Issues with inbuilt wifi adapter & CD/DVD drive for EasyNote R1000  

Hi there.

I've been given an old Packard Bell Easynote R1000, it's running (32-bit) Windows 7, but given the basic specs, and the issues below, I wouldn't be surprised if it'd been upgraded from XP at some point. I'm having a couple of issues, which are beyond my (limited) knowledge:-

1) the CD/DVD [_NEC DVD+-RW ND-6650A ATA] drive keeps disappearing, but is accessible and functioning when it does appear. When it's recognised, it's recognised in both BIOS and Windows, but recognised by neither when it isn't. I've tried updating the drivers but it returns saying they're up to date. A simple restart, and it remains unrecognised, but I find if the laptop is shutdown for a few hours I can 'recover' it. Event Viewer throws up the 15 & 7026 Event IDs for what it's worth.

2) Device Manager shows there's an Atheros AR5005GS wifi adapter installed, and the F1 key seems to be the key to enable the wifi adapter (there's no switch), however all I appear to get is a beep, and Windows diagnostic keeps telling me it's switched off, and no matter how many times I press, I've never seen it find a network. Tried updating, but same story as the DVD driver. Interestingly, other FN keys (that I've tried) work (with some beeping and some not) - I say interestingly because I discovered in the Action Centre that it'd identified the RheaSDC Keyboard as incompatible with this version of Windows, giving a link to the Windows Compatibility Centre and recommending searching the product name - which I did, and it found nothing. Although there's no other discernible issues with this keyboard that I can find, it might explain why the FN+F1 key is not turning on the Wifi adapter as it should. Can't see anything in Event Viewer, but admittedly unless it specifically mentioned it failing, I wouldn't know where or what I should be looking for. The wifi adapter's hardware IDs are listed as:

PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_0013&SUBSYS_7084144F&REV_01
PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_0013&SUBSYS_7084144F
PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_0013&CC_020000
PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_0013&CC_0200

Thanks in advance for any help, and if you need any further information, please ask and I'll try to provide it. Not sure if this is the right section for these - hopefully a moderator can move it if not.

Hello, and thanks for the welcome. It's not that pressing - it'll mainly be connected via ethernet, however I know I would eventually want to take advantage of its capability at some time or other. It's just frustrating to know you have a feature - if only it could be turned on. I've tried the BIOS, but no luck it seems there's very little I can change in there:-

Startup: Date & Time or Boot Password
Chipset: Shared Memory
Boot: Boot Sequence or Recovery Boot
Exit: Save & Exit, Exit (No Save), Default Settings or Restore Settings

None of that appears to be relevant? Thanks for the suggestion and explanation, though.

Nope, unless I'm doing it wrong. That screengrab was from F2, but I've restarted and tried FN+F2 and it just booted into Windows. FN+F2 whilst in that BIOS screen also does nothing (as does F1).

Cheers, mate! As I say, the other function keys seem to work from what I've tried - just seems the one I actually need doesn't!

Thanks, really wish that XP driver was compatible. Seems crazy PB allowed newer installments of Windows to kill some of its laptops wifi capabilities?!