Windows 7: Wireless Connection Problems on Dell Laptop

I have a Dell E6400 Latitude laptop and I've been having issues with the wireless connection. Hopefully you guys haven't answered this question recently, I couldn't find anything when I searched.



Anyway, it says that Windows Wireless Service is not running when I try to troubleshoot my wireless connection. It doesn't give me the option to try to connect or anything. I've tried downloading the latest drivers for Windows 7 32-bit on Dell's driver's page related to Wifi 5300 and LAN to no avail. I've also tried to start WLAN AutoConfig through Services but I get this error: Error 193: 0xc1

Any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated!

Hi and welcome

two places you need to look
First device manager too make sure the sriver is installed and working. type device manager in search go to the network tab and make sure you device is listed. It should not have a yellow triangle on it

Second place is event viewer. type eventvwr in search and go to the windpws log>application tab. look for any error (it has red in teh left column) that related to the networking problem. If you fing onr note the event ID and source code and let us know what the are.

Kenn J++

There are no yellow triangles listed under the Networks tab in device manager. As for the event viewer,

There is an error pertaining to vstskmgr.exe which I'm not sure is relevant or not, Event 1000, application error. Also, Event 1005, Application error, which says something about a network connection problem. Those are the two recurring predominant errors. Hopefully that is useful information.

That error has something to do with McAfee's virus scanner task scheduler. Part of the internet protection suite. You may try to uninstall McAfee completely and see if your problems go away, you can always reinstall it later

I tried uninstalling McAfee. Still no dice.

Any other third party applications you have installed, like Zone Alarm or perhaps bonjuor services which is part of Itunes and other applications. A quick way that may help is to attempt to reboot in safemode with networking which will give us a clue as to whether their are some third party apps and or services which might be causing your issues.

Hello jwnich;
You did not say, so I am wondering if you used the wireless switch on your model laptop? See Dell manual: Setup Features and Information Techsheet Item #11

Documentation

Cheers!
Robert

I rebooted my computer in Safe Mode with Networking. I still don't show any wireless connections available or the open to connect. I can't troubleshoot the connection to ensure that Windows Wireless service is not running because it is not available in this mode. I know there are networks around me.

Also, toggling the Wifi switch on and off and pushing the network locator button didn't help. I don't know what this laptop's problem is. Everything worked fine when I had Vista on it and it started to act up after I installed Windows 7. It must be something with the OS.

Sorry to bump this, but does anyone have any other ideas I could try?

I took the computer into IT support at my college today, and they put a CD in with Ubuntu on it and rebooted my computer in Ubuntu. The wireless worked fine in that OS. They said my only option would be to reinstall Windows 7. I don't really want to do this and hope it's not my only option.

Any thoughts? Thanks to everyone that has given me suggestions already.

jwnich;
It is difficult to offer you concrete solutions as I do not own the model laptop you are using. You mentioned you had tried some troubleshooting, but diagnostics is a thorough elimination of possibilities through a step by step process to avoid missing even the obvious or minor. The Dell web site has its own troubleshooting guides, and 7 has some as well. We do not know how much or how far you pursued the issue.

There are a number of possibilities, steps that must come together in 7. There are three catagories of networks to choose from: Home, Work, and Public. A network connection must be created. If the wireless card was off when you installed 7 Windows may have skipped some important steps. Some places to look:











Turn ON Network Discovery?



A "Repair Install" may actually be the easiest way to correct the issue. Here is one of several helpful tutorials: Repair Install

We will gladly help if we can.

Robert

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