Wi-Fi isn't working

Hello, I am in urgent need of some assistance here. To give you the full picture—I recently installed Windows 10 on my HP Pavilion DV7 laptop, and everything was running smoothly at first. However, after one single shutdown, the Wi-Fi simply stopped working. It is quite peculiar; the icon in the system tray suggests I have a wired connection, yet I am clearly not connected to anything. I have attempted just about every logical troubleshooting step in the book—updating the drivers (specifically the Atheros AR9285), performing clean reinstalls, deleting them, disabling them... you name it—but nothing seems to move the needle. I even went as far as performing a system restore from a backup created just yesterday, but the icon remains stuck in this deceptive state. The strange thing is that the Wi-Fi actually *is* working because it connected automatically, but when I click that tray icon to look for other networks, the list is completely empty. Not a single router is visible. Furthermore, the Wireless Assistant is greyed out and refuses to be enabled. Even the physical Wi-Fi touch icon on the chassis has turned yellow—indicating it is disabled—and no matter how many times I tap it, the wireless stays off. Most concerningly, if I dig into the Network settings, the Wi-Fi adapter that was perfectly visible before has vanished entirely from the list. What should my next move be?

I just ran the CCX Diagnostic utility, and this is what popped up:

Driver installation test

This test is to check the radio driver installation.

The radio's registry keys are OK.

Nic name. . . . . . . . . : Atheros AR9285 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter

Driver name . . . . . . . : ATHRX

Driver path . . . . . . . : C:\WINDOWS\\SystemRoot\System32\drivers\athrx.sys

Driver version. . . . . . :

Active Profile Name . . : Not Found

Driver has not been installed correctly.

Try reinstalling the software.

If that does not work, try replacing the radio.

Card insertion test

This test is to check the card insertion.

The card has been inserted.

Card enable test

This test is to check if the radio/driver is enabled.

The radio has been enabled.

Association test

This test is to check your client adapter's association to an access point.

link status . . . . . . . : Not Associated

Your client adapter is not associated to an access point.

Configure the radio card and set SSID and other properties.

Authentication test

This test is to check authentication.

Authentication test bypassed, because authentication is not in use.

Network test

This test is to check your network settings.

Your IP address: 0.0.0.0.

You have not configured your computer to use the client adapter.

Use the Network icon in System Settings

to set the network configuration for your client adapter.

Just head into the Control Panel and look for Network settings. You'll find the LAN setup for both adapters in there. Check those configurations...

William Richardson12 said:Just head into the Control Panel and look for Network settings. You'll find the LAN setup for both adapters in there. Check those configurations...

Under my network connections, I have
wifi atheros not connected
ethernet realtek PCIe GBE family
network cable unplugged

What exactly am I supposed to be looking for in the settings?

Open up that Atheros thing, take a look, or just grab a screenshot and dump it on Imgur. Post the link here so we can actually see what's going on.

I had to take a photo of this since I can't get these wires to connect anymore—it's just not happening.

View on imgur

Check those IPv4 settings; they should be set to Obtain.

William Richardson12 said:Check those IPv4 settings; they should be set to Obtain.

It's already on obtain.

How am I supposed to determine if I'm looking at a hardware failure or just some software glitch? If it turns out to be a software issue—which, let's face it, happens more often than anyone wants to admit—I'll just go ahead and perform a clean install of Windows

So, you're saying even the wired LAN is dead? That pretty much confirms we're looking at a software issue...

William Richardson12 said:So, you're saying even the wired LAN is dead? That pretty much confirms we're looking at a software issue...

Okay, so the wired connection is back up for now, but I've still got that monitor sitting there with the yellow triangle icon.
On top of that, alongside the Wi-Fi issues, whenever I reboot this laptop, the audio stays dead—it won't kick in until I manually run the troubleshooter.

This is what my Wi-Fi setup looks like when I navigate over to change network adapters
View on imgur
Any idea how I can get rid of that red X?

What happens if you double-click the icon?

William Richardson12 said:What happens if you double-click the icon?

Every time I double-click, it just forces open the Windows 10 settings menu.

Not really sure, man. I haven't messed around with this kind of stuff on Windows 10 before, so I can't exactly give you a hand. But from what I've heard, a clean reinstall of Windows usually fixes most of these headaches... if you're up for it, maybe just try that.

William Richardson12 said:Not really sure, man. I haven't messed around with this kind of stuff on Windows 10 before, so I can't exactly give you a hand. But from what I've heard, a clean reinstall of Windows usually fixes most of these headaches... if you're up for it, maybe just try that.

I'm really not looking to reinstall Windows right now—not with all the data and software I've got sitting on this machine that I can't just move elsewhere at the moment. That’s going to be my absolute last resort. What I mean is, when I double-click the Wi-Fi adapter, it pulls up the Windows settings, but when I do the exact same thing with the Realtek adapter, it just opens the status window. Does that imply the Wi-Fi adapter itself is faulty? Should I try deleting it and installing a fresh driver, or is there some other way to handle this?

Alright, try cutting the internet, nuking the WiFi adapter in Device Manager, rebooting, and then manually reinstalling it through Device Manager. Just make sure you actually have the driver installer sitting on the machine first...

William Richardson12 said:Alright, try cutting the internet, nuking the WiFi adapter in Device Manager, rebooting, and then manually reinstalling it through Device Manager. Just make sure you actually have the driver installer sitting on the machine first...

The thing is—as soon as I reboot, the driver is already back in place. It’s like it’s pre-installed or something. How am I supposed to stop that from happening?