How to Fix Windows Could Not Find a Driver For Network Adapter

Is your PC unable to connect to the internet? You might get the error “Windows could not find a driver for your network adapter”. A common problem often occurs when your network adapter drivers are out of date.

A network adapter is a fundamental component that enables your PC to connect to the internet. If your computer cannot connect to the available network, chances are that your PC is missing a LAN driver for Windows 11,10,7 or later.

The issue can be easily highlighted by running the troubleshooter. Usually, the error states says, “Windows could not find a driver for your network adapter.”

In this blog, let us take a closer look at how you can resolve this issue easily.

Also Read: A Driver Cannot Load on This Device

Ways To Fix Windows Could Not Find a Driver For Network Adapter

Windows is an advanced operating system with built-in diagnostic capabilities to find and troubleshoot errors. If you are facing an issue related to the network adapter driver on Windows 10 PC, chances are that your computer can fix the problem on its own.

The first and most common way to solve the error is manually installing the required drivers. The error “Windows could not find a driver for your network adapter” only occurs when the driver installed for the adapter is either outdated, corrupted, or it is unavailable to use.

Here’s how you can resolve the issue –

Press Windows + R on your keyboard to bring up the Run box.
Type – devmgmt.msc and press Enter to open the Device Manager.
In the Device Manager, click on the network adapter and select the adapter from the dropdown.
Right-click on your network adapter and from the context menu, click on→Update Driver.

This will open up a new window that has two options. One asks you to connect to the internet and find the best available drivers to install. The second one allows you to find the driver file on your PC.
If you have a downloaded driver file ready, simply click on browse computer.

Locate the driver software on your hard disk and install it right away. Restart your PC, and it should do the trick for you.

If installing the updated network adapter driver for Windows 10 manually does not crack it for you, there’s another way that you can try; however, it has its ups and downs. What you have to do is completely remove the network adapter from your PC and uninstall the existing drivers.

Also Visit: How to Find Existing Driver Versions on Your Windows PC

This way, when you restart, the computer will automatically install the latest drivers, and your PC might start running properly. Here’s how you can do that!

Press Windows + R on your keyboard to bring up the Run box.
Type – devmgmt.msc and press Enter to open the Device Manager.
In the Device Manager, click on the network adapter and select the adapter from the dropdown.
Right-click on your network adapter to open the context menu. Click on the Uninstall Device option.

Remove the network adapter completely by following the onscreen instructions to uninstal the driver.
On the top of the window, you will find an Action toggle. Click on it and then click on Scan for hardware changes.

Once the scan is completed, your PC will have automatically reinstalled the adapter.

These are the two ways integrated within the operating system that you can use to rectify the situation with the network controller driver. It is possible that these do not yield the expected results as their use case is somewhat limited.

If you do not get the resolution through these two ways, do not worry as there’s another way to handle the error. Check out the next section to find out more!

Advanced Driver Updater: The Ultimate Fix to Windows Could Not Find a Driver for Network Adapter

Advanced Driver Updater is a tool used to update all the missing drivers from a PC. It works flawlessly with your computer and finds the list of all the drivers that are outdated, corrupted or missing on your PC.

The tool can find the latest drivers for your network adapter and resolve the connectivity issue in just a few clicks –

Install the Advanced Driver Updater from the below button.

Click on Start Scan to initiate the search for missing drivers. The software will search for all the missing drivers, which means the ones other than your network adapter will also be highlighted.

The scanning might take a few minutes based on the number of applications and drivers on your PC. Ideally, it takes not more than 5 minutes.

Find your Network Adapter Driver to install on priority, or if you have time, you can simply click on the Update driver and let the software work and you can also update all outdated driver in one click.

After initiating the process, give the software time to install the drivers. Once the process is completed, restart your computer, and your problem will be solved.

Also Read: How to Update Drivers On PC

In Conclusion

If you are missing out on multiple drivers and your PC is turning into a sluggish machine, scanning it with Advanced Driver Updater is a good option. It will highlight the outdated, missing, and corrupt drivers causing the problem. Download the software today and see the impact for yourself.

I hope the blog gives you the solution you need. “Windows could not find a driver for your network adapter” is a common problem, and you are not the only one facing it. So relax and use the given fixes to resolve the issue. Good Luck!

Dishank Sharma

A creative tech-writer who loves to explore latest tech-trends & convey them to his readers in the simplest way possible. He loves to blend the crispness of technology with a pinch of creativity while curating best practices for the readers. In his free time, he likes to scribble poetry, listen to rap & travel.