Curious if anyone else has run across this failure mode(responsive but wifi failed)

[rpi_nerd]

Today I grabbed an ESP-12E I had lying around and flashed it the MicroPython firmware. Everything appeared to be going well until it came to setup wifi. No matter what, it simply wouldn't connect to my router. I tried two different firmware versions, same result. I decided to try it under the Arduino IDE, nothing. I flashed the MicroPython firmware again and this time left the AP mode on to see if any of my devices could see it. Didn't show up on anything.

At this point I'm thinking that it's either a failure within the chip or an iffy PCB trace. I'm tempted to try to take off the RF shield with a hot air gun and take a look.

[pythoncoder]

I'd agree it sounds like a broken device. Has it ever worked? Have you tried a network scan?

[rpi_nerd]

I did try network scan(using wlan.scan()) and it failed. It worked fine in the past.