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Network Controller: the Wi-Fi card without a driver

DeviceInBox editorial team · Last updated October 6, 2026

"Network Controller" with a yellow mark under Other devices is the Wi-Fi card without a driver. The wired adapter usually works, so the machine is online over a cable, but there is no Wi-Fi switch in Settings, no list of networks, and Airplane mode may be stuck on. Windows uses the generic class name because the card answers on the PCI bus without a driver to name it.

Device Manager showing Network Controller under Other devices while Ethernet works under Network adapters
Wired networking works, the Wi-Fi card has no driver yet.

Read the hardware ID

Right-click Network Controller, open Properties, go to the Details tab and pick Hardware Ids. The first line looks like PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2723&SUBSYS_00848086&REV_1A. The vendor and device codes are what matter (how to read them).

Details tab of Network Controller properties with the hardware ID of an Intel Wi-Fi card selected
Copy the top line before you look for a driver.

Four vendors cover nearly every laptop Wi-Fi card:

  • VEN_8086: Intel. DEV_2723 is AX200, DEV_2725 AX210, DEV_51F0 and DEV_A0F0 are AX201 and AX211 variants, DEV_272B is the Wi-Fi 7 card BE200.
  • VEN_14C3: MediaTek, sold as RZ608, RZ616 and RZ717 in Intel-free laptops and as MT7921 or MT7922 on boards.
  • VEN_10EC: Realtek, mostly RTL8821CE and RTL8852 in budget laptops.
  • VEN_17CB and VEN_168C: Qualcomm Atheros, from old AR9485 cards to the current FastConnect ones.
Hardware IDDeviceDrivers
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2723Killer 1650W/Killer 1650X18
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2725Wi-Fi 6E AX210 160MHz21
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_51F0Wireless-AC 9462 160MHz20
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_A0F0Wireless-AC 956023
PCI\VEN_14C3&DEV_0616RZ616 Wi-Fi 6E 160MHz47
PCI\VEN_14C3&DEV_7961Wi-Fi 6 MT792153
PCI\VEN_10EC&DEV_C8218821CE Wireless LAN 802.11ac PCI-E NIC9
PCI\VEN_10EC&DEV_8852RTL8852AE WiFi 6 802.11ax PCIe Adapter37
PCI\VEN_17CB&DEV_1103WCN685x Wi-Fi 6E Dual Band Simultaneous (DBS) WiFiCx Network Adapter13
PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_003EQCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter18

Install the driver

Wi-Fi drivers come as a plain installer for every current card. Download it on the machine that has a connection, copy it over on a USB stick and run it as administrator. Our current packages:

One package usually covers a whole generation of cards, so the file for AX210 also carries AX200 and AX211. Check the supported hardware IDs on the driver page if you want to be sure before copying the file over.

Chip families of laptop Wi-Fi cards with their PCI vendor codes
Four vendors cover nearly every laptop card in use today.

The Bluetooth half needs its own driver

Every modern Wi-Fi card is a combo card: the Wi-Fi half sits on the PCI bus, the Bluetooth half on an internal USB port with an ID such as USB\VID_8087&PID_0032. Installing the Wi-Fi driver does nothing for Bluetooth, and a machine that lost its Wi-Fi driver has usually lost the Bluetooth one too. See Bluetooth missing from Device Manager, or go straight to Intel Bluetooth.

Diagram of a combo card: Wi-Fi part on the PCI bus and Bluetooth part on internal USB
One card, two devices, two drivers.

Airplane mode and the hardware switch

If the driver installs and the card appears under Network adapters but there are still no networks, check these in order:

  1. Airplane mode in Settings, Network and internet. On some laptops it stays on after a BIOS update.
  2. The hardware switch or the Fn key with the antenna symbol, usually F2, F3 or F12.
  3. The WLAN AutoConfig service: press Win + R, run services.msc, and set it to Automatic if it is stopped.
  4. Windows Mobility Center on laptops, where the wireless radio can be turned off separately.

When the card is missing entirely

If Network Controller is gone from Device Manager as well, turn on View, then "Show hidden devices". A card that appears only there, greyed out, is disconnected or disabled in the BIOS. On laptops the Wi-Fi card is a replaceable M.2 module, so a card that the BIOS does not list either has come loose or has failed. Intel cards in some business laptops are also locked by a vendor whitelist, which rejects a card the maker did not ship.

Related: Wi-Fi disappeared after a Windows update and Ethernet Controller.

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