1

My brother reported a problem yesterday with his laptop and asked me to take a look. The laptop is a Lenovo YOGA 710-14ISK. His initial report was that he did a windows update on Saturday (18 April) and he could no longer connect to the internet. At the time he was running Windows 10 Home (x64) Version 1903 (build 18362.657). KB4532693, Update for Windows 10 (KB4532693) and KB4552152, Security Update for Windows 10 (KB4552152) were recently installed. The symptoms were that the network icon on the task bar would show WiFi as off. It would give an option to turn Wifi on "Manually" "In 1 hour" etc. Selecting manually did not turn on WiFi. He asked me to do a fresh install of windows 10 for him.

I built a Windows 10 install disk off my laptop which is running Windows 10 Home (x64) Version 1909 - note the version difference. On initial install, a roadcom driver from 2/10/2020 - Version 7.77.113.0 is automatically loaded. Unfortunately I do not know what was running previously. The hardware ID of the device is listed as VEN_14E4&DEV_43A3. The hardware ID is where I got the Broadcom 4350 info from. The laptop is now running Windows 10 Home (x64) Version 1909 build 18363.778. I was able to install updates KB4549951 and KB4537572.

Right now, in order to get the WiFi to connect, I boot up windows, login, open the Network & Internet setting, and click on Change Adapter settings. The Broadcom device is labeled "Wi-Fi 2" and is listed as enabled. At this point, I disable the device and re-enable it. I can then connect to WiFi. I have checked the power settings for the device and set it to not allow the computer to turn off. My brother reports that he did not have to restart the device previously (and I don't think he would know how to anyway).

Part 1 - Is there a work around for needing to restart the network adapter after bootup?

I got to this point only after determining one of the updates was completely breaking the network adapter. Updating windows with the April Cumulative update - KB4550945 doesn't allow the network adapter to start at all. The device name has changed from Broadcom 802.11ac Network Adapter to Broadcom 802.11N Network Adapter. I believe ac and N are really the same thing but I find it interesting that the name has changed. The driver is now a March 2012 driver. I tried manually downloading the driver and installing it via the update driver from the device manager but the 2012 driver is still being used. Right now I've delayed Windows updates for the maximum amount of time.

Part 2 - Is there a work around for the Broadcom drivers in this Windows update?

6
  • 2
    The machine is a brand name machine. Use the manufacturer's USB recovery key reinstall Windows. That will have all the requisite drivers. Then use Software Updater to update drivers. You may still be able to run Software Updater (Lenovo Support Site) to correct the driver problem. I have two machines here (different Intel level) and Bluetooth is working fine on both after last week's Windows update and today's out of band Windows update.
    – John
    Apr 22, 2020 at 18:36
  • That just reinstalls 1909 again. The onekey recovery system does not use the recovery partition on the device. It uses the windows installation on the machine. I followed the instructions found here: download.lenovo.com/consumer/mobiles_pub/…
    – daveob
    Apr 22, 2020 at 19:54
  • Run Software Updater as I suggested to update all drivers. The reason for suggesting the Lenovo USB key is that the resulting install is matched to the machine.
    – John
    Apr 22, 2020 at 19:57
  • This has taken me down another rabbit hole with this laptop. The serial number and product number are not set in the BIOS. I initial tried to run the Lenovo Bridge Software which allows the Lenovo support website to scan the device and the Lenovo Vantage Software which is hosted locally. Both reported "INVALID" for the product and serial number. I looked at the BIOS and they are both indeed listed as "INVALID". I did find a bios update for the model laptop and was able to run that. That did not solve the serial number issue. I can't download the USB Recovery Key without a serial number.
    – daveob
    Apr 22, 2020 at 21:18
  • My brother bought this laptop from Best Buy. After a couple months something was wrong with the graphics so he took it back. It sounds like they gave him a refurbished one as a replacement. It's the only thing I can think of why the serial number and product numbers aren't set.
    – daveob
    Apr 22, 2020 at 21:19

0

You must log in to answer this question.