Networking Devices Screwed

I am guess this is a notebook?

Some have a physical button to instantly disable all radio/networking devices. Could you have accidentally hit that?

 

No, I mean another button or switch - not a F-key. On my Toshiba, it is a little slide switch under the front edge to instantly disable all networking and wireless devices (wifi, BT, etc.).

It might be on the side like this Lenovo. Hit the right and left arrows on that image to see other examples.

 

Could it be a recent update, e.g. KB4090913? (I think you run w10)
https://www.computerworld.com/artic...kes-the-brunt-of-march-patching-problems.html

 

You might try a live Linux stick, if you have one, to eliminate hardware as a reason.

 

Is it under warranty? Have you tried Ethernet?

Are you using a VPN client (see this)?

 

I found this online about the airplane mode needing resetting or re-enabled. Options 1 and 3 sounds like something you may not have tried yet. Also saw some topics where Checkpoint VPN and even another VPN causing the code 56 thing.


https://www.howto-connect.com/fix-airplane-mode-issues-in-windows-10/

 

If Ethernet does not work either, then something more serious is going on. Sorry I cannot think what that might be since the computer seems to be working fine otherwise. So it does not seem to be a PSU issue, for example.

 

Do you have access to another PC to download a file to a flash drive?

 

That's not good.
When you start the computer, press F11 to select a boot device. (Might not work on all PCs.)
Also, have you tried running the SFC Utility from a flash drive in Safe Mode?

 

I understand you uninstalled wifi and ethernet devices and rebooted which didn't work... but what ARE your wifi and ethernet adapters? Might you be able to access the latest drivers from the manufacturer's website from another device? No real faith that this would be the solution, because technically, Windows should have reinstalled the default drivers when you uninstalled and rebooted... which should have worked fine it it were a driver issue.

Is your device, by some chance, a Dell Inspiron? To question a bit further... do you have an Fn key? If you DO have an Fn key, try it in combination with your wifi on/off toggle key ... F2, I think you said it was? So... Fn + F2 then check to see if it will allow you out of airplane mode.

[Edit]

To add one more question... does your F2 key have a small LED light on it? If so, is it on or off?

 

ASUS ... This is one too, but probably older. Power on gives me 3 choices, ESC to enter setup, F9 and F8, which give preboot options. I can toggle back and forth on F9 and F8 after either is selected. The repair option is in F8. This ASUS has an AMI bios. Using ESC to go into setup finds the Boot tab. There are two lists, boot order and priority over boot. USB won't show in either list, unless a stick is already inserted before powering up. Then the USB will show in the priority list, but not the order list. Selecting anyone of the priority list, setup immediately quits and boot is attempted from the selected device. ASUS also created a recovery partition, using AiRecovery, which seems to work with the F8 repair option. Along with it, they provided an AiRecovery bootable stick with a copy of imagex.exe, the windows imaging utility. I am sure none of this is a match for your system, but I hope this might give you some clues on what to explore and look for. ASUS made some efforts here, but kind of kept things hidden. Each day I'm discovering new things on this old beast.

 

I didn't think your power on options would be the same, but does anything else in addition to F2 flash by on powering up?

 

Okay, yours might be too quick to see. Right after I hit the power switch the POST begins and ever so briefly, ESC, F9, and F8 flash at the lower left corner of the black screen. ESC shows SETUP, but I can't remember ATM what shows for the other two. The flash doesn't last long enough to read for my old eyes to take it all in and register in my old brain. Yet, by having an arthritic finger pre-positioned on ESC or an F key, I can usually beat the normal boot start. AMI didn't make things easy! I just thought you might have another option along with F2, if you can see it on the flash.

 

Being that you have w10, I know there is a major departure in how you proceed once you get to pre-boot options in comparison to my w7. I did some research on w10 boot issues almost 2 years ago, but I don't remember specifics beyond it being drastically different than w7. Unfortunately, all the links I collected are on the machine that died last year. Since you can get into bios, you should be able to run a Puppy Linux live distro to see if your hardware is working okay. I usually use UUI from pendrivelinux https://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/

 

Hope so. In my case, I have to power down first, insert the stick so bios can see it on post, power on and hit the esc key to get into bios, and should then see the usb in the priority over boot list. Selecting it will close my bios setup and start boot from the stick. Its a real hassle. It would've been simpler if AMI had allowed usb in the order list. I hope yours works much easier.

 

I just did a DDG search on "how to recover win10". It resulted in a large list of links that might be of interest to you for your situation. Some were links to MS, tenforums,and howtogeek. These will give info more familiar to you than they are to me, because I dont see on w7 what you are seeing on w10. I hope some of what is listed will benefit you.

 

Back up and system running, now?

 

Fantastic! ... and let this be a lesson latrz

 

Good to know your system is running.
I would like to know what went wrong.

 

Strange, I tried it that way once with no luck, it only worked for me from the desktop (as I have understood Microsoft intended....)
Still, good to see you solved it.
Network card was O.K ,then ?