Posted on 02/02/2026 8:37:03 AM PST by LouAvul
Years old Dell laptop. Win 11 installed some time ago and it's worked fine.
Yesterday it developed an issue. I shut it down and it reboots. Comes on all by itself within seconds. Plus, instead of rebooting to WiFi (that's the default), it's now on airplane mode.
I tried to google the problem but no dice.
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Some laptops have a hotkey to toggle on and off airplane mode. I believe it’s handled at the BIOS level (i.e. turning it off there won’t let Windows have the option to turn it on). For me it’s the F11 key. (I have to hold the fn key and press F11.)
I might check the bios battery ?
and check for a newer bios.
open an admin prompt and type DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
“I tried to google the problem but no dice.”
No responses or you tried them but they didn’t work?
I googled and got an AI response that seemed reasonable and dozens of links.
If you have 25H2 installed, be sure to install the 3 out-of-band fixes too. Many networking issues in 25H2.
I asked my friend, Chat, and here’s what he had to say:
This combination of symptoms on an older Dell running Windows 11 points very strongly to a power-management / firmware / driver glitch, not a “random mystery”:
✅ Auto-reboot right after shutdown
✅ Wi-Fi suddenly disabled / stuck in Airplane Mode
✅ Started abruptly after working fine
These usually appear together when ACPI / chipset / network drivers get corrupted or when Fast Startup / Modern Standby breaks.
Let’s go through this in the fastest, least-painful order.
🔴 Step 1 — Kill “Fast Startup” (Most Common Fix)
Windows 11 doesn’t really “shut down” by default. It hibernates part of the system. When this breaks, you get instant reboots.
Do this first:
Press Win + R
Type:
powercfg.cpl
Click “Choose what the power buttons do”
Click “Change settings that are currently unavailable”
Uncheck:
✅ Turn on fast startup
Click Save
Then:
👉 Shut down normally and see if it stays off.
🔴 Step 2 — Force a Real Shutdown (Test)
Try this once:
Right-click Start
Click Shut down or sign out → Shut down
While clicking, hold Shift
This forces a true shutdown.
If it stays off → Fast Startup was the culprit.
🔴 Step 3 — Fix the Wi-Fi / Airplane Mode Issue
The Wi-Fi going dead at the same time strongly suggests the network adapter driver crashed.
Check Device Manager:
Right-click Start → Device Manager
Expand Network adapters
Look for:
Yellow triangle?
“Unknown device”?
Wi-Fi adapter missing?
Tell me what you see there.
Quick Reset (Often Works)
Open Command Prompt (Admin) and paste:
netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset
shutdown /r /t 0
(This rebuilds the network stack.)
🔴 Step 4 — Disable “Wake on Power” (If It Still Auto-Starts)
Some Dells will turn back on if firmware thinks power was “lost.”
BIOS Check:
Reboot
Tap F2 (Dell BIOS)
Look for:
Wake on AC
Wake on LAN
Auto Power On
Deep Sleep
Disable anything related.
Save and exit.
🔴 Step 5 — Check If Windows Update Broke Something
This often happens right after a silent update.
Check:
Settings → Windows Update → Update history
If you see a driver update from yesterday → that’s your smoking gun.
⚠️ Important: Possible Failing Wi-Fi Card
On older Dells, this combo can also mean:
⚠️ The internal Wi-Fi card is starting to fail.
When that happens:
Windows disables it → airplane mode
Power management goes crazy
Sleep/shutdown breaks
If Device Manager shows the adapter disappearing → likely hardware.
🧩 Most Likely Causes (In Order)
Based on experience:
1️⃣ Fast Startup corruption (very likely)
2️⃣ Broken Wi-Fi driver update
3️⃣ BIOS wake setting
4️⃣ Aging network card (less common)
If this is Windows, it could be a virus.
Has your computer been with any Russian models lately?
Who will say it FIRST?
Hope something in there helps you.
The first person who wants to waste time being unresponsive to the posters' problem.
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Thanks to ShadowAce for the ping!
News Forum to me.
Who knew!?
I like traditions.
Seriesly.
Have you tried turning it Off then Off then Off...?
if you can remove battery, sometimes that fixes wonky stuff- had it happen a few times with desktop- the battery was easy to remove from motherboard though- not sure abotu a laptop cmos battery?
Press and hold the power button down for a slow count to ten. If the laptop powers down wait an additional 30 seconds and if able, eject / remove the battery. Inspect and clean contacts if needed and reinsert. Then power the laptop back on and after a clean boot to the desktop check the WiFi and test functionally. If the issue continues check the error logs in device manager.
Google tells me to install Win7 or Linux Mint and both wonderfully resolved my Win11 problem.
I think you meant to reply to LouAvul.
My Lenovo computer with Windows 11 went into airplane mode yesterday and I hadn’t shut it down.
I saw the little airplane icon this morning and turned it off.
Everything has been running fine for the last 7 hours.
Save yourself time, trouble and frustration. Buy a Mac or install Linus.
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