Vaio won't pick up wireless signals

My Vaio has not been online for a couple of months and now it doesn't pick up wireless signals as I take it to my parents', either from the Netgear router (DG834G) or the others nearby, both of which are picked up on a separate machine running next to it. I can connect on cable but no wireless signal.
Also, I thought there was a separate icon on the lower right tray for wireless (one computer with 'waves' emitting from it) but I only get the two computer icon which I thought was only for cable connections. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I thought there was one there.
Either way, no wireless connections are within range even sat next to the router and yes, the wlan light is on!
Any ideas? Is something not kicking in during bootup? The latest driver information seems fine according to the setup.

Hi,

Sounds weird. I think the Vaio has both a hardware and software control over the radio. Make sure the switch on the front is on for the radio and also that the software controls (fn + whatever) is definitely on.

If they are and you're still not seeing any networks, check the channel the wireless connection is looking at. You may somehow have set this to be a very
different channel to that your known routers are broadcasting on.

If the channel is right and you're not seeing any wireless signals at all, I'd uninstall and reinstall the drivers. And failing that I guess your Vaio may need to make a trip back to the dealership :-(

Sparks
Best wireless router