Hi,
First off, I posted in here because my problem mainly had to do with Networking/Driver issues before it went into computer freezes and stuff like that, so feel free to move this thread if I'm wrong.
One of my laptops has been facing a driver issue recently and it's driving me crazy (it's the laptop I bring for education/study purposes, this one I'm using to post is a giant and not exactly portable - Alienware).
Malfunctioning Laptop specs:
Dell Inspiron 3521
Windows 8 64-bit
8GB RAM
It all started when the wifi suddenly disappeared from my network center, only to discover it having problems in Device Manager (exclamation mark!). After trying to disable and renable it (to test), it disappeared, until several minutes later when it randomly shows itself and it was working for a while until the laptop suddenly decided to freeze on me. No crash reports, no error messages, just couldn't move the mouse or use anything. Restarting the laptop randomly brought it back on a few occasions but it would freeze nevertheless after a couple minutes of use.
System Restore didn't work, and every time I tried to "Scan for hardware changes" in Device Manager to try and regain the default driver (when one of my restarts didn't bring it back), it froze over and over. After uninstalling the wifi adapter (through an external program - Driver Booster 3) however, the computer no longer froze and I could use it normally, just without wifi (which I need).
I tried installing the latest driver version from the Dell website in order to try and bring it back but it failed at first (appearing to only install the Bluetooth suite) before a few minutes later, again, it would randomly show up and bring back the same problems (freezing).
Have I just been trying to fix a faulty wireless adapter card all this time?
First off, I posted in here because my problem mainly had to do with Networking/Driver issues before it went into computer freezes and stuff like that, so feel free to move this thread if I'm wrong.
One of my laptops has been facing a driver issue recently and it's driving me crazy (it's the laptop I bring for education/study purposes, this one I'm using to post is a giant and not exactly portable - Alienware).
Malfunctioning Laptop specs:
Dell Inspiron 3521
Windows 8 64-bit
8GB RAM
It all started when the wifi suddenly disappeared from my network center, only to discover it having problems in Device Manager (exclamation mark!). After trying to disable and renable it (to test), it disappeared, until several minutes later when it randomly shows itself and it was working for a while until the laptop suddenly decided to freeze on me. No crash reports, no error messages, just couldn't move the mouse or use anything. Restarting the laptop randomly brought it back on a few occasions but it would freeze nevertheless after a couple minutes of use.
System Restore didn't work, and every time I tried to "Scan for hardware changes" in Device Manager to try and regain the default driver (when one of my restarts didn't bring it back), it froze over and over. After uninstalling the wifi adapter (through an external program - Driver Booster 3) however, the computer no longer froze and I could use it normally, just without wifi (which I need).
I tried installing the latest driver version from the Dell website in order to try and bring it back but it failed at first (appearing to only install the Bluetooth suite) before a few minutes later, again, it would randomly show up and bring back the same problems (freezing).
Have I just been trying to fix a faulty wireless adapter card all this time?
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Windows 8 64-bit
