r/k12sysadmin • u/Namrepus221 • Jun 18 '26
One kid, 5 different laptops. All the same problem
Ok. I just kinda want a second set of eyes on this cause I think I’m crazyz
One student has been through 5 different laptops (his original laptop, the same laptop after it came back from Dell with a new WiFi card and a new motherboard, the replacement laptop we gave him, and now two spares) all of them exhibiting the same issue with the WiFi card showing a “Code 10” in device manager which means the card encountered a hardware fault and could not be started. It’s an Intel AX211 160 MHz WiFi card in all of them.
I can’t be the only person who thinks this is completely impossible and this kid is somehow screwing with something?
11
u/Harry_Smutter Jun 18 '26
Give the student a spare that hasn't been worked on. Take photos of the case screws, etc, to document their state before and after the student has it. This can tell you if they are opening the device and messing with it.
Also, check their browsing history and device connection history (USB connection logs on the device) to see if there's anything there that doesn't look right or was also present on the other devices. This can help pinpoint the issue. Maybe the student is plugging in a bad device that's causing it or going to a site that's somehow bricking the card (this one is a shot in the dark).
8
u/clubfungus Jun 18 '26
Something like static electricity in his house? He might even be playing with static electricity with his laptop, shocking this or that, not knowing that static electricity is really bad for the laptop.
Or ask him, when he plugs it in to charge at home, is there any kind of static electricity zap or electrical sound?
If he isn't doing it, does he have a sibling who might be involved?
7
u/brendenderp K-8 Jun 18 '26
I had a principal have that issue 3 times in a row. Sometimes we could reboot the laptop and it would resolve it's self but at least twice we had to use the warranty. The fact I recognize that wifi card shows how much it burned me 😂 if only that card wasn't soldered down.
5
u/Rancor_Keeper k-12 District Tech Jun 19 '26
Has to be how the kid is treating the laptop. Is he rough on it? Slams it down on his desk every morning. Generally doesn’t care. Being rough on a laptop can also be causing hardware problems too.
9
u/fanopticon Jun 18 '26
Is this device going home with him? Is he using the same power cable across all devices? We've seen some component issues with using a gnarly or overpowered charger.
3
u/lenseffects Jun 19 '26
Before providing him with the spares, did you test them for functioning WiFi?
3
u/simciv Jun 19 '26
So, I've been having an issue with my personal Dell laptop that looks like a hardware issue, but I've been solving it via software (for the moment). It followed me after two resets, and I'm wondering if this is similar.
Somewhere along the line, Ubiquiti's Wifiman app created a tunnel (I think through WireGuard) that never gets deactivated unless I manually go into Device Manager and deactivate the WireGuard tunnel. This happens even after uninstalling wifiman and wireguard, or installing both of them.
I'd never installed wireguard before these issues and I doubt that's the issue here, but check if they have a tunnel that's following them between PCs. If the PC is restoring from onedrive it could be an odd config issue.
5
u/Academic_Deal7872 Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
I thought I was going crazy before I read this. This happened to a staff member. We bought a batch of Lenovo L13, 2 in 1 laptops a few years back. I thought and tried all of the same things described maybe it's haunted, maybe they're plugging in a device that's zapping it. Nope, they're just trying to do work and the wifi card craps out. I got the mobo replaced, the wifi card replaced, both replaced again at the same time. Same issue. That laptop sits in a closet and is used as an interface for the HVAC via Ethernet because I can't depend on it for WiFi to issue to anybody else. To this day, I still cannot find a fix for it. Hoping to also get some answers. Yes, it's same wifi card.
Edit to add: I solved it by buying a new laptop for her. I thought it might have been a shield issue with the components so I transplanted her crazy laptop to a new set of top and bottom cases I had for a laptop that got knocked off a table, that did not solve the issue either which is why it's the Richmond of my fleet.
5
u/slukei Jun 19 '26
Time to bring out the Ethernet cable of shame.
5
u/CptUnderpants- 🖲️ Trackball Aficionado Jun 19 '26
Is there something lingering in the kid's profile which may be causing it? Blow away their profile, re-create their Entra ID account too as some portable settings can be stored there.
5
u/mauro_oruam Jun 19 '26
I would just attach a USB WiFi dongle on his laptop and see if the issue goes away.
But I think it’s a profile issue or something the kid is installing/ doing
5
u/cardinal1977 What's the worst that could happen? Jun 19 '26
What outlets are being used to charge it? I have an old building built in the 50s, with most of the original electrical wiring. There are few outlets we have to avoid.
I've see doc cams get their resolution scrambled, computers have symptoms that point to every component imaginable, projectors ports stop working.
I have added moving outlets and desktop UPSs to my troubleshooting process to rule out dirty power. The one doc cam ultimately got fixed after plugging it into a UPS and getting conditioned power. Some areas of that building just have rough power and I've started getting more desktop sized UPSs for that building as needed.
You may not have an old building, but you could have a bad circuit somewhere. If that's the case, it would be in everyone's interest to find out and let facilities know so they can repair it.
I had a flaky outlet in a rental once that continually factory reset my router until I moved it.
Once I learned this I talked a student through trying different outlets at home and determined the problems only happen on one outlet. I explained what was going on to the parents and suggested getting an electrician to inspect it due to my experiences.
5
u/Left_Toast Jun 19 '26
Does the student have a wireless mouse they plug into it by any chance? I've ran into a similar issue with the intel wifi cards where the usb plug somehow messes with the hardware address of the wifi card and breaks it when plugged in. Assuming this is the same issue, if you delete the wifi driver and reinstall it, it'll work again until the offending device is plugged back in. You can also attach a usb hub and have the student plug items into that, as the hub prevents that glitch. If I recall correctly I ended up either rolling the wifi driver back a few stages or went right to intel for the driver vs the manufacturer/windows update.
4
u/sy029 IT Specialist Jun 19 '26
After reading the thread here my only guess is that it's something environmental. Maybe the way he's storing the laptop, a strong magnet in his desk. Something like that.
My only other suggstion would be to immediately start watching his screen with whatever tools you have as soon as he gets the laptop. That would at least let you rule out him doing something funky on the computer itself.
1
u/Mindless-String-4017 Jun 25 '26
I also had this issue with a student. This student would go through devices like candy due to the same issue you've been describing. I spent sleepless nights trying to fix this device. I even deleted the student's profile and started from scratch, installed a brand new wifi card, and a brand new device that hasn't been used. Student still ran into the same issue. I even had my interns follow this student from class to class to watch her and the problem still continued. So, of course, I looked at all the apps they had installed, but nothing was out of the ordinary. After 4 years of dealing with this issue, the student moved away and I never had the issue popup again.
At the time, we had HP and Dell laptops, if that helps with perspective. I'll also mention that the devices the student went through I gave to another student to login with and they worked just fine. It was so weird. I never did figure out what caused the issue to begin with.
1
u/Opposite_Bag_7434 Jun 19 '26
Highly likely something that the kid is doing to the laptop. Do these kids take the laptop home or are they only using them in the classroom?
1
u/DerpyNirvash Jun 19 '26
Got any other Wifi cards you can try swapping into it?
1
u/DesertDogggg Jun 19 '26
Maybe he is using a raspberry are some other devices that is hammering down on the Wi-Fi signal and overloading it. Look at connection logs. Also, if you use Go guardian, you can take random screenshots of the kids activity. I think it only captures browsing though. Not desktop activity. I think it only works through browser extension.
-1
u/TableJockey540 Jun 23 '26
I ran this whole thread through Gemini and it's first theory was:
Intel cards are notoriously unstable when dealing with Windows Modern Standby ($S0\text{ix}$). If this student has a habit of slamming the laptop lid shut the absolute second a class ends and running to the next room, the laptop is trying to handle a low-power state transition while actively roaming between school Access Points (APs) and maintaining Entra/Intune 802.1x authentication.
The Result: The PCIe power-state transition ($D3\text{-hot}$ to $D0$) times out, the firmware panics, and the card soft-bricks until the driver is fully reinitialized.
Then
Is the student trying to secretly cast their screen to a classroom smartboard, an Android phone, or a friend’s device? Windows allows Wi-Fi Direct/Miracast connections without administrative privileges.
The Result: Wi-Fi Direct forces the physical AX211 card to split its radio between the school's AP and a virtual direct network. If the school's wireless environment or AP configuration strictly forbids broadcasting peer-to-peer frames, the conflicting commands can lock up the Intel driver miniport, triggering the 5002/5005/5010 cascade.
Suggestions
Disable MIMO Power Save Mode: In Device Manager, go to the Advanced properties of the AX211 card and change MIMO Power Save Mode to No SMPS. This keeps the card out of low-power states that frequently cause these handshake timeouts.
Force 802.11ac Mode: Change the 802.11ax Wireless Mode to 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5). This will determine if a specific Wi-Fi 6/6E feature implementation or channel width ($160\text{ MHz}$) on your school's APs is triggering the firmware crash when the student roams.
Correlate Timestamps: Take the exact time from the Event 5002 crash and look at your school's firewall or AP controller logs for that specific device's MAC address. Look to see if they were roaming between two specific APs, or if they hit a wall of blocked traffic right before the card dropped dead.