Weird wireless problem

[Ender07]

Hi, I just received a HP Dv6105us Pavilion laptop from a couple years ago and it has a couple problems that I am trying to resolve.

1. The wireless card is non-functional because it looks like the wireless card and drivers were entirely removed. The NIC is not recognized in Device Manager and has no drivers whatsoever. There is also no wireless connection on the network connections page in the control panel because of it.

2. This is a bit odd but the laptop can take anywhere from 5-30 seconds from when you press the on button, to when it gets to POST. I figure it's a hardware issue because it's before anything loads but I don't take apart laptops so I am not sure. One other odd thing is a strange sound when the computer goes to startup before it POSTs. It seems like the hard drive or optical drive start to spin up a bit then make a small click before settling down then it starts to boot.

I have tried downloading the drivers from the HP site for the broadcom wireless NIC in the laptop but even after installation it still does not show up in Device Manager. I also tried installing HP Wireless Assistant to see if that helped but it didn't do anything.

As for the delay before POST I reset the BIOS back to default settings and checked them all before I continued, and my next step will be to take out the RAM and see if it's that.

I am really stumped about the wireless card not working because I have dealt with problems exactly like this before and it was solved by installing the drivers and scanning for changed in the device manager. After a reboot everything was usually back to normal. The delay before POST though has me guessing because I have only ever experienced delays after POST when Windows would be loading.

Any help and suggestions would be greatly appreciated, if you need any additional info please let me know.

 

[shamrin]

This computer famously has failure problems due to overheating. On many of the machines that ultimately fail totally, the first sign of the problem is that the wireless fails. AFAIK it is not the card itself but a problem on the motherboard.

 

[Ender07]

This computer famously has failure problems due to overheating. On many of the machines that ultimately fail totally, the first sign of the problem is that the wireless fails. AFAIK it is not the card itself but a problem on the motherboard.

Is there any way to circumnavigate this, like buy a USB wireless adapter for now until the computer itself calls it quits?

 

[Martyn]

Is there any way to circumnavigate this, like buy a USB wireless adapter for now until the computer itself calls it quits?

That should be fine. I use the Edimax ones, in fact I carry a couple with me.

 

[Jamie]

You can update the bios on it, when the machine is working, and it keeps the fan on, prolonging the life of the unit. Afaik it can also sort out some of the wireless issues

Worth a shot

 

[shamrin]

That should be fine. I use the Edimax ones, in fact I carry a couple with me.

What he said. It's a particularly good idea because it's a cheap fix for the customer who has a computer that is clearly in the first stage of failure. I like those little Edimax ones that are about the size of a dime as they aren't too bad to leave in the computer when you carry it around.

 

[Ender07]

Well I got a USB wireless NIC and now wireless works, the client had norton 2006 on there so I removed that and replaced it with MSE for now.

However now I am having an issue where I can't update any programs or Windows it always give me an error code. And when I disabled the firewall and turned off MSE it still is giving me the errors. There is nothing blocking this thing from the internet at all now. I did a winsock fix, checked all the LAN connections, & ran a TCP/IP reset in cmd prompt and so far nothing has worked but I CAN get online through internet explorer.

Any more ideas?

 

[PC Ops]

How did you remove Norton?

EDIT: what I mean is: did you use the Norton Removal Tool. I've seen supposedly removed antivirus programs cause weird symptoms.

 

[Ender07]

How did you remove Norton?

Well just FYI it wasn't working properly before I removed Norton either. I tried to use the Norton removal tool but it said it was expired and to go to their website. So I uninstalled the security suite through add/remove programs. Liveupdate still can't be removed even after uninstalling everything, would that be messing with it at all?

 

[PC Ops]

You replied while I edited my post

You have to get the latest version of the Norton Removal Tool. I've seen that 'expired' before.

Hope it helps

It wouldn't surprise me if Norton leftovers are bugging around...

 

[bertie40]

Rather more concerned by the hard drive clicking noise.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk .... Whilst proclaiming the machine fixed, grabbing the cash and running like hell.