How To Enable 5GHz Wi-Fi On Laptop

You may have encountered such weird things: You put in your modem with two bandwidths, 2.4GHz, and 5GHz. Your computer only sees the one of 2.4GHz.

Choose your situation and check the solutions:

• Connecting to 5GHz for the first time
• Accessible before, but doesn’t recognize now

Connecting to 5GHz for the first time

If you bought a new dual-band router that has a 5GHz radio, or it’s your first time putting your router into 5GHz, but your computer does not see the 5GHz WiFi, these fixes may work for you.
You don’t need to try all of them, just work your way down till you find the one that works for you.

1. Check your network adapter capability
2. Change network adapter mode
3. Update your driver

1. Check your network adapter capability

One probable reason is that your network card does not have 5GHz bandwidth capability. You could check it by following the steps below.

1. Click the Start menu.
2. Press the Windows logo key and R key at the same time.
3. In the Run box, type cmd and click OK.
   
4. On the Command prompt window, type netsh wlan show drivers and press the Enter key.
   
5. Looking for the Radio types supported section.
   

If it says that the network adapter supports 802.11g and 802.11n network modes, it means that the computer has 2.4 GHz network capability only.

If it says that the adapter supports 802.11a and 802.11g , 802.11n, and 802.11ac network modes, it means that the computer has 2.4 GHz and 5GHz network capability.

If it says 802.11n 802.11g and 802.11b network modes, it means the computer has 2.4GHz network capability only.

If you find out your network card doesn’t support 5 GHz, you have to buy a new network card or buy a USB wifi adapter.

2. Change network adapter mode

If your network card support 5 GHz, then check your network adapter, you may disable 5 GHz in the network adapter by accident. The solution is easy, changing your network adapter mode would fix the issue.

1. Press the Windows logo key and R key at the same time.
2. In the Run box, type devmgmt.msc and click OK.
   
3. Go to Network adapters and right-click on the network adapter. Click Properties.
   
4. Click Advanced > Wireless Mode > Auto > OK.
   Note: Wireless Mode only available for network cards that support 5 GHz. If you can’t find it, it means your network card doesn’t support 5 GHz.
   
5. In the Advanced tab, move to Preferred Band, set 5G first, then click OK.
   
6. Then you should be able to see 5 GHz.

3. Update your driver

This might be caused by driver issues. Before you move on, it’s suggested that you update the driver first.
You can download network drivers from the manufacturer’s official website. Search for the model you have and find the correct driver that suits your specific operating system. Then download the driver manually.

If you don’t have the time, patience, or computer skills to update the driver manually, you can do it automatically with Driver Easy.

Driver Easy will automatically recognize your system and find the correct drivers for it. You don’t need to know exactly what system your computer is running, you don’t need to risk downloading and installing the wrong driver, and you don’t need to worry about making a mistake when installing.

You can update your drivers automatically with either the FREE or the Pro version of Driver Easy. But with the Pro version, it takes just 2 clicks (and you get full support and a 30-day money back guarantee):

1. Download and install Driver Easy.
2. Run Driver Easy and click the Scan Now button. Driver Easy will then scan your computer and detect any problem drivers.
   
3. Click the Update button next to the flagged driver to automatically download the correct version of that driver, then you can manually install it (you can do this with the FREE version). 
   Or click Update All to automatically download and install the correct version of all the drivers that are missing or out of date on your system. (This requires the Pro version which comes with full support and a 30-day money back guarantee. You’ll be prompted to upgrade when you click Update All.)   
   

Accessible before, but doesn’t recognize now

If you upgrade your computer system then your computer doesn’t recognize WiFi 5 GHz while your devices remain the same, the below fixes may help:

1. Update your drivers
2. Reinstall your driver
3. Change your router channel

1. Update your drivers

This issue is highly related to your driver. We suggest updating the network driver first. Windows 10 doesn’t always give you the latest version. But with outdated or wrong drivers, you may encounter this issue.

There are two ways you can update your driver: manually and automatically.

Option 1 – Manually– You’ll need some computer skills and patience to update your drivers this way, because you need to find exactly the right driver online, download it and install it step by step.

OR

Option 2 – Automatically (Recommended)– This is the quickest and easiest option. It’s all done with just a couple of mouse clicks – easy even if you’re a computer newbie.

Option 1 – Download and install the driver manually 

You can download graphics drivers from the manufacturer’s official website. Search for the model you have and find the correct driver that suits your specific operating system. Then download the driver manually.

Option 2 – Automatically update drivers

If you don’t have time or patience to manually update your graphics drivers, you can do it automatically with Driver Easy.

Driver Easy will automatically recognize your system and find the correct drivers for it. You don’t need to know exactly what system your computer is running, you don’t need to risk downloading and installing the wrong driver, and you don’t need to worry about making a mistake when installing.

You can update your drivers automatically with either the FREE or the Pro version of Driver Easy. But with the Pro version it takes just 2 clicks (and you get full support and a 30-day money back guarantee):

1. Download and install Driver Easy.
2. Run Driver Easy and click the Scan Now button. Driver Easy will then scan your computer and detect any problem drivers.
   
3. Click the Update button next to the flagged driver to automatically download the correct version of that driver, then you can manually install it (you can do this with the FREE version). 
   Or click Update All to automatically download and install the correct version of all the drivers that are missing or out of date on your system. (This requires the Pro version which comes with full support and a 30-day money back guarantee. You’ll be prompted to upgrade when you click Update All.)   
   

2. Reinstall your driver

If updating the driver doesn’t work, reinstalling the driver may help. It is pretty easy to reinstall the driver for your wireless network adapter. Here is how:

1. Press the Windows logo key and R key at the same time.
2. In the Run box, type devmgmt.msc and click OK.
   
3. In Device Manager, right-click on your wireless network adapter and select Uninstall device.
   
4. Check Delete the driver software for this device and click Uninstall.
   
5. When it is finished, your wireless network adapter will disappear from the list of Network adapters.
6. Click Action > Scan for hardware changes. Then Windows will detect the missing driver for your wireless network adapter and reinstall it automatically.
   
7. The driver should appear in the list.
   

3. Change your router channel

This should be your final solution. Usually, the default settings of routers generally meet local requirements, and the channel setting of the router is in auto mode.

When your router’s channel number changes, your router is using another country’s channel number which causes your phone or your computer cannot detect 5G WiFi. Therefore, changing the router channel number manually can solve the problem.

How to change your router channel

1. Press the Windows key + R together to open the Run box.
2. Type cmd and press Enter.
3. Type ipconfig and press Enter.
4. The Default Gateway address is your router IP address.
   
5. Open a web browser on your PC and paste the IP address into the address bar. Hit the Enter key.
6. Enter your username and password.
7. Open Wireless Settings.
8. Find the Channel section and change the number.
9. Save the change.

Here’s a hint. When you manually change the channel number, you’d better set it between 36-48 or 149-165. It’s because you need to avoid Dynamic Frequency Select (DFS) which is channels (50-144). Weather radar uses the same channel, so if there’s an in-used weather radar nearby, the equipment will switch to a different channel automatically.

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That’s it! Hope this post could help you fix the issue. If you have any questions or suggestions, you’re welcome to leave comments below.