Wifi driver completely vanished – reinstall does nothing, I'm out of ideas

Got an HP Laptop 15-ef2xxx and a while ago the wifi button disappeared. Completely gone. I tried reinstalling the driver, even did a full uninstall and restart—still nothing. Downloaded the driver manually from HP's site, installed it, still no sign of it anywhere. No wifi option, no adapter showing up, nothing.

I've tried command prompt fixes, system restore, network resets, multiple reboots—same result every time.

At this point I'm starting to think the wifi card itself is dead. I could crack it open and take a look, but I'd need some guidance on what to actually check or try once I'm in there. Any help would be appreciated.