Reinstalled Windows 7, now wireless no longers works !

andy money · 16 Jun 2012

I have an Alienware m15x running windows 7 64bit and recently reinstalled to try and improve performance. I installed using the cd, and then used the resource cd to install any drivers. Everything on the disk was installed, but I still can't connect to any wireless networks. Troubleshooting either says there are no networks available, or that I need to connect an ethernet cord.

I downloaded all drivers from the alienware and dell sites, and sill nothing.

When I open device manager, I have a yellow exclamation point next to "Network Controller". it is listed in device manager as "pci/ven 145&dev_4353&SUBSYS_000E1028&REV_01"

I've tried all drivers, reinstalling and installing drivers in different orders and nothing is working. Please help!

richnrockville · 16 Jun 2012

Welcome Andy Money to the forums.

Have you checked to see whether there is a wireless switch that isn't turned on? or have you checked
the properties of the wireless adapter to see whether the power is turned off.

Rich

andy money · 16 Jun 2012

no, I didn't know I had to check that. I'll try

Night Hawk · 17 Jun 2012

When going to install Windows fresh you should be prompted for choosing the Home, Work, or Public setting once the installation nears the end before reaching the desktop for the first time. Once Windows is already on you may have to simply turn the laptop off and either turn off or unplug the WiFi modem used for a half minute or so and then turn it on or replug it in allowing it to resyc with the ISP first before turning the laptop back on again.

The refresh will re-establish the Mac and private IP address. Once the refresh is seen and Windows loads up you may have to go into the Control Panel>Network & Sharing Center to use the Network troubleshooting tool to allow the fresh detection of the active connection keeping a watch on the network icon if displayed on the taskbar. That should then change from red X to amber then to green once the reconnect is complete.

ThatCoolAndroid · 18 Jun 2012

richnrockville said:

Welcome Andy Money to the forums.

Have you checked to see whether there is a wireless switch that isn't turned on? or have you checked
the properties of the wireless adapter to see whether the power is turned off.

Rich

Some pcs ( especially chinese ) don't come with the drivers.Almost all PCs with brand have a volume in the hard disk where the drivers are placed. If you format your hard disk and then install windows 7 or any other os that volume will be deleted and all the drivers will be gone. if you dont format your hard drive before installing windows 7 the drivers will be automatically installed(usually it's like that, in some situations you'll have to install them yourself as a normal exe file.)

Night Hawk · 18 Jun 2012

When using the OEM recovery disks the C primary will automatically be reformatted by the recovery tools themselves. The second resource disk will have the drivers there if they are not already on the recovery partition the recovery process accesses when placing the clean install of Windows on.

To be sure however you can simply go right to the Dell support site and look up that model for the latest available which should list each driver set and what it is for.