Hi there - sorry about the slow reply. I'll try to pull together the info I found, but in general:
- Yeah, you need to have the right driver for your wifi card
- To do that you first need to be able to identify what wifi card you have (will expand on this when I locate the info that helped me)
- Then you'll need to have an internet connection to download the correct driver
- This could be the tricky part, because if your PC's wifi isn't working you'll need another way to connect to the internet. This lack of wifi will also prevent you connecting to your phone's wifi hotspot - it'll need to be a physical connection at least at first.
- Your two options are likely to be: 1) To physically connect your PC to your phone with a cable, and allow the PC to use the phone's mobile data as an internet connection (assuming that's possible, might depend on your phone); or 2) Connect your PC directly to your router with an ethernet cable - this assumes you have such a cable, have access to your router, and that your PC has an ethernet port.
EDIT - here's some info on that: https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com/p/temporary-internet.html
- Once connected you can move on with downloading the right driver - then you install it, probably restart the PC, and fingers crossed your WiFi card will be working
Probably best to be prepared for it not to work the first time - that was certainly my experience! :-)
Will try to track down the info I found on identifying the wifi card and getting the driver - in the meantime though, you can be trying to sort out a physical internet connection. Good luck!