WiFi Will Not Turn On

After changing a hard drive my WiFi seems stuck in the "off" position. Seems I may have damaged something though I did not go near the WiFi card. The HDD was a straight clone using Samsung Migration. I have successfully done this many times. As far as I know this laptop does not have a hardware switch for the wireless. Device manager says device is installed and functioning properly.

Things I have tried:

Turning computer off and on again

Driver uninstall / reinstall

Installed Asus Wireless Radio Control driver

Booted to Linux ( wifi also not working) so its likely hardware

Bio settings lock/unlock wifi

a usb wifi card works so it isn't a stack issue ( rather not have to use external)

Replaced Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265 card ( I never went near the card when wi-fi stopped functioning but possible I did something that damaged it when I replaced the hard drive)

Note: for a brief moment after the first time I installed the Wirelss Radio Control I saw the wifi come up very briefly but the list kept flickering so I couldn't select a network. (It was if the mouse button or key was stuck) After restart it no longer showed up again. Reinstalled that driver several times. Never saw wifi come up again.

It it was a mobo failure would the WiFi card itself even show up as installed? If antenna issue it would show as on, just not pick up networks.

It completely acts as if the hardware was switched off but there is no switch. The software switch I installed briefly showed something and then stopped. Doesn't explain not working in Linux though.

I tried 2 other Intel wifi cards, one from Ebay that supposedly was tested and one from Amazon which I think is counterfeit. Is it possible they are all 3 bad or the mobo is shorting them out somehow? This would be consistent with several thread of Asus replicating the card only to have the problem return after a short time. ( though mine was really short)

HELP!