Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W Wi-Fi Connection Issue After Shutdown

martinrdgz

Hello community,

I have RetroPie Buster 4.8 installed on my Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. I successfully connected it to my Archer AXE75 router via Wi-Fi and was able to transfer two SNES ROMs over the network. After that, I shut it down.

However, when I powered it back on a week later to transfer more ROMs, the Wi-Fi stopped working. Under the Wi-Fi settings, it now shows "Unknown" as the status. When I try reconnecting to my router, it says "Unable to connect"—even though I’m only 10 feet away. I also tried connecting to my iPhone hotspot, but it still won’t connect.

Has anyone else experienced this issue? Any tips on troubleshooting or fixing it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

mitu

What happens if you use again the WiFi configuration to re-enter the SSID or raspi-config ? Does connect again ? Do you have the same SSID for both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz ?

martinrdgz

@mitu I disconnected my RetroPie from the current WiFi network and removed the saved SSID and password from the “Configure WiFi” settings. Then I went back to “Connect to WiFi Network,” selected my SSID, and entered the password. But again, I got the message: “Unable to connect.”

I don’t want to reimage the system, because if this happens again, the root problem will still be unresolved. I want to figure out what’s actually causing the issue.

sugarfree

Did you try to restart the router?

Lolonois

I came across this once. IIRC there have been several entries network=(...) in wpa_supplicant.conf. One outside RetroPie comment markers and one inside RetroPie comment markers (you can easily spot them when you open the file).

Remove the network=() outside the RetroPie markers and try again.

The config file is at /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

(Side node: You should have a country= setting in wpa_supplicant.conf in any case)

martinrdgz

@Lolonois

Thanks for the suggestion, Lolonois! I followed your advice and removed the duplicate network={...} entries outside the RetroPie comment markers, but I’m still unable to connect to Wi-Fi. I’ve also checked the country setting, and everything looks good. Here are the images I took for reference. Any other ideas?

martinrdgz

@sugarfree Yes, I’ve already tried restarting the router and even disconnected it and plugged it back in. Unfortunately, it didn’t solve the issue.

martinrdgz

I’m afraid I might have to reimage my SD card with a fresh RetroPie image. I just hope this doesn’t happen again, as it would be frustrating, especially if the issue remains unresolved. I appreciate everyone’s help so far!

Lolonois

@martinrdgz before you dump your setup you may check these:

Run wpa_supplicant manually with -d : https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/a/103442

Maybe line ending in the wpa_supplicant.conf may be the cause (Mac -> Linux):
https://stackoverflow.com/a/18344020

And I noticed a space in the `psk="<space>...", is put there deliberately?