Windows 7: Wireless card(s) show in Device Manager but cannot connect to network

I have a friend's laptop (Toshiba Satellite L645D-S4040) that she recently got and I can't get the wifi on this thing to work. The built-in wifi card shows fine in Device Manager, but, if I attempt to use it in a network, I get a vague error about driver issues. She got a USB wifi adapter, as well, and the same thing is happening with it. I've installed the drivers from the Toshiba website and made sure they were up to date with Windows for the built-in card and used the CD that came with the on networks wifi adapter to install that driver. Neither adapter shows up in ipconfig /all, either.

Might anyone know where to go next? I could reinstall Windows, but I fear there's something simpler I'm missing.

Welcome to Seven Forums,

I'd recommend for you to boot in Safe Mode with Networking by restarting the laptop, continue tapping F8 then select this option. Disable any AV or Security programs, go to Device Manager uninstall the Wi-Fi adapter(s), then reinstall the drivers again.

An update will be nice.

I rebooted in Safe Mode with Networking and uninstalled the device. Now when I try to install it, I get an error stating that a driver cannot be found, even when I specify a local directory containing the drivers.

Can you please install Unknown Device Identifier? We'll help you find the current driver for your Wi-Fi adapter.

I'm not sure what happened. It was identifying the hardware fine and installing drivers, but now it's not. I know what the hardware is, but the drivers won't install for it.

We can assist you finding the correct driver from the manufacturer's site. Can you provide an ipconfig /all output for review?
Also, a snip of the Device Manager, make sure to expand Network Adapters.

I've already got the correct driver from the manufacturer's site. What I'm saying is that Windows 7 won't install it. It doesn't think it's for the right hardware, even though it is. I've also already stated that the wireless adapter doesn't appear in ipconfig /all

I don't need help finding a driver, I need help figuring out why Windows doesn't like the driver/hardware.

This machine sounds a bit tweaked to me, have you tried running the sfc /scannow command in order to see if there are any system file corruption problems?

I did. I don't know what the hell was wrong with the thing, but it's fixed now. I just restored it to factory defaults and it works now.

Thanks for giving us an update. Glad your issue has been resolved. :)