Formatted laptop- even with right drivers cannot get a network connection.

[Aigo]

Started a new course, so I figured I'd format the laptop and get a fresh start. Downloaded the drivers of my laptop's model onto a usb beforehand. Formatted the laptop and installed the drivers. No network connection. I see no options but airplane mode, and can't even turn that on. No wifi network search button (the laptop is wifi only, no ethernet). I need to jump into a video lecture that evening, so in a panic I try a Debian install, and then an Ubuntu install (which I am on currently). Both automatically sort out a network connection for me without anything needing installing. Great to see from Linux, frustrating behaviour for MS as usual. Unfortunately I will need a Windows install for all the software I will need, or I would happily stay on Ubuntu. My question is, is there a free software that will magically sort me like Linux does for Windows? Something that tries a few different generic network drivers perchance?

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

 

[Aigo]

Yep I have a Legion Go I can use to build a new install USB or do other stuff with, but Device Manager isn't any good for me here because I wouldn't know what's off with it or what's missing. I have the latest drivers from the model number's page, but no go. I'm wondering if there's software out there that can automatically try a few drivers to find what works, like Linux did for me.

 

[Aigo]

Oh man. Maybe I did something stupid here. I did the OOBE\BYPASSNRO thing upon setup to skip the forced MS account bit- maybe that's why WiFi is not available? Do I have to re-activate something through the terminal when I eventually get into windows?

 

[Aigo]

As @Mcnumpty2323 says, that won't prevent your Wi-Fi drivers from installing. Just use Snappy Driver Installer Origin to install your drivers, it should only take a few minutes to download the driver pack and install the needed drivers. If you get stuck at any point, upload photos or screenshots to ImgBB and use the BBCode full linked option to give you code to post here - the forum will do the rest.

This is likely exactly what I'm looking for. Do I just move the application over to the laptop with the issue or do I need to download the driver packs it offers via torrent?

EDIT: That torrent is 45gb, that's probably not required right? Am I supposed to run the software on the borked laptop or my other working machine? How will it be able to download anything on the borked machine?

 

[Aigo]

When launching Snappy drivers, I don't get the UI guides on YouTube get to download indexes only. Don't see a button for it in the standard UI either. How do I download indexes in this software?

 

[Aigo]

Got it this time- and it's giving me a exception (std::bad_cast) when hitting Download Indexes only.

Would the button above 'download network drivers only' do anything of use?

https://www.asus.com/laptops/for-ho...helpdesk_download?model2Name=VivoBook-15-M513 is my model's driver page. If you expand the network driver section there are more than a dozen versions from numerous vendors- if I'm to go through them all should I be installing and uninstalling them one at at time with a restart or can I just go ham and try them all at once? (Probably not right?)

About to go become a ludite tbh. I just reinstalled windows that's all, had my driver's all ready too. Linux builds sort this out automatically. This is unbelievable.

 

[Aigo]

Thanks to everyone who posted- you all deserve pints. SDIO did it in the end- the exception I was getting today was my Pixel 6a's stupid hotspot (that's ANOTHER thread) but on another connection SDIO sorted things just fine.

Pretty sure in the stress of this week I accidentally formatted another drive I had in my laptop (knew I should have physically removed it), I was careful not to but must have deleted a recovery partition it had because it's mounting, and is showing as empty... expected to have to activate it as a 'new volume' at least and hopefully keep it's contents but it's already mounted.

What would people recommend for getting all kinds of drivers back in and up to date? MyAsus, or keep going with SDIO?

 

[Aigo]

Will boot it up tomorrow and see what it thinks is missing.
And I guess will uninstall Radeon Software and download Adrenalin edition. No idea why AMD maintains two launchers, the default one not having a driver update check at all that I can find...