"Just fired up the laptop and the WiFi button on the keyboard is back to a bright white instead of orange"
Believe the wifi card was turned off (orange light), and so Windows did exactly what it was supposed to do, remove the device given it is no longer active ('installed'). When the card was turned on (white light), Windows added the device back and starting using it. This is like unplugging and plugging in a USB device, except it's a keyboard combination that does this rather than physically removing/inserting anything.
Why did it get switched off, and how did it get switched back on? No idea. Maybe the wifi card was loose and now is back in the slot properly (whether it's 'loose' loose, or thermal expansion/contraction over time has slightly unseated it and it just needed to be reseated, or bumped just right, or ...), maybe there's a 'helper' app on the system (the internet suggests it could be called "Mobility Center") that can also flip the card on and off (maybe it has some automatic trigger that says turn the card off if...) and that option in the app was switched to on, the internet suggests [Fn] + [F12] as the key combination to flip wifi off and on (and it may also control Bluetooth), so maybe that was done, maybe ....... pure guessing.
Regardless, glad it's working.
