Help with my son's wireless laptop

tumbletots

Hope someone can help as I am absolutely useless with anything technical!!

My young son has a laptop which is wireless. When you switch the laptop on the little wireless light on the front of the laptop lights up. As soon as everything has loaded on the laptop and it is ready to use the light goes off and you are unable to access the internet.

This has just happened today as the laptop was working fine until then. I have tried to see if there is something straightforward I can do but all I seem to get is that there is no connection.

Can anyone out there help an idiot like me !!:o Thanks.

Lil306

If the light is going out it could be dropping the wireless connection

Apologies, doing this from memory

If you move the switch into it's search mode (usually amber or the I position from I/O) you will see the wireless networks icon in the bottom right

Double click this, then bottom left there should be something about "advanced settings", look at the order in which wireless networks connect (it's at the bottom of the page), is your sons' wireless connection at the top of the list, otherwise it will connect to the other ones first and might drop off if the passwords aren't synching

What security is being used on the networks, when you view the available networks there should be a description ( a padlock with either WEP or WPA/WPA2) or no padlock.....


I'll get around to writing a full wireless guide someday, since Wireless seems to get asked loads on this forum, I think there's a sticky somewhere

tumbletots

Thanks for the quick response. Will go and try it now.

tumbletots

Hi,
When I click on advanced setting it is blank. So it is as if it has totally lost the original connection. When I ask the computer to fault diagnose it asks me to switch on the wireless connection. It already is switched on.

What I find strange is that when I first turn on the laptop the light is lit up. It is only when it is ready to use that the connection seems to disappear.

tumbletots

Forgot to say my son has had a mobile connection on the laptop as well but hardly ever uses it. When I go into manage connections the Vodafone mobile connection is the only one showing. Should I try and remove this?

Many thanks for any help anyone can offer.

Lil306

tumbletots wrote: »

Hi,
When I click on advanced setting it is blank. So it is as if it has totally lost the original connection. When I ask the computer to fault diagnose it asks me to switch on the wireless connection. It already is switched on.

What I find strange is that when I first turn on the laptop the light is lit up. It is only when it is ready to use that the connection seems to disappear.

I just want to check something, as usually the switches on the side only SCAN for networks and connect when setup..... and I have a niggling feeling the wireless is just turned off.

Does your laptop have a function to enable wireless... normally FN key and F7?

The wireless itself still needs enabling on the laptop before it can connect to anything by the wireless card. The button on the side normally only scans for the presence of wireless networks and will connect when setup

Can you check the laptop keyboard and press the relevant FN and F..... key to activate / deactivate wireless.....

On some laptops, it looks like a radar which goes either green, red or orange depending on the connections available

Also, check the router to make sure the wireless light is lit up.

Lil306

tumbletots wrote: »

Hi,
When I ask the computer to fault diagnose it asks me to switch on the wireless connection. It already is switched on.

Sorry, I missed this I'm having a thick day

You will probably find your wireless is actually turned off (so my earlier post)

Chances are if you activate it by pressing something like FN+F7 or whatever the relevant key is (normally F7, looks like a telephone mast with signals going left and right) then the wireless will activate / deactivate....

Regarding the vodafone software, shouldn't affect it really. It's under start - network connections - manage wireless connections what you want to look at.

Donnie

Go to the Device Manager in order to locate the Wireless Device. When you locate it under Network Adapters, right click and choose 'Properties'. Note what it says under 'General'.

Of which brand and model of laptop are we speaking?

tumbletots

Hi,

Thank you so much I have got the internet working again!! That has saved me a fortune having to take it in and get it looked at by somebody who knows what they are doing.

Can't thank you enough. :T:T:T

Lil306

tumbletots wrote: »

Hi,

Thank you so much I have got the internet working again!! That has saved me a fortune having to take it in and get it looked at by somebody who knows what they are doing.

Can't thank you enough. :T:T:T

FN+F7 by any chance?

If so, yeah that caught me out a lot. The switches on the side only search for presence of networks, they don't connect to them

spud17

tumbletots wrote: »

Hi,

Thank you so much I have got the internet working again!! That has saved me a fortune having to take it in and get it looked at by somebody who knows what they are doing.

Can't thank you enough. :T:T:T

Which suggestion got it working again?