windows 7 nuke n pave - no wireless

[totalPCTechs]

i had a customer come in and wanted a reformat since he was having several issues. i did the nuke and pave but after loading all the drivers theres no wireless. i ve tried the wireless drivers from dell and no luck, doesnt show any device errors either. also at the bottom right there is no wireless connection icon on the laptop either. any suggestions

 

[totalPCTechs]

forgot to mention its also not showing the wireless in device manager

 

[Cambridge PC Support]

silly I know, but I presume you've switched the wireless on? and also checked that it's enabled in the CMOS setup?

 

[totalPCTechs]

no wirless switch on the laptop...cmos is good

 

[Cambridge PC Support]

did the wireless work when the customer brought it in?

 

[NeutronTech]

no wirless switch on the laptop...cmos is good

Some laptops you have to push the Fn key plus a function key in order to turn the wireless off and on.

 

[totalPCTechs]

yup

filler filler filler

 

[iisjman07]

no wirless switch on the laptop...cmos is good

Does it have a keyboard button to turn it on (Fn + one of the F buttons?). Take the card out, clean it off, reseat it and see if that makes any difference. If no, I'd try it from an ubuntu cd

EDIT: Damn, beaten to it. Sorry for the re-print

 

[totalPCTechs]

and yeah the fn=f2 button works but it doesnt make the wireless show

 

[MobileTechie]

I assume it had Win7 on it to begin with?

You could try removing and then refitting the wireless card to see if you can force Windows to pick it up.

Also check to see if it hasn't been picked up but misrecognised. I've had problems like this from using Driverpacks on more than one occasion. I've had various devices called totally different things and had a hell of a job convincing Windows otherwise. Did you get the drivers from Dell originall or try some other source first?

 

[Martyn]

Have you got an unknown device in Device Manager?

 

[totalPCTechs]

dell originally and then tried to use the backed up drivers

 

[Martyn]

dell originally and then tried to use the backed up drivers

You need to use the quote function more. It's difficult to work out who you are answering. Did the wireless work for definite when it came in?

 

[badkinsdesigns]

I had a similar problem awhile ago, though it was on XP pro system. Reinstalled and all was well except for wireless driver. I couldn't for the life of me get the proper manufacturer driver to work, but ended up downloading Intel/PROset driver and it worked.

Still don't know why only this one worked, but it did....

 

[Kitten Kong]

I know youve checked device manager, but have you also checked the hidden devices, to check the wireless network is in there or not?

 

[Rodel]

laptop specs & brand pls...

 

[coco3_man]

Dell has been known to have the wrong drivers available on their web site for certain components. Do a Google search for "no wireless dell model number" and see if it comes up.

Also, in Device Manager, remove all the networking devices, then run the Dell Driver install package for the wireless and see if that works.

Also remove any "unknown devices" prior to running the package.

 

[dannyd]

dell originally and then tried to use the backed up drivers

Why did you not chose the backed up drivers first? you probably messed up with a driver from the dell site, and now cannot successfully use the driver from backup.

I personally would see if their are any system restore points before you installed the driver from the dell website, and then install from backup, if that sill fails i would start again from scratch.

Could the clients (several issues) not just of been dealt with instead of a nuke, might of saved you some time in hindsight

 

[4ycr]

I have seen a laptop, not sure if it was Dell, but a wireless utility program had to be installed first before the wifi was turned on or off. see if the dell website has something similar

 

[joydivision]

I've had somthign similier I solved it by installing the chipset drivers for the motherboard. Again in my case nothing was missing of device manager.