Dell Latitude cannot enable Wifi

[drjones]

Have an issue with a Dell latitude; wifi connection will not enable / turn on. The wifi icon in system tray shows a red X through it.
Win7 Pro x64, Dell Latitude E5520

Oddly enough, this started right when I replaced the screen....must be / hope it is coincidence!!!

At first, the machine refused to connect to any network; wifi networks don't show up / wifi adapter shows as disabled, and the LAN adapter wouldn't detect anything when plugged into a live ethernet cable.

Troubleshooting showed the diagnostic policy service was failing to start, was unable to start manually.

Resolved that by running repairs #1 & 3 of the Tweaking.com Windows Repair tool, to reset registry permissions and reset service permissions.

After doing this, the LAN started working and the Diagnostic Policy Service would start, but the Wifi still stays disabled. When I enable it, it says it enabled, but still no connection.

I uninstalled the wifi adapter several times, let the PC detect & reinstall, no luck.

I downloaded drivers from Dell's site, installed those, no luck.

I uninstalled the wifi card, deleted the driver, let the PC detect the card, no luck.

Ran SFC.

Ran scan with MBAM; found some minor adware, nothing serious.

YES, checked and toggled the hardware wifi switch on the front of the laptop.

Ran the MS Fixit for Winsock in D7, checked hosts file, etc. No luck.

Please help!

 

[NYJimbo]

You forgot to post the model of the machine and the version of windows.

 

[drjones]

You forgot to post the model of the machine and the version of windows.

Sorry!!

Win7 Pro x64, Dell Latitude E5520

 

[Deetech]

I have to ask, because it happen to me once. Did you remember the switch in the front to shut off wifi.

 

[drjones]

I have to ask, because it happen to me once. Did you remember the switch in the front to shut off wifi.

Yes, that's happened to me once too....
I posted in my OP that yes, I did check the hardware wifi switch.

Thank you!

 

[phaZed]

Are we sure the antenna connectors are on? I've done that a few times.

 

[drjones]

Are we sure the antenna connectors are on? I've done that a few times.

What exactly do you mean? I checked the physical wifi switch already....is that what you mean?

 

[phaZed]

The antenna connectors.. are they still on? If not you may not be able to pickup any stations.. Also, I have had issues in the past where a WIFI antenna wire that passes through the hinge area and up the screen becomes grounded or pinched either from the installation/reassembly or because the wire has worn through and is grounded to the laptop hinge or metal shielding.

 

[katz]

Is this an atheros card? There are known issues with these that they stop working out of the blue. I went through this a few months ago as outlined in this thread. Alternatively, you could try 3DPChip and see if it will find a working driver. Maybe system restore back a couple of days...does sound hardware related though, instead of software.

 

[drjones]

Gotcha...I guess I can check that, but the wifi adapter itself shows as disabled...

Any other ideas? Honestly I'm just getting ready to reinstall windows....

 

[phaZed]

I would verify that the card actually does work by using a bootable Linux of some sort. That will rule out software problems.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

The antenna connectors.. are they still on? If not you may not be able to pickup any stations.. Also, I have had issues in the past where a WIFI antenna wire that passes through the hinge area and up the screen becomes grounded or pinched either from the installation/reassembly or because the wire has worn through and is grounded to the laptop hinge or metal shielding.

I had an Inspiron today that had a red X on the wifi adapter. Brand new machine out of the box Tried a bunch of stuff then finally pulled the bottom cover off and found one of the antenna wires was disconnected.

 

[Methical]

I would definately recommend trying a bootable Linux distro of some sorts as suggested by phaZed before even contemplating doing a reformat.
At least this will rule out whether it is hardware or software related.

 

[seashore]

You've checked the antennae as mentioned above? And reseated the card?

 

[drjones]

I just ran the Dell diagnostics & it said to check the LCD cable - that wouldn't have anything to do with the wifi antennae, right?
I pulled the bezel off & as far as I can see, the antennae look OK.

I did pull out & re-seat the card and antennae connectors, no help....

What else? I'm afraid I'm going to reinstall windows & the problem will still be there....ugh....

 

[Martyn]

Did you try a bootable Linux disk as mentioned a couple of times? Hardware problem yes/no? It's a simple test and gives you important info.

 

[stevenamills]

This isn't going to be as helpful as I would like, but I had the same issue recently and it turned out to be a driver issue. Try completely removing the driver and then reinstall using SDI. That MAY do it.

 

[mr m]

Your model may have two wireless cards. A WLAN and a WWAN. Make sure both antenna cables are installed correctly by color code to the WLAN adapter.

Like others said, use a boot disk to determine if it's a Windows or hardware issue then let us know the results.

 

[drjones]

OK so I grabbed a spare hard disk I had lying around, popped it in and did a clean install of windows - the wifi works fine.
So it's some sort of software issue.

As I was trying to run some hardware diagnostics off of the UBCD, I got a pop-up that it detected an active virus in memory.

I think the machine has some pretty nasty virus that is eluding me, as I've scanned it quite thoroughly & multiple times with MBAM, D7 & rogukiller.....

I think I'm going to proceed with my first idea of a clean install of windows......thanks guys....