2 days ago my wireless card stopped working. I decided to try with a wireless PCI and that works.
I have a Toshiba Satellite A55-s326 and 2 days ago my wireless card stopped working or something like that, this is what it does.
The computer with the wireless indication on the bar is with an “x” and always appears that the computer can’t connect with the wireless net, I open it and click on connect and seems that is working but after a while doesn’t do anything.
After many tries I decided to try with a wireless PCI and that work.
Can I test my internal wireless card in any form or what can I do to know if I have to replace my internal wireless card?
I don’t know any test utility for testing a wireless card. The only way to test it is trying to connect to a good working wireless access point.
First of all, check if wireless antenna switch on the side of your laptop is turned on and the Wi-Fi LED lights up. I know that this advice sounds funny, but I’ve seen some people who didn’t know about this little Wi-Fi switch on the side even though they owned the laptop for months.
You should check if the wireless card is seated properly. If you carry the laptop a lot, it’s possible that the wireless card popped out from the connector. You can easily access the wireless card from the bottom and check if it seated properly. Reseat it just in case. When you remove the card, check if the connectors are oxidized or dirty, clean them if needed. If you turn over the laptop, you’ll find the wireless card under the hatch in the lower right corner.
I would also try to reinstall the wireless card driver. You can download it from Toshiba website or reload it from the restore CD.
November 4th, 2006 at 7:45 pm
I have a toshiba A-75, I took the laptop apart cleaned out the fans and heatsink because it was overheating. When I put the laptop back together neither the realtek network adapter nor the wireless network adapter are found or funtionable. I thought I possibly static spiked the wireless card when I removed it, so I bought a D-link cardbus adapter and installed it and it doesnt work either. The wireless switch led does not come on when the switch is on and the cardbus adapter does not show any leds either. What should I check next? everything else seems to work fine.
November 5th, 2006 at 2:06 pm
Hey Ryan,
That’s a strange problem. You are sure it’s not a software issue, right?
Here are a couple of guesses I have.
It’s possible that during the laptop assembly you put a long screw into a wrong hole, it touches the motherboard and there is a short.
The top cover assembly and the laptop base has a few metal strips (I hope you understand what I’m talking about) that touch the motherboard (for grounding) when you assemble the laptop. It’s possible that during disassembly or assembly process on of these strips got bent and after you screwed it all together, this metal strip touches the motherboard and there is a short.
Here’s what I would try to do. It looks like you know how to take this thing apart, so it should be very difficult for you. Remove the top cover from the laptop and start the laptop without it, you can use an external monitor or temporarily attach the laptop LCD. If network adapter work fine, examine the top cover. If the problem still exists, remove the motherboard from the laptop and examine the base. Look if all metal pieces in the base look normal and are not bent.
November 17th, 2006 at 4:50 am
My laptop (hp pavilion ze4500)crashed, Instead of using the recovery disk, I used the windows disk, My internal wireless card stopped working, at first the switch, LED light was stuck on, but I couldn’t connect, I downloaded a new driver from hp, still didn’t work, I put in a external card and it worked fine. I’m not sure at what point the light went out, but now I can’t get it to come on. I think my problem is with the switch. In device manager, the card show installed, and device working properly, I deleted the whole card, restarted and the computer found new hardware, I then manually found an updater driver, I then popped off the outer cover to the switch by the LED, and tried to turn it on myself, the light still wont come on, I removed the card inspected it and reinstalled it. I cant tell if those little wires need cleaning, but how do i clean them? Is there a way to turn the wireless card on manually bypassing the switch? Is there a way to tell if the card is on, other than the LED light? Is it possible for it to be on if the LED light isnt on? Could the LED light be out?
November 18th, 2006 at 8:57 pm
Pam,
I don’t think that these cables (antenna cables) is your problem. The Wi-Fi LED should light up even if the antenna cables are disconnected. I just tested it on my Toshiba Satellite A105, the light comes up even after I disconnected the Wi-Fi cables.
Are you sure that you installed a correct wireless card driver? Can you use the recovery disk just to make sure it’s not a software issue?
If it would be just a bad Wi-Fi LED I guess you still would be able to see and configure the wireless connection in Windows.
January 11th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
I have the same problem with my HP Pavilion. DV8000, my wifi LED light doesnt come on this just happened a few days ago. I will try to reinstall the recovery discs all software tonight to see what happens.My laptop came with XP home edition.Everything works fine except the point that I cannot be wireless. “In device manager, the card show installed, and device working properly” so whats up with that??? HELP!
January 11th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Jay,
Before you reinstall the operating system, try reseating the wireless card. You can access the card from the bottom of the laptop. Download HP Pavilion dv8000 maintenance and service guide here (5.09MB) and read instructions on the page106. Check out the wireless card connectors are oxidized and clean them.
January 19th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
I have a similar problem with my wireless lan connection(s). I have used 4 different wireless routers and two of them had a dongle in the box too so must be compatable and none of them have worked even 2 feet away from my pc and laptop. I think somehow the signal is being jammed as 4 different routers and dongles not working from new is a bit weird. Any help or suggestions would be great and I am stumped…
January 31st, 2007 at 10:48 am
Hey Jay,
Not to be insulting, but is the button pressed? If so, there are 3 levels to enabling the wireless. All three must be on for it to work. One’s in the BIOS, one’s in the device manager, and the last is the button. It’s probably one of those
January 31st, 2007 at 4:43 pm
I also have a problem. My hp ze4200′s wireless started acting up a while ago. When it started up, sometimes it would not find the wireless card. I would remove and insert the card again, sometimes several times. Sometimes it would start working again, but often it would freeze the computer and it would restart. After a while of this, it just stopped recognizing that the card was there. Any help?
The card works fine, I tried it and another card in my laptop and another laptop, and they worked fine in the other laptop, but not in mine.
February 5th, 2007 at 9:41 am
The WiFy just stopped working on my Toshiba Satellite M45-S269. It last just a year. Now when I turn on the computer the WiFy works for just under two minutes and then shuts down. If I restart the computer I get another two minutes. I updated the driver from the Toshiba web site. I also moved the card in and out of its slot a bit but didn’t remove it altogether. Any ideas?
Thanks
February 6th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Steve,
Try reinstalling the operating system from the recovery DVD. It might be software related problem. It also might be a faulty wireless card. Have you tried different wireless routers?
February 8th, 2007 at 9:22 am
Here is an update on my wireless problem. I did try other routers by using the service from different neighbors in the building. Same difficulty with them all. The problem is no doubt in the opperating system as you suggest, but I didn’t want to get into reinstalling. So – I went to the Toshiba web site and got a free download of an updated wireless driver and a utility called Intel Proset Wireless. The utility took over the opperation of the wireless card from Windows and it seems to work even faster and with less interuptions than before, although the visual interface isn’t as nice. Also the little monitor icon dissapeares from the bottom tray because Windows no longer knows that the wireless is working. A small price to pay. I’m just glad if it wasn’t a hardware problem. A virus scan didn’t show anything, but I still wonder.
Thanks,
Steve
February 23rd, 2007 at 9:26 am
Hello ,,I have a Gateway M305CRV laptop running Windows XP home edition that I am having trouble
with. My problems first started when I found out it was overheating,,it would lockup, reboot, freeze, no Ctrl-Alt-Del, etc.Sure enough, I took it apart and it was filled with dust. I cleaned it out and it worked fine for 3 or 4 days. Then it started doing the same thing. I formatted the thing and did a new XP install and also installed windows debugger. Well, it still was doing the same thing, no change. Every time it crashed or locked up the debugger pointed to my D-Link driver file Ar5211.sys. I contacted D-Link went through there troubleshooting steps which wasn’t much and they wound up sending me a new card and software, D-Link DWL-G630 wireless card that plugs into my PCMCIA slot. With the new card still the laptop works sometimes, sometimes it doesn’t. I get random lockups, freezes, and reboots itself sometimes. It might work fine for several hours or several minutes, sometimes you have to restart it several times before it will start working. I have also noticed that several times it will be working fine and get up to go do something and come back and it is locked up. I have also had it in my lap and then set it down and it would lock up. I can remove the card and hardwire it to my router and use my local connection and everything works fine. I decided to try a different network card. I uninstalled all the D-Link stuff and installed a new Linksys WPC54G network card. I could not get it to link up what so ever, so I contacted Linksys tech support and we checked the installation and all my settings on laptop and router and everything was like it was supposed to be. He asked about the lights on the adapter, had power light but no link light. He suggested that there is not enough power getting to the card to operate it. That it could possibly be a weak power supply or the PCMCIA slot itself. Is there a voltage check I can perform on my power supply to verify whether or not it is bad or weak? If so, where are the test points and what voltage should I be reading? Is there a way to test the PCMCIA slot? Is the power supply a separate component or is it integrated on the motherboard? Your help would be greatly appreciated.
February 26th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Roger,
An intermittent problem like that is a nightmare for any laptop repair technician.
Sorry Roger, it’s impossible to troubleshoot these kind of problems over the internet.
Maybe you should try reinstalling Windows and test the laptop for a while WITHOUT D-Link software installed? This way you can completely eliminate a driver (D-Link) related problem.
February 26th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
Hey Laptop, I had already done a new install and tried Linksys wireless,,that didnt work.Is it possible that a weak power supply would cause this? Thanks Roger
February 27th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Roger,
The PCMCIA slot is just a connector located on the motherboard. There is no logic board on the PCMCIA card. If there is a problem with power provided by the slot then most likely it’s a problem with the motherboard or the slot is damaged.
Take a look inside the slot, there should be two rows of pins inside. Maybe some pins are bent?
February 28th, 2007 at 9:54 am
It evidentally must be my motherboard I guess.The wireless card works sometimes like I stated in my first comment so I would think that would eliminate bent pins on the PCMCIA slot.I suppose I would need the schematics on this laptop to check power supply voltages on the motherboard that supply the PCMCIA slot.Fat chance on finding that uh? This one has sure been a dandy trying to troubleshoot!!!
July 12th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
hi! its me once again…i have DELL INSPIRON 1100 and want to install “Sony Ericsson GC89 EDGE/WLAN CARD” but i am not sure if my laptop supports it…coz GC89 uses 32 bit data bus type II PCMCIA but i dont know whether dell inspiron 1100 supports it or not…plz help me…how can i will come to know that my PCMCIA slot is 32 bit type II card bus slot…
July 12th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
i am sorry i posted same comments accidentally on two posts…
October 4th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Hi,
I just bought a SONY VAIO® AR570 CTO Series notebook, my case is probably unusual, this laptop is wireless capable already. I Travel abroad a lot (South America and Europe)so I bought a GC89 sony ericson EDGE / Wireless LAN PC Card (Unblocked)so I can connect any where to internet through a SIM card when I’m outside the US. But Before I travel I want to make sure this card is working.Well I plugged the card into the PCcard slot after installing the software and the computer doesn’t recognize it, what can this be, I need to test if this card is working or not before I travel. How can I test it. Can I disconnect or cancel in some way the wireless that comes with the laptop in order to test the wireless functions of the gc89 card? if so how can I do this? any tips will be gladly appreciated.
October 9th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
this the best advice i’ve had in a long time
“First of all, check if wireless antenna switch on the side of your laptop is turned on and the Wi-Fi LED lights up” didnt know of the button unttill i read this thanks man
November 20th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Thank you for the advice regarding the first question. I had tried everything, including reinstalling the wireless card, drivers, tweaked all the configuration settings, etc., and nothing worked. Then I read about this little switch in your forum and VOILA!!!
Toshiba should incorporate a message indicating that the wireless card switch is off, it would have saved me days of trying to fix this rather silly problem.
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:13 pm
i have a Toshiba Satellite A105-s2001 and I had taken it apart to clean out the fan, heat sink, and add 2g of ram when my new pupp decided to chew on the wireless antenna wires coming out of the LCD screen. She didn’t chew them in half or anything, just mangled them pretty good. Is there a way i can repair them or would I have to buy a new set, and if so where would be a good place to buy them at.
August 27th, 2008 at 8:34 am
I have a Toshiba Satellite M-100-ST5111 with Intel Pro/Wireless 3945 WiFi card. I wanted to replace this card with Intel/Pro Wireless 4965 card, so I bought the new card, and installed it. The 3945 comes with only 2 antennae which matches the antennae in the Toshiba. The 4965 comes with 3 antennae plugs. I plugged the 2 antennae in #1 and #2 of the 4965 and left #3 open (for future 3rd antennae for “N”). I also installed the latest Intel Vista driver software (this driver is actually for both 3945 and 4965 cards). After starting the computer, the WiFi will not connect. Device Manager shows the new card installed. When I try to Diagnose & Repair, I get a message “Turn on WiFi Switch on Laptop”. Needless to say, the switch is on. Tried all possible settings, reseated the card, etc, nothing worked. When I put back the 3945 card, lpatop recognizes it and it works fine.
Any ideas? Is it possible that the Brand New 4965 is defective?
Thank you for your help.
Mike
September 1st, 2008 at 5:38 pm
I have had my Compaq F560EM(Windows Vista) one year now, I previously had no problems with the wireless. I put the computer into hibernate mode for the first time and the wireless light turned from blue to orange and ever since then I can’t access the my wireless. When i click on “HP Wireless Assistant” in the “Network and Sharing Center” nothing happens
The troubleshoot says that “this computer does not have a wireless network adaptor installed and configured”
I used the system restore but it failed to make the changes.
Any help would be appreciated
October 7th, 2008 at 8:20 am
Not able to help but exact same thing happened to my Compaq F500 a couple of days ago. orange light wont go blue. I have tried heaps got support help and given new driver but didn’t help. my wireless works with an external dongle but wont recognize the internal wireless. very frustrating in middle of assignment due Arrgg.
January 23rd, 2009 at 3:15 am
Hi all,
I have the exact same problem with my 16 month old presario F560EM (UK), no wireless, can’t detect the Broadcom thingy in the device manager etc etc blah blah. I’ve done all the things that HP recommends, updated BIOS etc but no change. HP are totally denying that this problem exists – even though there are scores of people with the same issues and not just with this model. It’s immensely frustrating to be told that ‘yours must be a one off case’ (quoted to me in an email from a hp tech) and to clearly know there are others with exactly the same issues. Oh, and of course, mine is one of the models that isnt covered by the extended warranty.
Anyway, enough moaning.
I don’t know how far I’ll get, but anything’s worth a try, hopefully if we all get together we can get some help. I’ve emailed the consumer help TV programme Watchdog (UK) and i would be very grateful if all you could email them too – the more people the better chance we have at at least getting HP to add our models to the list of extended warrantees!
Many thanks
Gina
February 4th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
I have a HP Compaq F500 and my wireless card has always worked. I started my computer on day and flipped on my wifi switch can it wouldn’t turn blue. I turned off my computer, and restarted it.. and the wifi came on.. but went off about an hour after using it. I’ve read on some websites that hp computers do this often, and it has something to do with the motherboard.. i hope not..
.. if anyone can help email me at caitlin.moore_AT_smail.astate.edu (replace _AT_ with @).
i have the right drivers installed but it still says “this computer does not have network adapter installed and configured” blah i hate this, i realy need my wifi working again and i dont have a waranty anylonger
Thanks : )
Caitlin
February 10th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Toshiba Satelite M35-S311, can’t get the wireless on/off swith to work. Tried toggling the swith but still will not work. I have downloaded just about every available driver from the Toshiba website and still no luck. Router works, because I have a 2nd laptop that isn’t having any problems. Any suggestions?
February 13th, 2009 at 11:14 am
I bought an HP DV6458SE last year and it was working fine until about november last year… a month after the one year warranty expired. The wireless card started acting up… it will work and will not work until suddenly in January it stopped working at all. HP sent me software updates for the wireless card and to flash the bios. When HP walked me through some steps they said it was weird that the wireless card cannot be detected by the device manager. Anyway the software updates did not work at all and a friend of mine suggested pulling and reinserting the wireless card but its still not working. On top of that the HP wireless assistant is also not working as well as the HP tools that usually runs during the boot up process.
Thanks for any help and suggestions.
February 17th, 2009 at 3:06 am
best advice ever! for me it was the switch on the side!
May 21st, 2009 at 7:49 am
Ugh! I knew about the switch and forgot. Laptop is at home but I bet that’s what the problem is on mine. Thanks.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:26 am
i did a vista update and it worked for now anyway!
January 12th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Hi: My internal wireless card completely stopped working. I have a HP laptop. I uninstalled it and reinstalled the drive but it still doesn’t work. I just bought a wireless usb and uninstalled the old driver and I was getting a signal but nothing is coming through on the screen. Help….
January 28th, 2011 at 2:45 pm
I had the same problem, blue screen of death when I turned on the wireless switch on the side. As long as did not turn it on the laptop worked fine. I replaced the wireless card, and problem solved. I used an old one from a compaq r3000.