Laptop Wireless adapter disappeared!!!

Janice

Janice

Messages
11,626
Name
Janice
Edit My Images
Yes
Can anyone help here?

My son came home from Uni last night/early hours. When he left uni his Advent laptop was working fine.

When he went to use it today it's like the internal wireless adapter doesnt exist.

He has pressed the key which turns it on but there is no little light at the front with a wireless icon like usual.

There is only one internet box in the task bar with a red cross through it, which is the ethernet connection which he doesnt use.

Device manage says under network that he only has ethernet but nothing wireless mentioned.

I have put his brother's USB wireless adapter on for the time being and it finds our network and he is on the internet no problems.

Im hoping the lappy doesnt have to go back to be repaired as he is studying and needs it. It went away for a new power socket last time he was home :(

Is there any point in "adding new device" or would that be a bit stupid?

It cant need new drivers or it would show up in device manage and say it cant find drivers. It's like it has disappeared! :shrug:
 
If you haven't already tried it, take the battery out & leave it for a few minutes. The power button doesn't really switch the laptop off & if the hardware is having a sulk you need to give it a total "off" to wake it back up
 
I've had this on a few lappys I'm afraid, and they all have had to have new motherboards fitted by the respective manufacturers.

I now keep a couple of PCMCIA wireless cards just in case :)
 
Janice said:
Can anyone help here?

My son came home from Uni last night/early hours. When he left uni his Advent laptop was working fine.
Click to expand...
Are you absolutely sure?

I'm not calling your son an outright liar, but I've heard that story a hundred times and the large majority of them were missing out on a piece of vital information such as 'oh yeah, I dropped it' or 'I installed this software and it all went wrong'.

Janice said:
When he went to use it today it's like the internal wireless adapter doesnt exist.
Click to expand...
Very rare for something like that to just happen. Although there is one scenario where it's possible.

Janice said:
Is there any point in "adding new device" or would that be a bit stupid?
Click to expand...
Do a new Hardware scan and see what comes up.

Janice said:
It's like it has disappeared! :shrug:
Click to expand...
That might not be too far from the truth.

Without knowing the exact spec of your laptop it's hard to say, but not all laptops have their wireless 'built in' to the motherboard.

Lots of them have a separate card that sits in its own bay in the laptop's base and connects to the motherboard. it's possible that the card might have come dislodged during a bumpy journey, in which case you just need to remove the access panel (wherever that might be) and reconnect it.
 
Thanks for your help guys, but I have now sorted it!

I installed new drivers but to no avail. An icon in the taskbar said "Ralink Wireless Lan adapter not exist!"

Hardware find didnt find it.

Don't really know what I did.......but it's there and working.

THanks again

J
 
If the adaptor is a plugin card type and the laptop has taken a knock it might be loose, I've had that happen to a couple of components on a laptop that was sent to me by post.
 
I've got a Toshiba laptop "on loan" at the moment and it keeps doing exactly the same thing - it'll be working fine and then the next time I switch it on it has no wireless connection showing.

Assuming it's a Vista machine there is a Diagnose and Repair function for the wireless connection - when I run that it turns the wireless adapter back on....
 
Steep said:
If the adaptor is a plugin card type and the laptop has taken a knock it might be loose, I've had that happen to a couple of components on a laptop that was sent to me by post.
Click to expand...

No it was an installed type.
 
Flash In The Pan said:
I've got a Toshiba laptop "on loan" at the moment and it keeps doing exactly the same thing - it'll be working fine and then the next time I switch it on it has no wireless connection showing.

Assuming it's a Vista machine there is a Diagnose and Repair function for the wireless connection - when I run that it turns the wireless adapter back on....
Click to expand...

this didnt. It just diagnosed and repaird the wired Lan connection that he doesnt use and says there is a cable unplugged!

it couldnt diagnose and repair the wireless connection because there wasnt a connection or card or hardware on show anywhere!
 
Janice said:
It just diagnosed and repaird the wired Lan connection that he doesnt use and says there is a cable unplugged!
Click to expand...
That's perfectly normal, unless you've got a network cable plugged into the laptop.

Janice said:
it couldnt diagnose and repair the wireless connection because there wasnt a connection or card or hardware on show anywhere!
Click to expand...
What's the model of the laptop?
 
Janice said:
this didnt. It just diagnosed and repaird the wired Lan connection that he doesnt use and says there is a cable unplugged!

it couldnt diagnose and repair the wireless connection because there wasnt a connection or card or hardware on show anywhere!
Click to expand...


Have you tried doing a System Restore?
 
Janice said:
No it was an installed type.
Click to expand...

I meant plugin internally (just in case you thought I meant like usb), a lot of wireless cards are of the mini pci type.
 
lol on the brightside one of my ps3 controllers has also vanished lol from being on charge to not being there anymore and no ones touched it its vanished off the face of the planet
 
Take the removable panel(s) off the bottom, you'll see the wireless card as its got 2 wires on it with snap-on connectors. With the mains disconnected and the battery removed remove the wireless card, give the card and its slot a clean with compressed air and re-assemble.
 
My Toshiba Laptop has don exactly the same thing - I'l be interested to hear if you sort it!
 
This happened on my girlfriends Toshiba laptop a few time's, each time i restarted it and it seemed to rectify itself, not sure if it's happened lately as she hasn't mentioned it, i recently bought a Toshiba laptop, but it's never happened on that one, now maybe i shouldn't of said that :lol:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top