Wireless on Laptop not working?

[Joe-]

hello mates, my first post

this is a strange one to me. ive been using wireless on this laptop forever. Worked fine until i did one minor change:

The wireless was working fine until i decided to disable the adapter in my networks place and instantly renabled it 15 secs later. the onyl problem is now it does not read any wireless connections around me. adapter says its enable and working fine. When i try to look for connection it says non found/not connected. When i go into my network place and try to make a new connection and do the wifi options when i finish making the connection it just pops up my wireless status and says NOT CONNECTED with a big X.

i am not sure what the problem is being i only disabled and renabled the wireless adapter. i did the same to the lan adapter and its still working fine.
i am also using windows 7.

any ideas?

[soybean]

Hi Joe, and welcome to the forum. 

Were you using WEP or WPA encryption?  If so, I'm thinking you may need to re-enable your encryption setting and re-create your password/passphrase for your encryption.

Please clarify the difference between "wireless adapter" and "lan adapter".

[Joe-]

hello thnx for the reply,

actually i was using neither. it was an unsecured wifi. other computers in my house are still able to pull off the wifi expect for my laptop after i did that disable/renable thing.

well i just called it adapater due to where it was found. Network and internet > Network connections > Change adapter settings, here it shows bluetooth network connection (that i have disabled), Local are connection and wireless network connection.

[soybean]

Is the wifi signal coming from a device in your house or from a neighbor?  If from a device in your house, is it a wireless router, a combo modem/router, or what?  Make and model?  Was the device provided by your ISP?

[Joe-]

yes the device is in my house, it is a modem that was provided by the isp and then i bought and have been using a gaming wireless router for about 2 years. the router is  DGL-4500. everyother computer can connect to the wifi but my laptop.

[jason2074]

Check your wireless network card under device manager by expanding network adapters and right-click the wireless card/properties/general tab and on device usage, make sure 'Use this device(enable)' is set.

[Joe-]

it doesnt say device usage but it says: Device Status: This device is working properly.

edit: im somewhat familiar with computer stuff but not much wondering if this is right: on the general tab is says
Location: PCI bus 7, device 0, function 0
shouldnt device and/or fuction have 1?

[Aegis]

Try Control Panel > System icon > Hardware tab > click Device Manager > expand Network Adapters > right-click on the wireless network adapter. 

Do you have an option in the box for Enable or Disable?

Enable, if it will let you.

Let us know what you find.   

[Joe-]

says

update software
disable
uninstall

[Aegis]

OK, the device is functioning properly, and it's indicating that's it's enabled, because it's showing the option to disable.  Do you have driver software for the wireless?  (It's probably a built-in card.)  Do you have the recovery disk which came with the laptop?  If not, can you connect the laptop with an Ethernet cable to the Internet, and see if you can update the driver that way.

[Joe-]

yes its a built in card, no i dont have the recovery disk, and yes when i try to update the driver while im online with a lan connection it does search for updates and then comes back with the results saying i have the most up to date verision of the driver.

any ideas why this problem started just by me disabling the wireless conn? i mean what will cause this to happen.

[Aegis]

I just thought of this, today.  I suggest you uninstall the device.  (It's too bad you can't physically remove the hardware, but that's all right.)  Uninstall the device under System, etc. in Control Panel.  Turn off the computer.  Restart the computer.  It will find new hardware, and want to install the drivers.  (That's when you'll need the Ethernet access to the Internet.)  When you look at the hardware, what "brand" of wireless card is installed?

I don't have an exact answer to why this happened.  I think it's a "conflict" between the operating system and the driver software, even though the system says everything is working properly.

[Joe-]

wow mate it worked. haha ez fix idk why i never thought to reinstall the whole driver...

thnx for all the help aegis, and everyone else who helped

[Aegis]

Whew!  Good -- 'cause I was out of ideas!   

Glad to be able to help!

Welcome to the forum!