Device Drivers are important for the proper functioning of your system hardware, if these drivers get corrupted or somehow stopped functioning then the hardware will stop communicating with Windows. In short, you will face issues with that particular hardware. So in case, you’re facing network-related issues or if you’re not able to connect to the Internet then you would probably run the Network Adapter Troubleshooter. Navigate to Windows Settings (Press Windows Key + I) then click on Update & Security, from the left-hand side menu select Troubleshoot. Now under “Find and fix other problems” click on Network Adapter and then click “Run the troubleshooter“.
Usually, the network troubleshooter checks the drivers and settings, if they are not in place then it resets them, and resolves issues whenever it can. But in this case, when you run the network adapter troubleshooter you will see that it’s unable to fix the issue even though it has found the problem. Network troubleshooter will show you the error message “Windows could not find a driver for your network adapter“.
The above error message doesn’t mean that there is no network adapter driver installed on the system, the error simply means that Windows isn’t able to communicate with the Network adapter. Now, this is because of corrupted, outdated, or incompatible network drivers. So without wasting any time let’s see How to Fix Windows could not find a driver for your network adapter error with the help of the below-listed tutorial.
Fix Windows could not find a Driver for your Network Adapter
Make sure to create a restore point just in case something goes wrong.
Contents
- Fix Windows could not find a Driver for your Network Adapter
- Method 1: Re-install Network Adapter Drivers
- Method 2: Update Network Adapter driver
- Method 3: Run Network Adapter Troubleshooter
- Method 4: Check Power Management Settings of Network Adapter
- Method 5: Perform a System Restore
- Method 6: Reset the network
Method 1: Re-install Network Adapter Drivers
Note: You will need another PC to download the latest network adapter driver, as your system has limited Internet Access.
First, make sure you download the latest network adapter drivers from the manufacturer’s website if you don’t know the manufacturer then navigate to device manager, expand Network adapters, here you will find the name of the manufacturer of the network device, for example, in my case, it’s Intel Centrino Wireless.
Alternatively, you can also go to your PC manufacturer’s website then go to supper and downloads section, from here download the latest drivers for the Network adapter. Once you have the latest driver, transfer it to a USB Flash drive and plug in the USB on the system you ‘re facing the error message “Windows could not find a driver for your network adapter“. Copy the driver files from the USB to this system and then follow the below-listed steps:
1.Press Windows Key + R then type devmgmt.msc and hit Enter to open Device Manager.
2.Expand Network adapters then right-click on your device and select Uninstall device.
Note: If you can’t find your device follow this for each of the device listed under network adapters.
3.Checkmark “Delete the driver software for this device” and click Uninstall.
4.Reboot your PC to save changes.
5.After the system restart, Windows will try to automatically to install the latest driver for your device.
See if this fixes the issue, if not then install the drivers you transferred to your PC using the USB drive.
Also Read: Fix Network Adapter Error Code 31 in Device Manager
Method 2: Update Network Adapter driver
If your Network adapter drivers are corrupted or outdated then you would face the error “Windows could not find a driver for your Network Adapter“. So in order to get rid of this error, you need to update your network adapter drivers:
1.Press Windows key + R and type “devmgmt.msc” in Run dialogue box to open device manager.
2.Expand Network adapters, then right-click on your Wi-Fi controller(for example Broadcom or Intel) and select Update Drivers.
3.In the Update Driver Software Windows, select “Browse my computer for driver software.“
4.Now select “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer.“
5.Try to update drivers from the listed versions.
6.If the above didn’t work then go to the manufacturer’s website to update drivers: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/
7.Reboot to apply changes.
Method 3: Run Network Adapter Troubleshooter
1.Press Windows Key + I to open Settings then click on Update & Security.
2.From the left-hand menu select Troubleshoot.
3.Under Troubleshoot click on Internet Connections and then click Run the troubleshooter.
4.Follow further on-screen instructions to run the troubleshooter.
5.If the above didn’t fix the issue then from the Troubleshoot window, click on Network Adapter and then click on Run the troubleshooter.
5.Reboot your PC to save changes and see if you’re able to Fix Windows could not Find a Driver for your Network Adapter error.
Method 4: Check Power Management Settings of Network Adapter
2.Expand Network adapters then right-click on your device and select Properties.
3.Switch to the Power Management tab then uncheck “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.“
4.Click OK to save your settings.
5.Run the Network Adapter troubleshooter again and see if it’s able to resolve Windows could not find a driver for your network adapter error.
Method 5: Perform a System Restore
1.Type control in Windows Search then click on the “Control Panel” shortcut from the search result.
2.Switch the ‘View by’ mode to ‘Small icons’.
3.Click on ‘Recovery’.
4.Click on ‘Open System Restore’ to undo recent system changes. Follow all the steps needed.
5.Now from the Restore system files and settings window click on Next.
6.Select the restore point and make sure this restore point is created before you were facing the Windows could not Find a Driver for your Network Adapter error.
7.If you can’t find old restore points then checkmark “Show more restore points” and then select the restore point.
8.Click Next and then review all the settings you configured.
9.Finally, click Finish to start the restore process.
Method 6: Reset the network
Resetting the network through the built-in settings application in Windows 10 might help in case there is an issue with the network configuration of your system. To reset the network,
Use the Windows Key combination shortcut Windows Key + I to open the settings application. You can also open the settings application by clicking on the gear-like icon in the start menu located just above the power icon.
Click on Network & Internet.
Scroll down to see the option Network Reset and click on it.
In the page that opens, click on Reset Now.
Your Windows 10 desktop or laptop shall restart, and all the network configuration will be reset to defaults. I hope this will fix the network adapter driver not found the issue.
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This wraps up the simple fixes that you can implement to fix Windows could not find drivers for your network adapter. If you are using a desktop and using a PCIe network card, you can try swapping out the network adapter card for another one or using the onboard network adapter. If you are using a laptop that has a swappable Wi-Fi card, you can also try swapping it with another card and check if there is a hardware issue with your network adapter.
If none of these fixes work, you can try reinstalling Windows 10 as a last resort. Or, you can use another boot drive and see if there is a problem with your operating system only. This will save you some time to verify if the operating system is at fault. You can also try searching for issues with the particular network adapter you have on the manufacturer’s support website. If you don’t know which one you are using, it is most probable that the one you are using is an Intel onboard LAN adapter.
