Re: Wireless Adapter trouble on compaq F572

ukrduane <ukrduane.342jep@no-mx.wirelessforums.org> hath wroth:

>Built in Wireless Adapter doesn’t work.
>
>I have an HP Compaq Presario F500 Series computer. (F572US).
>
>I bought
>the computer in Aug. of 2007. The Wireless adapter has a light on the
>front that always was blue before when it worked, but now is just orange
>all the time for the past several weeks.

OK. The wireless is disabled. The problem is that there are too many
places where the wireless can be enabled/disabled. Of course, they
all affect each other. Go down this list and very every single one,
even if you think it must obviously be correct:
1. The slide switch.
2. Control Panel -> Network -> Wireless adapter
Right click on the wireles adapter icon and select "Enable"
3. <Alt><Some Function Key>. I'm too lazy to lookup which one. There
should be a wireless like icon on one of the function keys.
4. Wireless icon in the System Tray area (lower right). There may be
more than one wireless icon. Right click and select "Enable".
5. The wireless card may be disabled in the system setup.
Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager -> Wireless.
Make sure there's no "X" or "?" next to the Wireless device.
6. Some BIOS setups have a wireless (MiniPCI) card enable/disable.
Make sure it's enabled.
7. There's also a power management problem. Check the power
management and make sure that it's not shutting down the MiniPCI card.

Use the blue light to tell when the card is enabled.

You can also create a weird situation if there's something plugged
into the ethernet connector. Unplug and lets not complicate matters
by having two interfaces running. If you do, the ethernet takes
priority over the wireless.

Got BlueGoof or Firewire installed? If so, did you create a "Network
bridge"? If you did (either intentionally or accidentally), look for
the "Network Bridge" icon under:
Control Panel -> Network
and remove it. Right click and select delete. You neither need or
want it.

>Others have had this same
>problem.

Yep. What did the others do to solve their problem?

>I wrote to HP tech support and they gave me advice to upgrade
>the BIOS to the newest version, update the wireless adapter drivers and
>reseat the adapter in the slot it fits inside the computer. I did all 3
>of those steps but to no avail.

Amazing. They usually recommend that you reinstall the operating
system or purchase premium support. Are you sure that you've updated
to the latest drivers? I'm suspicious because you are apparently
unable to properly identify your wireless card.

>I’ve updated BIOS to version F.1F
>
>It is running Windows Vista Home Premium

Ugh... Vista. Check for updates including the optional updates. That
magically fixed a few wireless problems for me. The aformentioned
checklist was for XP. I don't have a Vista machine to work out the
equalent incantations. Do your best.

>The processor is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor TK-53.
>
>HP Wireless Assistant program doesn’t open – if it did it’d help with
>troubleshooting and figuring out what to do.

You don't really need the wireless assistant program. It just adds
yet another icon to the system tray that pretends to conrol the
wireless device. As you may have noticed, there are plenty of other
programs and switches that are trying to do the same thing. However,
the HP Wireless Assistant does have some marginal diagnostics.

If it doesn't run, uninstall it for now. It's one less complication
and not really needed. However, its failure to start is indicative of
some kind of Vista driver or system problem. If possible, you may
want to use System Restore to roll back your configuration to when the
wireless card last functioned.

>WLAN doesn’t show up in Device Manager under the Networking section.

Oops. That means that plug-n-play isn't finding the card. I've seen
that a few times. Open the cover for the MiniPCI card on the bottom
of the machine. Remove the card. Reinsert the card carefully, this
time making sure it's properly seated. On boot, pop up the BIOS setup
to see if the MiniPCI card is both enabled and recognized.

>When I opened up the laptop to reseat the wireless adapter I see the
>Wireless adapter has a part number: 441080-001

Nice try. That's the part number of the cover.
<http://www.microbite.co.uk/parts/items/441080-001.htm>

>What should I try now???
>Thanks ahead of time for any advice as to what to try.

Ummm... switch to Linux or XP? If nothing else, either is 2-3 times
faster than Vista for most things.


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Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
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