Acer Aspire One - dosen't detect internal network card

[bomberswarm2]

This is the netbook which I used at school the past 4 years, and when I graduated, we were allowed to keep the netbook. The default Acer OS was reinstalled, which was incredibly slow and had tonnes of bloatware on it, so I installed my own copy of Windows 7 using a USB. After the install was done, there was no network connection, so when I went to connect it to my home network, it said "No wireless network devices installed" which is complete bullshit. Its used a wireless network card built into it to connect to the internet every day for the last 4 years. I went to connect it to my router through an ethernet cord, but it also refused to acknowledge this cord was plugged into it. I then tried it with a different ethernet cord which was using my desktop to connect my Xbox 360 to the internet. I checked the device manager, and there wasn't any tab showing called "network devices". However, under "other devices", it says there is an "Ethernet controller", a "Network controller" and a "PCI simple communications controller". I plugged in a usb wifi adapter, which instantly failed to install as the computer couldn't find any driver,s but then i inserted the USB adaptor i used for my PC, and it installed and connected to the internet. I then tried to find drivers for the "ethernet controller", but it found none. I went to Acer's website and tried to install the Atheros Ethernet driver, but it said that it failed to find any compatible hardware.
I tried to put the small Ethernet adaptor that I had first tried into the computer, but now the computer refused to recognise it at all. If I could install that driver, then it would be acceptable for me to use it with that adaptor plugged in.

How do I fix this problem?

 

[derekimo]

Try installing the chipset drivers from Acer, that should allow your system to see and install the drivers for other components like your network adapters and card reader, etc.

 

[bomberswarm2]

Try installing the chipset drivers from Acer, that should allow your system to see and install the drivers for other components like your network adapters and card reader, etc.

What chipset driver? As I said, this was owned by my school before me, and I have NO DISCS for it at all. Where can I get this driver?

My netbook is can be found under
Netbooks and Chromebooks > Aspire One > AO753 here: Download Drivers and Manuals | Acer Official Site

 

[derekimo]

I see it right here at your link,



You'll probably need a couple more too but start with that to get your components recognized.

After you do the chipset if you post the file from this tutorial we can point out any other drivers.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/374583-system-information-file-create-windows.html

 

[bomberswarm2]

Here is the file, after installing the chipset. There was no change to the "manage devices" list.

 

[derekimo]

Did you restart after installing the chipset?

The problem devices listed are these,

Ethernet Controller	PCI\VEN_1969&DEV_1073&SUBSYS_05591025&REV_C0\4&307155C2&0&00E0	The drivers for this device are not installed.	
Network Controller	PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0082&SUBSYS_13018086&REV_34\4&20D9F562&0&00E1	The drivers for this device are not installed.	
PCI Simple Communications Controller	PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_3B64&SUBSYS_040E1025&REV_06\3&11583659&0&B0	The drivers for this device are not installed.

Try that chipset driver again if nothing changes after a restart.

These two drivers should fix a couple of those listed above.



I still don't see a wireless network adapter listed, besides the USB one you plugged in.

I'm guessing you didn't have a network cable plugged in during the install, because there are a lot of drivers that are just what comes with the install.

 

[derekimo]

If you can get the ethernet working, then running all your windows updates will help too.

Windows will usually provide all basic drivers to function out of the box if you have a network connected during installation.

 

[bomberswarm2]

I did restart on the chipset installer's prompting, and when i tried to run the setup again, it skipped the screen where the program actually installs, and skipped right to a screen saying "Installation successful". I then installed the two drivers you highlighted, and restarted.
Just to be clear, the computer does have a network card installed. It worked yesterday on the old bloatware infested system, and it worked while in school.
Should I reinstall Windows 7 with the computer plugged into an ethernet cable? I'm not even sure this would work, as currently when an ethernet cable is plugged in, the computer still will not connect to the internet.
What should my next step be?
Thanks

 

[bomberswarm2]

Update: I just plugged it into the router, and it now connected to my home network. Should I let Windows update it, or try reinstalling Windows with the Ethernet plugged in? If so, do I need to do anything differently (like in the setup options, where i boot from)?
A reminder that the ethernet was not working before the last two drivers were installed, so there is no guarantee it would work in install.

 

[UsernameIssues]

Update: I just plugged it into the router, and it now connected to my home network. Should I let Windows update it, or try reinstalling Windows with the Ethernet plugged in?...

The installation DVD for the Windows OS does not have all of the software needed to support every possible combination of hardware being made. If you re-install Windows again, you will me right back where you were when you started this thread. You just have to patently work thru finding the right things to install after a fresh OS install. You might want to install this "updater" app from Acer:



Let that app scan your hardware. It should locate the stuff that you need to get Wi-Fi going again. Just avoid installing the bloatware that you don't want. After you get Wi-Fi working, you can uninstall that "updater" app.

 

[bomberswarm2]

It only found one program - a recovery UI.

 

[UsernameIssues]

It seems that Acer's update tool is not that good. You might as well uninstall it and wait for derekimo (or others) to help you find the correct files to download.install.