Laptop has stopped detecting Wireless networks

geeba88

Hi

I have a TOSHIBA Satellite L670-10N laptop which I use with a mobile dongle whilst away on business through the week. Up until a few weeks it would automatically pick my home wireless network when I used it on a weekend.

Now however it won't pick up any wireless networks at all, i've checked all the obvious things (it is switched on, network adaptors all okay), i've been through the troubleshooters - but it just won't detect any wireless networks, no matter what location I try from.

Any suggestions - the fact that I use a dongle wouldn't have any bearing would it?

Any advice appreciated

KingElvis

It's likely that even though the wireless adapter is "turned on" on the physical laptop switch, you have disabled the actual adapter somehow.

Go to start/settings/control panel/network connections (or the same for your version of Windows) and right click the wireless adapter, choose enable and I bet the networks come back to life :-)

Elvis

rdpro

are you running windows 7 by any chance?

geeba88

KingElvis wrote: »

It's likely that even though the wireless adapter is "turned on" on the physical laptop switch, you have disabled the actual adapter somehow.

Go to start/settings/control panel/network connections (or the same for your version of Windows) and right click the wireless adapter, choose enable and I bet the networks come back to life :-)

Elvis

I'm pretty sure i've tried this and everything was enabled - i'll check again tonight though.

Thanks

geeba88

rdpro wrote: »

are you running windows 7 by any chance?

Yes - i'm on windows 7

rdpro

There's a flaw in Win7 that causes random components to shut down or become 'invisible' to the operating system. try this:

Open Control Panel, then Device Manager - this gives a list of all your laptop devices. Go to the networking devices bit and expand it (it may already be expanded and have a ! or ? next to your wireless adapter, but that's a different problem!)

Find your wireless adapter, rightclick on it and select 'Uninstall' - when it asks if you also want to remove the driver, select 'No'.

Next, look at the top of the window for 'Actions', then select 'scan for hardware changes'. Windows will find the adapter again, re-install drivers, and it should start to function normally again.

This works for all other devices too, card readers, webcams, ethernet ports, etc.

geeba88

rdpro wrote: »

There's a flaw in Win7 that causes random components to shut down or become 'invisible' to the operating system. try this:

Open Control Panel, then Device Manager - this gives a list of all your laptop devices. Go to the networking devices bit and expand it (it may already be expanded and have a ! or ? next to your wireless adapter, but that's a different problem!)

Find your wireless adapter, rightclick on it and select 'Uninstall' - when it asks if you also want to remove the driver, select 'No'.

Next, look at the top of the window for 'Actions', then select 'scan for hardware changes'. Windows will find the adapter again, re-install drivers, and it should start to function normally again.

This works for all other devices too, card readers, webcams, ethernet ports, etc.

Thanks - will give this a try tonight

bioboybill

I have had similar problems with my laptop. Each time I would check the network adapters under device manager (I am running Windows 7) and the wireless adapter would be missing.

Several times I managed to get it back using System Restore and it worked okay for a few days before happening again. Other times it worked until I had to switch the laptop off and when I rebooted it had gone again. Other times it seemed to happen after a Windows Update. I eventually removed a load of windows updates and got it back working, so disabled updates, but it happened again the next day, so I am at a loss to work out why this is happening.:(

My netbook which has Windows XP and my son's laptop (can't remember his OS) both work fine using our Belkin Wireless Router.

kwikbreaks

rdpro wrote: »

There's a flaw in Win7 that causes random components to shut down or become 'invisible' to the operating system.

How on earth do they get away with selling this junk? If it was a car and not software it would spend more time in the garage on safety recalls than on the road.

Come the revolution Gates needs to be first against the wall

geeba88

rdpro wrote: »

There's a flaw in Win7 that causes random components to shut down or become 'invisible' to the operating system. try this:

Open Control Panel, then Device Manager - this gives a list of all your laptop devices. Go to the networking devices bit and expand it (it may already be expanded and have a ! or ? next to your wireless adapter, but that's a different problem!)

Find your wireless adapter, rightclick on it and select 'Uninstall' - when it asks if you also want to remove the driver, select 'No'.

Next, look at the top of the window for 'Actions', then select 'scan for hardware changes'. Windows will find the adapter again, re-install drivers, and it should start to function normally again.

This works for all other devices too, card readers, webcams, ethernet ports, etc.

Great advice mate - it's worked a treat. Thanks again :beer: