Missing Broadcom Wifi Adapter on Windows 8.1

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Level 1

8 points

Missing Broadcom Wifi Adapter on Windows 8.1

Last night, I was successfully able to dual-boot Windows 8.1 onto my late 2013 Mac Book Pro with Retina. I made sure to download the latest support software for Windows. No problems there, as far as I know.

However, I am unable to connect to wifi on the Mac Book when running Windows 8.1. The troubleshooter is unable to find any issues, and I have gone into settings to make sure that airplane mode is turned off.

I believe the problem may have something to do with my Network adapters. Following online instructions, I opened up the Device Manager and looked at my Network adapters. Supposedly, I should find a Broadcom wifi adapter here so I can update its drivers, but there is no such adapter in the list. Instead, I just see two Bluetooth Device adapters.

This is really confusing, because wifi works just fine when running OSx on the Mac Book. So I'm guessing I must have some kind of wifi adapter that Windows 8.1 can't seem to locate, or something along those lines.

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So, my question is: what should I do if I do not see a wifi adapter in my device manager on Windows 8.1? Do I have the adapter, and it's just invisible because its drivers are out of date, or is there some other issue?

Thanks in advance!

Posted on May 30, 2014 11:28 AM

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Answer 1

turbostar

Level 4

2,941 points

May 30, 2014 12:32 PM in response to d3ward

did you actually install the drivers? you would have had to have clicked continue after windows was installed

if not, go into the folder and click setup.exe to run it manually

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Answer 2

d3ward Author

Level 1

8 points

May 30, 2014 12:47 PM in response to turbostar

turbostar -

I believe I did install the drivers. I don't remember every step of the installation process from last night, but I do specificly remember downloading the latest support files for Microsoft (which should have included the drivers) and stepping through the installation. If I was prompted to click continue at some point, I did.

Just to be safe, I reopened the USB flash drive I used to install Windows 8.1 last night, and I located setup.exe as you said. This seems to want me to reinstall Windows. Is this the way to go about fixing the issue? And what will this do if I install Windows a second time?

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Answer 3

turbostar

Level 4

2,941 points

May 30, 2014 1:30 PM in response to d3ward

Unsure of exact root structure but look for setup in the windows support software folder, I think you clicked on the main installer setup

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Answer 4

d3ward Author

Level 1

8 points

May 30, 2014 2:04 PM in response to turbostar

Ah, that did the trick! Since I plugged the USB flash drive into the D drive, the path for me was:

This PC/ WININSTALL (D:)/ BootCamp/ Drivers/ Broadcom

This folder had six different .exe's, but since I installed Windows 8.1 64 bit, I ran BroadcomWirelessWin8x64.exe. This installed the driver in just a few seconds, and now the Broadcom 802.11ac Network Adapter shows up in my Device Manager underneath Network Adapters.

So, if anyone dual-boots Windows onto their Mac Book and can't seem to find the Broadcom wifi adapter in the device manager, don't worry! It isn't missing, it's just not showing up until you run the exe for the drivers it needs.

Thanks turbostar! I really appreciate it.

PS - I meant to click 'this solved my question,' but I accidentally clicked 'this helped me' instead. Sorry about that! First day on the site haha.

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