Please Help, New Wireless Adapter Issue

[Ryan McAllister]

I bought a wireless card (USB Novel Nano 11 AC Adapter) for my new Dell OptiPlex 3020 and I am having difficulties getting it to work. The wireless adapter came with a installation disk in which I followed the instructions and a "RealTek wireless lan utility" program downloaded. Unfortunately, when I plug in my wireless usb adapter it is not working and I noticed the following: In the tray icon for the Realtek when hovering the cursor over the icon it says "no RTL818X", furthermore when opening the Realtek software there is no wireless adapter found in my computer (when looking online it appears there should be). One last bit of information according to the instruction manual after inserting the disk and going through the RealTek installation there is suppose to be wireless bars icon in the tray, in which I also do not see. Thank you for your time, running windows 8

 

[Tim Locke]

I found it here

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adapter-Us...5189&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=nano+wifi+ac&psc=1

I see in the description text it suggests that there is a driver here

"Driver Online: http://jmp.sh/znk9UvF. The WiFi AdaptEr is compatibel with Windows 10/8.1/8/7/XP/Vista (32-bit/64-bit), Mac OS 10.4 ~ 10.12.1 and Linux 2.4/2.6. "


I have one of those little WiFi dongles...mine works on Linux on a Rasberry Pi

Also on Windows 10 with a driver that comes as part of W10 (1027.4.630.2015) so maybe that driver in the link will work on W8. But on earlier versions of W10 it didn't work.


I would remove ALL the software that came with the device. Reboot, plug it in to a USB 2 slot and see what device manager has to say. If it is there try it If not then try to install a new device and see if Windows can find a driver. Finally try the link.


Why do you have W8 on a new Optiplex?

 

[Ryan McAllister]

That's what it came with, I wanted to upgrade to 10 but I don't want to pay anymore that I already have.

 

[Ryan McAllister]

I found it here

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adapter-Us...5189&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=nano+wifi+ac&psc=1

I see in the description text it suggests that there is a driver here

"Driver Online: http://jmp.sh/znk9UvF. The WiFi AdaptEr is compatibel with Windows 10/8.1/8/7/XP/Vista (32-bit/64-bit), Mac OS 10.4 ~ 10.12.1 and Linux 2.4/2.6. "


I have one of those little WiFi dongles...mine works on Linux on a Rasberry Pi

Also on Windows 10 with a driver that comes as part of W10 (1027.4.630.2015) so maybe that driver in the link will work on W8. But on earlier versions of W10 it didn't work.


I would remove ALL the software that came with the device. Reboot, plug it in to a USB 2 slot and see what device manager has to say. If it is there try it If not then try to install a new device and see if Windows can find a driver. Finally try the link.


Why do you have W8 on a new Optiplex?

After doing what you suggested now the adapter appears in the device manager without having an explanation point over it. But still the issue remains "No RTL818x" (in the tray icon) and the RealTek Software is not recognizing it as well (as before). Could I use a different wireless software than RealTek?

 

[Tim Locke]

I am not that familiar with Windows 8. IIRC Windows 7 and now Windows 10 don't need ANY software to do WiFi apart from the basic driver for the adapter. So I think you should get rid of the RealTek software.
If device managers sees the driver then I'd think that Wifi should just start and you'll need to connect to a network. Again I am not familiar with W8 ( never used it).

I am sure someone on this forum does know the answer. But at least we have found a working driver.


When you say Windows 8 presumably you have updated to 8.1 ?

 

[Ryan McAllister]

Thanks Tim, yes I have updated to 8.1. I can not find a software that will allow me to connect to my router wirelessly on windows 8. Is there another besides RealTek that will be compatible with my USB adapter?

 

[Tim Locke]

I did a bit of reading about the networking in Windows 8. As far as I can see:
If your dongle is recognized by devices manager and has loaded a driver, which device mgr will show Then you don't need or want any thing else for wifi to work.
You don't need any 3rd party 'wifi software' Windows has it all.
Wifi has to be enabled. Aircraft mode has to be turned off. The adapter ( seen in network and sharing centre adapter settings) has to enabled and show some signal strength. Then connect to a network. If I were doing this I would disconnect the ethernet cable until wifi is working

So as I said you want to get rid of the Realtek software just leaving the driver. I suspect that the Realtek stuff is the problem.

This site looks worth reading for the particular things to look at in W8/8.1 very similar to W10.