"Wi-Fi (Off)" option to turn it on is greyed out in Windows 8

I bought a Gateway NV52L15u about 5 to 6 months ago which came pre-installed with Windows 8. I use this laptop on my home Wireless Network. Never had any problem until last night. Today morning when i booted up the system, it was showing offline with a red x mark in the system tray on network icon. I went to PC settings to turn On the wifi (however i leave it ON always) but the WiFi On button was greyed out. Yes, it was un clickable.

I though troubleshooting can fix the problem. I ran the network troubleshooting wizard but instead of fixing the same it only tells me to use the function keys or WiFi physical switch to Turn on the WiFi. Well there is no physical key for wifi, it can be turned on and off using the function keys which i have already tried several times but no success.

Any help would be appreciated. Rest of the system is working fine, only not able to get online.

Probably it should be drivers problem. Did you tried re-installing or updating the wireless driver? If not do it, download the driver from the manufacturer's official website and install. If that doesn't fixes the problem than the only way i think to fix it is by resetting the BIOS settings. According to your Laptop Model, enter Bios by pressing DEL key, once in BIOS tap F9 to load Setup Defaults. Press Enter to confirm and then Save and exit the bios. See if the WiFi can be turned on or if it is working.

As far as i know Gateway's this model has an Airplane mode, can you see on your laptop? I guess it is on. I have seen this problem with one of my friends gateway laptop. Due to unknown reason his Airplane mode was enabled and we kept troubleshooting for hours to get the internet connection but obviously it was of no use. Suddenly we found the Airplane option, disabled it and network started working.

See if this is not the case with you. This mode now comes with all smartphones, tablets and now even with laptops to prevent conflict or interference with aircraft electronics. Just disable the same and problem will be solved.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Atmanand

he only way i think to fix it is by resetting the BIOS settings. According to your Laptop Model, enter Bios by pressing DEL key, once in BIOS tap F9 to load Setup Defaults. Press Enter to confirm and then Save and exit the bios. See if the WiFi can be turned on or if it is working.

---

Thanks for sharing the info Atmanand. Resetting the bios fixed the problem. But I have a confusion, If I dint made any changes from my end, how come the problem occurred automatically? I mean, I would have kept troubleshooting from the windows itself as I have never thought it would be from BIOS.

Bios settings can be changed for several reasons, you don’t need to do it manually. For example, with new hardware drivers, new heavy softwares,windows update, etc. But the thing happened with you shouldn’t have been happened. Anyways, you should be happy as you resolved the problem, right?

Hi,

I have the same problem now. I'm using lenovo G 410 laptop with win8.1,

I was using internet on LAN cable it was working fine, all of a sudden I was not able to access the internet and wifi also got turned off.

Now it shows a red mark on it and option has greyed out. I tried BIOS restoring to default but no help.

Please reply to this. what should i do?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gadjetmc

Hi,

I have the same problem now. I'm using lenovo G 410 laptop with win8.1,

I was using internet on LAN cable it was working fine, all of a sudden I was not able to access the internet and wifi also got turned off.

Now it shows a red mark on it and option has greyed out. I tried BIOS restoring to default but no help.

Please reply to this. what should i do?

---

It seems that your driver for Wifi and Bluetooth might have got corrupted. So you will need to go to the Lenovo website and download the bluetooth and wifi driver for your laptop model and install it one by one after a restart. When all drivers will be installed then your bluetooth and wifi will start working again.