Windows 7 PC has stopped recognising USB WI-FI Adapter

[Gr8Baar]

Hi,
Have a windows 7 machine and was running a Belkin Wireless Adaptor that was running fine.

Suddenly the Belkin stopped working. I figured it had died through old age and purchased a new one.

Unfortunately the new one doesn't work either. I've since done a bit of de-bugging and haven't dome up with anything and so have come here hoping to find someone that can help.

New adaptor is TP-Link ac600. Have checked compatibility with my system and should work fine. The AC600 also gets good reviews on Amazon so would expect to work.

Attempted to install following the instructions. Where that falls down is the auto install doesn't find the adaptor, and says it's not plugged in.

When the adaptor is plugged into the USB slot on the windows 7 machine, it doesn't light up, no notification from Windows, and it doesn't appear under the taskbar widget for connected devices.. When I test it in another machine, windows confirms I've just plugged something in, and the light on the adaptor comes on.

Other USB hardware (e.g. printer) is still working. It's only wireless adaptors that I am having an issue with.

If I look in device manager with the adaptor plugged in, the wireless adaptor comes up under Other Devices as "802.11ac WLAN Adapter" with a yellow exclamation mark against it.

If I then try to update driver in device manager i) pointing device manager at the installation CD results in "no drive found", and ii) if I point device manager to Search automatically / online for a driver (via a tethered iphone) I get "Windows could not find driver software for your device".

I've not made any changes to the computer recently, nothing new installed, and Windows says the last update was in May.
Throughout the course of trying a million different combinations of checks and actions, I have disabled USB Selective Suspend Setting, I've tried USB ports that are working for other devices, and several other things, before completely running out of ideas.

Here is the systeminfo:
OS Name: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
OS Version: 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
OS Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation
OS Configuration: Standalone Workstation
OS Build Type: Multiprocessor Free
Registered Owner: bob & jean
Registered Organization:
Product ID: 00359-OEM-8992687-00006
Original Install Date: 21/03/2011, 18:14:04
System Boot Time: 07/09/2021, 12:25:48
System Manufacturer: Packard Bell
System Model: imedia S3810
System Type: x64-based PC
Processor(s): 1 Processor(s) Installed.
[01]: Intel64 Family 6 Model 37 Stepping 5 GenuineInt
el ~2912 Mhz
BIOS Version: American Megatrends Inc. P01-A4, 19/08/2010
Windows Directory: C:\Windows
System Directory: C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device: \Device\HarddiskVolume2
System Locale: en-gb;English (United Kingdom)
Input Locale: en-gb;English (United Kingdom)
Time Zone: (UTC+00:00) Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London
Total Physical Memory: 2,999 MB
Available Physical Memory: 1,539 MB
Virtual Memory: Max Size: 5,996 MB
Virtual Memory: Available: 4,132 MB
Virtual Memory: In Use: 1,864 MB
Page File Location(s): C:\pagefile.sys
Domain: WORKGROUP
Logon Server: \\PACK
Hotfix(s): 588 Hotfix(s) Installed.
[01]: KB2849697
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[246]
Network Card(s): 2 NIC(s) Installed.
[01]: Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
Connection Name: Local Area Connection
Status: Media disconnected

 

[flavallee]

If I look in device manager with the adaptor plugged in, the wireless adaptor comes up under Other Devices as "802.11ac WLAN Adapter" with a yellow exclamation mark against it.

If I then try to update driver in device manager i) pointing device manager at the installation CD results in "no drive found", and ii) if I point device manager to Search automatically / online for a driver (via a tethered iphone) I get "Windows could not find driver software for your device".

Go into the Device Manager and open the properties window for that 802.11ac WLAN Adapter entry.
Select the "Details" tab and then select "Hardware Ids" in the drop-down list.
Submit the exact description of the strings listed there.

 

[SIW2]

Is it this one?

Download for Archer T2U | TP-Link United Kingdom

to install manually via device manager:

How do I install/update driver of TP-Link wireless adapter manually

How to Setup a TP Link Wireless USB Network Adapter (2019) - YouTube

 

[flavallee]

SIW2:
The TP-Link AC600 series wireless adapter appears to have several models and styles.
Hopefully, he will reply back with the exact description and/or the strings that I requested.

 

[Gr8Baar]

Go into the Device Manager and open the properties window for that 802.11ac WLAN Adapter entry.
Select the "Details" tab and then select "Hardware Ids" in the drop-down list.
Submit the exact description of the strings listed there.

Thanks for responding. As requested:

USB\VID_2357&PID_0120&REV_0200
USB\VID_2357&PID_0120

- - - Updated - - -

Is it this one?

Download for Archer T2U | TP-Link United Kingdom

to install manually via device manager:

How do I install/update driver of TP-Link wireless adapter manually

How to Setup a TP Link Wireless USB Network Adapter (2019) - YouTube

It's this one

Archer T2U Plus | AC600 High Gain Wireless Dual Band USB WiFi Adapter | TP-Link United Kingdom

Sadly that user guide doesn't help. Device manager can't see a driver that matches the device in a folder, on the internet, anywhere.

 

[flavallee]

USB\VID_2357&PID_0120&REV_0200
USB\VID_2357&PID_0120

The only drivers listed for those strings at the Microsoft Update Catalog site is for Windows 10.
No drivers for Windows 7 are listed.

It's this one
Archer T2U Plus | AC600 High Gain Wireless Dual Band USB WiFi Adapter | TP-Link United Kingdom
Sadly that user guide doesn't help. Device manager can't see a driver that matches the device in a folder, on the internet, anywhere.

Load that website and then click "Support" and then click "Driver" and then click "Download" for the Windows driver - which is the top-most one in the list.
Download and save that .ZIP file.
When you extract/unzip its contents, a new folder will appear.
When you open that folder, you will see a "Setup.exe" file.
Double-click that file to start the setup/install of the driver.
Follow the instructions carefully.
If all goes well, the wireless adapter will be detected and its driver will be installed.

Personally, I would have purchased a newer model which has faster wireless speeds.
This is the one that I've used for the past few years and have great success with.
WF2190

 

[Gr8Baar]

I realise I could have been clearer in the original post.

The Belkin adaptor was working fine. One day I turned the PC on and it no longer worked.

When the Belkin stopped working my reaction was to go to PC world and buy another adaptor. They had a newer model than the one discussed here. I tried that and it didn’t light up. I tested it in my windows 10 machine and it worked. As that was usb 3 and my windows 7 machine is usb 2, I thought, even though backward compatible, perhaps I should try the best usb 2 model I could find and returned the new one to PC world.

I suspect if I plugged the Belkin one into another machine, it would also work. I will try this if I still have it. I think I already did try this in fact but will check to be sure.

I then ordered the newest one from Amazon, which is what is in discussion here, because it was usb 2.

I don’t know where the windows 10 drivers came from. I have completely removed that device in device manager during previous tests, and I can’t install any new drivers, so looks like they are somehow being deployed by windows 7 when a adaptor is plugged in. Or windows 7 is remembering them from a previous install….

Any ideas how I can permanently remove the windows 10 drivers?

 

[torchwood]

if its working on other comps, i'd check the usb port.

based on the size of the download from that link, its a multi-system download, so which ever OS you have the appropriate driver should be installed

this devices base driver, is the realtek RTL8821AU,

 

[erpster4]

Any ideas how I can permanently remove the windows 10 drivers?

from your win7 computer? maybe try using DriverStore Explorer (RAPR)