Brand-New Lenovo L540 Thinkpad Internet Failure?

I was browsing imgur and downloading a steam game in the background when my internet status suddenly changed to "limited". I disconnected in an attempt to reconnect, and now my Wi-Fi is broken. The symptoms are;

1) Usually when I turn on Airplane mode, the Wi-Fi option disappears until I turn it back off. That is no longer the case-it is constantly present.

2) The Wi-Fi constantly says "No networks found", regardless of status.

3) Every time I try to turn the Wi-Fi on (by clicking the Wi-Fi tab), it grays out while a swirly dotted circle appears, then switches back to "off" mode

4) My downstairs desktop temporarily got put on limited status, but is now fine.

5) All other Wi-Fi-capable devices in my house work perfectly, including my old, broken toshiba laptop.

6) I ran a total virus scan with avg, making sure to scan all files regardless of type. Nothing came up.

Guest

I believe you need a power cycle on your laptop.

Cliff

It sounds like your Wi-Fi card is malfunctioning or broken. You might try reinstalling or updating the drivers for it. It might have overheated or it simply gave out. The fact that you were having an issue with it before you disconnected might point to this. I don't know if fiddling with the airplane mode switch is a good way to confuse it and get it to wear out, but it's not a good way to shut down your connection -- normally, you shouldn't have to move that switch at all.

laduron7

Run system restore to a date before you had the issue. That should fix it for you.

Paul H