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Help WiFi "Error" & WiFi options grayed out

S

Steveww48

Newbie
I have an Optimus Elite (rooted but otherwise stock), which had been running well. It was connecting to my home wi-fi network as recently as late afternoon today and there were no problems of any sort.

Went out this evening and now back at home the Elite tries to connect to wi-fi and says "error." When I click on Wi-Fi Settings, everything is grayed out except for the item to turn on Wi-Fi-- when I click on that, it says "turning on" but after a few seconds it says "Error." All other entries ("Add Wi-fi Network," "Network Notification," and "Wi-fi Protected Setup") are grayed out. It's as if something corrupted the software relating to wi-fi.

The phone does connect to 3g data.

I've tried power cycling the phone (including removing the battery) but the results are the same. My wi-fi network appears to be fine (e.g., my tablet connects); nevertheless, I did reset my router but still have the same results.

Any ideas about how to fix this?
 
jmpiv4 said:
Try a Factory Reset [Settings --> Privacy --> Factory Reset] backup your data first
If that doesn't work try this (as a last resort)
Unbricking your Sprint or Virgin Mobile---
This will reset completely to a factory state.
Backup Backup Backup
Click to expand...

Thanks for your suggestions. I have some travel coming up very soon and since the phone still works as a phone (and it does have 3g data), I'll keep things as-is until I return from my trip. When I'm back I'll try the Factory Reset and (if needed) the unbricking procedure and see what happens.

It does seem possible that this is a hardware issue-- perhaps a hardware component relating to wi-fi has failed. If unbricking doesn't work, I'll pursue warranty service with LG.
 
I would not factory reset unless it is a last resort. I have this problem from time to time. Not sure why it happens. There is an app I use called wifi fixer in the playstore. This helps it connect sometimes. The app will constantly run, so I only enable it when I am having issues connecting to a wifi.
 
Is the problem isolated to just your home wifi, i.e., did you try any other/public wifi?
 
The fact that he says that he can't even turn on wifi leads me to thinks it either software or hardware of the phone itself.
 
Thanks for your continued comments and suggestions about this problem.

hokiescoot said:
I would not factory reset unless it is a last resort. I have this problem from time to time. Not sure why it happens. There is an app I use called wifi fixer in the playstore. This helps it connect sometimes. The app will constantly run, so I only enable it when I am having issues connecting to a wifi.
Click to expand...
I just tried this app but it did nothing for me. No networks are listed and when I press the icon in the app to turn on WiFi I get the same result ("Error").

AnciusD said:
Is the problem isolated to just your home wifi, i.e., did you try any other/public wifi?
Click to expand...
I haven't tried it away from home yet but I doubt that anything would be better. The current situation is that:
a) The several networks (including my home) that had been memorized are now all gone.

b) No networks show up as available (i.e., no network SSID's are listed). Typically I'd see one or two neighbors' networks show up in this list. Now, nothing at all is listed.

c) It's not even possible to "Add a WiFi Network" manually because that entry is grayed out.

d) The only item not grayed out is the top-most item, in which you press the checkbox to turn on Wifi, but when I do that it just says "Error" after a few seconds.

jmpiv4 said:
The fact that he says that he can't even turn on wifi leads me to thinks it either software or hardware of the phone itself.
Click to expand...
I think so too. Either the software got corrupted (in which case a de-bricking just might solve the problem) or some element of the WiFi hardware has failed, which would mean there is nothing I can do except pursue warranty coverage. The phone is only 6 months old, so it does have warranty coverage.
 
Well, there has been a small miracle-- my Wi-Fi suddenly started to work again. I'm connected to my home network and all the formerly grayed-out options in the wi-fi menus are no longer grayed-out. Everything relating to wi-fi appears to be working again (at least that has been the case for the past 15 minutes).

What did I do to fix it? Nothing intentional, but wi-fi started to work again immediately after I installed an update to "Beautiful Widgets." This widget has been on my phone since I've had the phone and the last previous update was in April. My wi-fi stopped working on July 7th for no apparent reason-- I know that Beautiful Widgets did not change then and I don't recall updating any other apps immediately before wi-fi stopped working. Nevertheless, the update I just did to Beautiful Widgets correlates precisely to the restoration of full function for wi-fi.

My phone is not tight on memory-- I have about 460 mb of system memory available-- so I don't think that any reduction in the footprint of this widget is the likely cause of the fix because nothing about this widget changed on July 7th in the first place, and wi-fi had been working fine until then. So I don't have a cause-and-effect theory about this; all I have is a curious coincidence of timing.

My principal reason for posting now is to document the current state of affairs, in case anyone else encounters a similar problem.
 
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