HP Pavilion dv6 with Intel i7 CHIP and Centrino Wireless-N 1000 network adapter.

It does have the NIC inside the laptop case (I checked, including connections)

I checked Device Manager and that adapter is not listed. Btw, other adapters, i.e. Bluetooth, do show up.

I connected computer using a LAN cable and it worked (it needed to install some controller though) but I need to use WiFi instead.

I figure it has something to do with the drivers, but maybe it is a DIFFERENT problem altogether.

Any tips?Not in device manager? Was it EVER?

Just get an external adapter that goes into a USB slot.
These are now sold everywhere. TRY Walmart.
You can buy one under $10 that works ALMOST the same as the high price models.
what's recently happened to lose the wifi adapter driver?
Windows upgrade or update?

2 choices.
 visit the HP website and download the drivers for your laptop make/model, that wifi card and for your Windows version.
or
 get a USB wifi adapter for about $AUD20 if all else fails.  (been there, done that)Mark,

Now that you mention it, I did a rollback to Windows 7 (the original OS) since I needed to delete everything in the computer AND I do not like Windows 10 (the previous owner had upgraded).

I used the copy in the recovery partition. I am not sure if the WiFi adapter was working before, but I do know that the previous owner had the computer connected to the Internet with a LAN cable. I do not know whether that affected the drivers or to what extent, but I think it is unlikely. Maybe the computer was already presenting some issues since I got it for free.Geek-9pm

I figure that's the last resort.