Problems with Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 Wi-Fi adapter

Hi lilcheesy,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

I'm Hahn and I'm here to help you with your concern.

Dealing with Wi-Fi connectivity issues can be frustrating, especially when it seems to be specific to one device. If you suspect that the Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 Wi-Fi adapter is the source of your problems, here are some steps you can take to troubleshoot and potentially resolve the issue:

• Reset TCP/IP and Winsock:
• Open Command Prompt with administrative privileges (search "cmd" in the start menu, right-click, and select "Run as administrator").
• Type the following commands, pressing Enter after each: netsh winsock reset netsh int ip reset ipconfig /flushdns
• Restart your computer and check if the issue is resolved.
• Update or Roll Back Drivers:
• Go to the Device Manager by right-clicking on the Start button and selecting "Device Manager."
• Expand the "Network adapters" section, right-click on the Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 adapter, and choose "Update driver."
• Try updating the driver software. If that doesn't work, you can also try rolling back the driver to a previous version.
• Make sure your router is running the latest firmware. Check the manufacturer's website for instructions on how to update it.
• Log in to your router's settings (usually by typing the router's IP address in a web browser), and change the Wi-Fi channel. This can help if there's interference from other networks on the same channel.

- If none of the above solutions work, it's possible that there's a hardware issue with your Wi-Fi adapter. Consider replacing it with a new one or using an external USB Wi-Fi adapter as a temporary solution.

I hope this helps.  If there is anything not clear, please do not hesitate to let me know.

Your Sincerely

Hahn - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Hi lilcheesy,

Good catch on noticing the potential connection between rolling back your display drivers and the start of the Wi-Fi issues. It's quite possible the two events are related.

A few things to explore further:

• When you rolled back the display drivers, did you uninstall the newer version first? Or did you install the older version on top? Doing the latter can sometimes cause driver conflicts.
• Try rolling back the display drivers again to the newest version and see if it fixes the Wi-Fi problems.
• Check if the rolled back display drivers you have are unsigned or modified in any way. Some unofficial drivers can cause issues.
• See if there were any other Windows updates or software installations around the same time. Something else may have interacted poorly with the display driver rollback.
• Boot into safe mode with networking again and see if Wi-Fi works there. That will rule out any driver conflicts. Start your PC in safe mode in Windows - Microsoft Support

Pay close attention to any changes right before or after the Wi-Fi issues started. Let me know if reverting the display drivers or any other steps make a difference!

Your Sincerely

Hahn - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

I've tried everything you told me and it still doesn't work. The rollback drivers option is greyed out, and it says I already have the latest version installed. There is an odd thing though. I noticed my computer was running slow a while ago, so I rolled back my display driver to a previous version and that seems to have fixed it. However, that's around the same time I started to have connection issues. Would those possibly have any correlation with each other?