laptop internet problems

jassi_9

Hi my laptop has just suddenly decided it doesnt want to connect to the internet, and im not sure why.

It is an acer 5920g

We dont have a wifi connection in our house, we use a mobile broadband dongle.

But the wifi card on the laptop normally picks up 5-6 wifi signals (from neighbours etc etc)

Sometimes i have to disconnect from the wifi connections it picks up, before i can use my dongle.

But today the laptop doesnt appear to be picking up any wifi signals, which is weird as it always has before. Even worse is this seems to be effecting the broadband dongle now, and that wont connect either?!...which is strange.

I called "three" there is no problem with the dongle, it recieves a signal, the laptop opens the three connection software and there is full bar signal strength. Until i try and connect and it throw up an error msg saying check connection.....i ran through a few thing with three but they confirmed its a problem with laptop.

I called acer and they suggested a factory reset on the laptop.....which i didnt want to do without asking here as i would have back things up etc etc

Does anybody know what the problem might be?


The laptop is running windows vista

Thanks

johnmc

which i didnt want to do without asking here as i would have back things up etc etc

What, you don't backup every day?

Press the button up by the screen that looks like a satelite dish to turn it off and plug the dongle in.

In the Network and Sharing Centre open the Manage Wireless Connections.

Set all to Manual Connect and the dongle to automatic.

Hope that helps.

jassi_9

johnmc wrote: »

What, you don't backup every day?

Press the button up by the screen that looks like a satelite dish to turn it off and plug the dongle in.

In the Network and Sharing Centre open the Manage Wireless Connections.

Set all to Manual Connect and the dongle to automatic.

Hope that helps.

Thanks mate

I dont back it up becuase its a laptop only my parents use, so no doubt they have caused this problem aswell! lol

The sattellite button was NOT highlighted anyway (but it also wont let me select/highlight it) the mail button works, and so does the button that opens internet explorer (but obviously without an intenet connection they dont open the required pages)

i went into the "network and sharing centre"

then selected "manage netwrok connections"

there were three dial up connections

1) 1.3g - disconnected
2)3 connect - disconnected
3)globe visibilty- disconnected (this is a third party software i used to connect a different dongle a while back)

When i right click any of these i get the following options:

connect
status (greyed out......so im unable to select it)
set as defualt connection

i tried setting the 3 connect, as the default connection, and then pluged dongle in and tried to connect but got the same error msg?

Isnt it weird that its not picking up any wireless connectin at all? (or doesnt this matter?)

thanks for the help

jassi_9

Can anybody help with this please? its driving me mad...parents keep asking me to fix it! lol

jassi_9

just to add i have plugged in my network cable from my pc upstairs and the laptops not picking this up either?

Figment

Go into Network and Sharing Center. What is the status of the built-in Wifi connection and ethernet connection (with and without the ethernet cable plugged in)

Go to Device Manager. Are any devices shown with a red X or yellow triangle?

Open Windows update. Look in Update history. What dates are against the most recent updates?

jassi_9

Figment wrote: »

Go into Network and Sharing Center. What is the status of the built-in Wifi connection and ethernet connection (with and without the ethernet cable plugged in)

Go to Device Manager. Are any devices shown with a red X or yellow triangle?

Open Windows update. Look in Update history. What dates are against the most recent updates?

Thanks

WLAN and LAN are disconnected

in device manager there is yellow triangle for everything under the network adapter heading

in windows update the most recent update was on the 21/08 and it was windows defender update

the laptop stopped connecting to internet on 23rd

thanks

Figment

The yellow triangles means there is a problem with those devices - probably a driver issue. Ironically you need internet access in order to update the device drivers.

The Windows Defender update is a possible cause of the internet not working on the dongle. Try either disabling Windows Defender temporarily or use System Restore to go back to a point before the update was installed on 21/08 and see if that gets it working again. Report back with the result.

jassi_9

Figment wrote: »

The yellow triangles means there is a problem with those devices - probably a driver issue. Ironically you need internet access in order to update the device drivers.

The Windows Defender update is a possible cause of the internet not working on the dongle. Try either disabling Windows Defender temporarily or use System Restore to go back to a point before the update was installed on 21/08 and see if that gets it working again. Report back with the result.

Thanks mate

Turned of windows defender but that didnt work.

I restored the system to before the last update and it all seems to be working fine now......so thansk alot.

Do you think i should turn off defender/delete defender now, as i might have this problem once it updates again next time?

Figment

Disable Windows Defender as long as you have up-to-date Anti-virus software. Also if you do't already use it, download Malwarebytes free version and run it once a month.

jassi_9

Hi this problem has happened again!

I went through this thread to remember what i did last time but this time none of it has worked.

I first tired to restore the system and although this worked it did not solve the dongle not connecting issue

I turned off windows defender and tried again but still no joy.

But this time i was able to hard wire the laptop to my network upstairs (via my desktop) and unlike last time it was able to connect to the internet this way.

I checked device manager and there was a load of yellow triangles under almost everything under network adapters....so i tried another system restore but it would not let me go any further back than a few days (previously it had allowed me to restore to a point two weeks ago)

So in the end i just got fed up and did a factory restore, i'm now back in windows and im still getting the same error msg!?

There are no yellow trianlges in device manager though now.....

And the laptop still connects to internet when i hardwire it via the upstairs router....

It seems the laptop comes with mcafee preloaded, i have tried turning off the protection it offers but still no joy, i have also turned off windows defender but still getting the same error msgs when i try and connect the dongle?!

What could the problem be now?

Thanks......