Netgear AC1200 USB is not detecting my wifi network

[AaronSinn]

Yesterday my AC1200 USB which was has been working fine for several months stoped connecting to my wifi abruptly. When I try to connect to my wifi network Windows says no networks are detected. I still have wifi on my phone and other devices though.

In device manager, the AC1200 appears under the “Network adapters” section and the device status is “This device is working properly” so I think it’s connecting to my PC fine.

I tired restarting my PC, uninstalling and reinstalling drivers, trying different USB ports, and a few other methods I found online but none of them worked.

Any ideas on how I could go about fixing this are appreciated. Thanks.

[michaelkenward]

Which version of Windows?

Tried  the A6150 in a different USB port?

[AaronSinn]

I’m using Windows 11 and I have tried different ports. I think I may have misdiagnosed the issue though. At first, my wifi was on but there were no networks detected. But now, my wifi option isn’t even available and I can’t see it in settings. When I go into Network Connections via Control Panel I can’t enable my wifi there as well. It’s in a permanent state of disabled (not sure if that’s a NetGear or Windows issue). Also, when I shut down my PC is takes a long time and I see a blue screen with the error code DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE. I’m honestly not sure if the problem is with Windows or NetGear.

[michaelkenward]

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@AaronSinn wrote:
Also, when I shut down my PC is takes a long time and I see a blue screen with the error code DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE. I’m honestly not sure if the problem is with Windows or NetGear.

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Uh oh. Windows hell.

My next suggestion would have been to tell Windows to forget the "hidden" USB versions of the drivers.

Every time you connect a USB device it adds it to the catalogue of known devices. It can help to delete the ones that are  no longer connected.

Wifi adapters

Look in "Device Manager" for "Hidden Devices", and remove, the ones that are no longer connected.

Your problem sounds more troublesome. You may be into "system restore" territory. But this may not be the best place to go into that.

Good luck.

[AaronSinn]

Turns out the problem was the USB device itself! I thought it was a Windows problem so very long story short I reinstalled Windows on my desktop. However I continued to have the same problem. When I try to shut down my computer with the NetGear USB in a port, it takes forever and I get the DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE message. Without the USB in my PC shuts down very quick and I get no error message. I ordered another USB adapter off Amazon and it's been working well so far. I probably should have done more troubling shooting before I jumped to the conclusion that Windows was the problem. 

While I was going through hell trying to get Windows reinstalled, the devil was right beside me the whole time 😞