Wireless troubleshooting [fixed]

bah, this is irritating the hell out of me(what else is new?). I seem to get stuck with nothing but frustrating jobs.

I have a HP pavilion laptop which has a network card that doesn't find our wireless network. The wireless card is a small, 802.11g card that plugs into the motherboard inside his laptop. I tried reinserting it and checking the connections and I can't see anything wrong with it. I tried a wireless USB adapter and installed the drivers, and it works great. I disabled the firewall and turned off Norton. I also checked to see if he had some third-party wireless software which might be taking over his wireless configurations...but there was nothing.

I uninstalled and reinstalled the wireless card, and also tried various drivers off the HP website for this laptop and no success. I did a windows repair, thinking it might be OS-related but that didn't change anything. I think there's a configuration issue somewhere...which is screwing up his wireless card.

Obviously a repair doesn't work and the card isn't getting an IP address. It also tells me that it is disconnected, and has the red X in network connections.

I tried the WinSock fix, but I think that only applies to wired ports. Not sure, but it still didn't give any useful results.

KG

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Comments

amyamandaallen

I've had a very similar issue with a presario laptop

questions -

what O/S did it originally have installed
what O/S are you using it with now
is it a PCMCIA card?

might be able to help, might not

malcybood

Does it find any wireless networks?

Have you made sure the wireless "switch" is activated on the laptop. This can be either a physical or logical switch, physical being a physical slider switch (usually on the side) of the laptop that activates the WLAN

Logical usually acticated by pressing the "FN" key and one of the "F" buttons. For example on my own Sony Vaio I have a switch on the side to switch the wireless on and off, on my work Dell Latitude D610 I have to press the FN button combined with F2 button. Unless I do this the Wireless icon has a red x on top of it and is not activated

Also check the BIOS and Control Panel - Network Connections - right click on wireless connection and select enable (this is different to the previous "activation" I mentioned).

KGhaleon

It had XP, and still has XP. XP Home edition, that is.

I can see the device in device manager, with nothing wrong with it. I can see it under network connections. There's honestly nothing that appears to be wrong with it. It just doesn't locate any networks, and there's no reason for it not to.

I can find nearby networks using a USB wireless adapter. It just tells me that it can't find an access point and to make sure the wireless switch is turned on." I don't see any "wireless button" on the laptop and the access point is a couple feet away.

KG

KGhaleon

Wow, now I'm just embarrassed at myself.

I looked all over and never saw a button for turning the wireless on and off, but it was hidden in the lower right-hand corner. I was able to get that turned on and it detects my networks now.

I hate laptops.

Thanks for the help, something else to look for now when I run into this annoyance.

KG

malcybood

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00045314&lc=en&cc=ca&lang=en&rule=45519&product=3360453&dlc=en#N333

malcybood

KGhaleon wrote:

Wow, now I'm just embarrassed at myself.
I looked all over and never saw a button for turning the wireless on and off, but it was hidden in the lower right-hand corner. I was able to get that turned on and it detects my networks now.

I hate laptops.

Thanks for the help, something else to look for now when I run into this annoyance.

KG

wouldn't worry about it.....happens to most of us one time or another

Happy to help

emsrescue

I had the exact same problem with a HP laptop. Took me 10 minutes of pulling my hair out before I noticed the button with a funny little antenna symbol on it!

Jon