Realtek RTL8188CE WiFi Driver for Toshiba Satellite L650

[britechguy]

Today's new client has a Toshiba Satellite L650 with an older i5 processor that originally shipped with Windows 7. It was long ago upgraded to Windows 10.

They recently had Xfinity cable internet installed and this machine was able to see the WiFi network and connect. Now, for some reason, it cannot even see it nor, of course, connect to it.

The driver shown is a generic Microsoft driver dating from 2016. It also shows the device as functioning, and it does pick up a number of other nearby WiFi networks, including the mobile hotspot on my phone if I turn it on.

I am at a loss to explain this "selective blindness" on the part of the WiFi card, and though the smartest thing to do was to uninstall the device and install a newer, and non-generic, driver for same. I cannot, however, find one from anything I'd consider "a reliable source."

If anyone knows of a safe source for this driver, as I can't find it (so far, anyway) via Realtek nor dynabook.com (no support pages exist for this model of the Toshiba Satellite), that would be functional under Windows 10 I'm all ears.

That, or if someone has a an experience where there is a sudden "selective blindness" for a WiFi network that a machine previously could see and connect to with ease, and they've solved it . . .

 

[Computer Bloke]

I've seen this where a 2.4GHz wireless access point has changed channel, usually from channel 6 to channel 1 or 10, and a marginal WiFi card hasn't been able to pick up a reliable signal at the edge of its band. It's often intermittent if the channel is being changed automatically to avoid interference from a neighbouring network and it seems to be worse with 40MHz bandwidth.

(This is why I never leave home without a wireless analyzer on my phone. I like the free Android one from farproc, but there are many others.)

The quick fix is to set the access point to use channel 6 only (not Auto) with 20MHz bandwidth. It works at least half of the time.

 

[Markverhyden]

Googling "toshiba Realtek RTL8188CE" yielded the below. I'm also a big fan of using pci-ven as well to look up drivers.

Realtek Wireless LAN Driver

The Official Dynabook & Toshiba Support Website provides support for $MODEL_NAME$.

support.dynabook.com

 

[Sky-Knight]

Amazon.com: TP-Link Nano AC600 USB Wifi Adapter(Archer T2U Nano)- 2.4G/5G Dual Band Wireless Network Adapter for PC Desktop, Mini Travel Size, Supports Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, XP / Mac OS X 10.9-10.14 : Electronics

Amazon.com: TP-Link Nano AC600 USB Wifi Adapter(Archer T2U Nano)- 2.4G/5G Dual Band Wireless Network Adapter for PC Desktop, Mini Travel Size, Supports Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, XP / Mac OS X 10.9-10.14 : Electronics

www.amazon.com

The chipset is at least 7 years old... life is too short to muck with old wifi.

 

[britechguy]

I've already proposed a USB WiFi adapter in the nano size, and we may end up going with that. I'll still try a few things to see if the built-in can be made to work again.

 

[GTP]

I've had some success in the past using this method.
Disconnect from the internet.
Remove any and all software associated with the wifi card from Device Manager, Programs and Features etc.
Dont forget to trawl hidden folders in C:\users\AppData (check all paths)
Also check in Program Data on C:\
Search the registry for anything "Realtek" wifi, and backup (to a USB or similar) then delete the keys.
Shutdown and physically remove the wifi card from the PC.
Reboot the PC, and wait till its fully booted, shut down and reinsert the wifi card.
Reboot and Windows will apply a generic driver to the wifi card that (usually) works.

 

[britechguy]

@Barcelona:

Thanks, and I mean that, but this would be economically insane for the customer. We're talking about an old laptop here. I'd encourage her to spend that money to replace it rather than paying me to make an effort that, even if it worked perfectly, would probably cost at least a third of what a brand spankin' new machine of far better specs would cost.

Had I known how things were going to go, that I had no control over, I might have recommended that from the outset. This was one of those situations where "the presenting problem from the client" was the least of the issues. For old hardware, that can get the client in deeper than I'd prefer very quickly, but there's only so much I can do with what I'm told compared to what reveals itself.

 

[britechguy]

Just to wrap things up, I did try installing the latest driver from the page that @Markverhyden referenced just to see if a connection could be established again via WiFi - no dice. This is still mysterious to me in that the thing had been connecting for months and all "diagnostic signs" are that it's working fine.

I have several of the nano-sized USB WiFi adapters and grabbed one of those out of the stash. It functioned instantly upon being plugged in. I just sold it to the client, as it made no sense to pursue getting the built-in card working again from any standpoint after "the very simple and usual quick fixes" didn't fix it. She's now got a dual-band wireless AC adapter and a modem-router that supports same, but the age of the computer and the fact that it has a HDD is a constraining factor. They've been advised to not put another penny into that machine and just to use it until it next fails in some way or they feel like getting a new one to replace it.

There's also now a monthly full system image backup protocol in place. I always feel good when I've gotten that set up and the client comfortable with running it when they had not been taking any backups before. [No, I don't go "full automatic with constantly connected backup drive" in the age of ransomware.]

 

[Markverhyden]

I try to limit what I do with old stuff. If it's for a business that's one thing. But for consumers, after a few tries it's on to lowest cost solution. Personally I've had some issues with these "generic" 802.11 adapter. Get those on refurb business class desktops as the wireless solution. We've had to replace them several times with a name brand model.

 

[nlinecomputers]

You probably have a broken antenna wire. They snake them through the hinges and sometimes they get pinched.

 

[britechguy]

You probably have a broken antenna wire.

Were that the case, I wouldn't expect it to pick up any WiFi networks, let alone not picking up what is by far and away the strongest signal coming from a few feet away.

This was a weird one, without doubt. It could pick up and connect to my own smartphone WiFi hotspot. It simply would not recognize a WiFi network it had been connected to many times for months before just going south. It was showing a number of WiFi networks that were in neighboring homes, still.

I was really glad that the USB WiFi adapter was working instantly.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Were that the case, I wouldn't expect it to pick up any WiFi networks, let alone not picking up what is by far and away the strongest signal coming from a few feet away.

This was a weird one, without doubt. It could pick up and connect to my own smartphone WiFi hotspot. It simply would not recognize a WiFi network it had been connected to many times for months before just going south. It was showing a number of WiFi networks that were in neighboring homes, still.

I was really glad that the USB WiFi adapter was working instantly.

And I have seen the exact same issues with a broken wire or a flaky radio on the card.

 

[britechguy]

And I have seen the exact same issues with a broken wire or a flaky radio on the card.

Then our experiences differ. I have seen lots of weirdness, but never something selective in this way for the reasons you proffer. And I'm not saying you're wrong, either.

 

[nlinecomputers]

The selectiveness could be 2.4ghz vs 5. It’s possible that the bad card isn’t seeing one whole band. Or it’s reception on a one band is poor so that it isn’t working on site because the laptop is a distance from the WiFi router vs your test with a hotspot that you likely placed down beside the laptop.

 

[britechguy]

Just to be clear:

2.4 GHz

At one point since I wanted internet via my phone, and the home is in a semi-dead zone, the phone was halfway across the house. At no time was the laptop any further than 12 feet from the latest version of the Xfinity cable modem-router, and the WiFi analyzer on my phone showed a signal that peaked like Mt. Everest on Channel 6, with no competing networks using 6 (at least at that time).