Dell Venue 8 Pro Wifi Problems

Hi Elizabeth,

Thank you so much for posting your query on this forum. You have reached the right place and I will try my best to assist you with this issue.

As mentioned in the previous post, this issue occurs because; the Airplane mode setting changes before the wireless devices are configured. Therefore, the system cannot relay the Airplane mode settings to the devices.

After you click the toggle to turn Airplane mode on or off, it can take your PC a few seconds to turn each wireless device on or off. Thus, this issue usually happens when the airplane mode is toggled between ON and OFF too quickly before the wireless devices are configured properly. Thus, in this situation, your wireless device settings might get out of sync with the Airplane mode setting.

If you are unable to turn ON the Wi-Fi, then something might have happened to the wireless card drivers on the computer recently. Let us try the following troubleshooting methods and check if that resolves the issue.

Method 1: Run the Network Adapter Troubleshooters

The Network Adapter troubleshooter is an automated tool which will check the adapter in the computer for any known issues and provides the details and on how to fix them. Follow these steps and run the troubleshooter.

a) Press “Windows Logo” + “W” keys from the keyboard.

b) Type “Troubleshooting” in the search bar and press “Enter”.

c) In the “Troubleshooting” window, click on “View All” on the left pane.

d) Click on “Network Adapter”.

e) Click on “Advanced” and then click on “Run as Administrator”.

f) Click “Next” and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the troubleshooting process.

Check the troubleshooting report and share the details with us. You may also try the suggestions given by the troubleshooter and check if that resolves the issue. If that doesn’t help, then try the next method.

Method 2: Uninstall and Reinstall the latest Network Drivers from the Dell Website

If you are unable to connect to the Internet in any way on the computer, then I would suggest you to first download and save the Dell Wireless 1538 WiFi + Bluetooth Driver using another computer and then transfer it to this computer. You can download the drivers from this link: Dell Wireless 1538 WiFi + Bluetooth Driver

Now, you may uninstall the existing Wireless Card drivers from the Device Manager and then reinstall it again. To uninstall the existing Wireless Card drivers, please follow these steps:

a) Press “Windows Logo” + “X” keys on the keyboard.

b) Click on “Device Manager” from that list.

c) Search for the Wireless Card device from the device list, right click on it and then select “Uninstall”. On the un-installation window, if you have an option: “Delete the driver software for this device” you may select that and then remove the corrupted drivers from the computer.

d) Follow the on-screen instructions to complete it and the restart the computer if prompted.

After the restart, please open the Device Manager again and then click on the “Scan for hardware changes” button. Check if Windows 8.1 detects the Wireless Card device and installs an appropriate driver automatically. If the issue still persists, then try installing the latest driver using the setup file that you have transferred to this computer.

Hope this is helpful. Please get back to us with the results.

Could not find a solution at all until I stumbled on your solution Victor. The devcon.exe solution is especially helpful. Thanks for providing it!

Hi Lukeman,

From the issue description, I understand the scenario as - You turned on the Airplane mode to disable all wireless communication and then later, you turn this mode off. But, the WIFI connection doesn't seem to reconnect anymore or the Wireless adapter device stay off even though Airplane mode is off.

This issue occurs because; the Airplane mode setting changes before the wireless devices are configured. Therefore, the system cannot relay the Airplane mode settings to the devices. For a workaround on this issue, I would suggest you to refer to the Microsoft Support KB article given below:

Wireless devices are disabled after you turn off Airplane Mode in Windows 8.1 or Windows 8

Hope this is helpful. If you need any further assistance with Windows Operating System, please post your query on Microsoft Community Forums and we’ll be glad to assist you with it.

I have the Dell Venue 8 Pro and having recently used the Airplane Mode, I have been unable to reconnect to wi-fi. I have turned off the Airplane Mode and I have moved the bar to turn back on Wi-Fi, but, after thinking about it for a bit (moving circle of dots), it returns the Wi-Fi bar to the off position and that is that. I can not seem to force it to keep the Wi-Fi connection bar in the "on" position. When I look at Manage Known Networks, the only option I have is to "forget" the Wi-Fi network that I want to connect to. I have shut down completely and restarted, same problem. 

Thank you for any help you can give.

I had a similar issue with my Venue 8 Pro. 

Try this: https://github.com/vstarostenko/dv8p_wifi_issue_fix