Chosen Solution
I work in education, and I’ve noticed this happen on multiple student devices. It’s a common issue on C213 devices as well. I’m not entirely sure it’s the network card, as we’ve swapped network cards out before and the issue returns weeks later. I’ve powerwashed and reloaded Chrome OS, but it doesn’t appear to be a software issue. I’ve also noticed that reseating the network card fixes the issue for at least a few days if not a few months, but the Chromebooks always come back with the same issue. Has anyone dealt with this before? How do you go about repair? Thanks!
If multiple computers are unable to access Wi-Fi, I can think of three reasons: 1. A malware infection by a “worm” has spread to multiple computers and compromised their networking abilities, 2. The router or switch device that these computers are connected to frequently loses its ability to function properly and needs to be replaced, or 3. The network cards are fine, but the slots that they connect to aren’t. I think that it’s most likely that the network card slots are faulty, and only provide network access after you re-seated the cards in there firmly. Sometimes NIC card slots can widen slightly, hereby affecting their ability to make contact with the cards. Frequently removing/replacing the NIC cards can exacerbate the problem.
