar has been stuck on the last little sliver for about a half hour now.[/QUOTE]
Its slow, but its not THAT slow. Your hard drive might be just preoccupied with something or there are just so many files that it has to calculate it all.
So is it detecting the network adapter at all? Or is it detecting it but wont let you enable?
[QUOTE=Maksim;46989828]So is it detecting the network adapter at all? Or is it detecting it but wont let you enable?[/QUOTE]
The latter. Surplus said that Acer's and Qualcomm's drivers for the network adapter don't actually work on Windows 8.1 despite being listed as compatible. So instead, I reverted back to Windows 8 by means of a system refresh.
Time to spend the next two days downloading 130 Windows updates, get my drivers back to their proper versions, and reinstall all of my now missing programs.
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