Wifi off, posibly, do not know how to turn on.

[MikhaNobot]

A friend just got here from a long trip, and she turned off her wifi to save on battery. She also told me she updated her drivers beforehand, not sure if that has anything to do with this. She didn't quite know what she was doing she disabled the icon on her taskbar somehow, and i just managed to get that back, and rolled back the driver in case that had anything to do with it. Shes german and i cant quite understand what it says however i have a windows 10 laptop and im using that to crossrefrence some of the menus. Im not to familiar with windows 7, and im not to sure where to turn the wifi on, if thats the problem. I dont think the problem is with the driver though, it seems like thats ok nothings disabled there, or in the network menus. Thanks in advance!

 

[mrjimphelps]

It is possible that there is a button (maybe one of the Function keys) or a switch which turns wifi on and off. Make sure that wifi is on with this switch or button. This is the easiest way to turn wifi off, so it is the most likely method that she used to turn wifi off.

Another way she might have turned off wifi was that she went into wireless networking properties. To get there, look for the icon in the lower right of the screen (by the clock); you should see an icon for the network connection. If you left-click on it, it will show you the available wireless networks. If you right-click on it, it will allow you to go into wireless networking properties (I'm not sure what this is called in Windows 7.) Once you are in the properties screen, you should be able to enable wireless networking (if it is off in that screen).

It is also possible that she went to Device Manager and turned the wifi adapter off. It is doubtful that this is what she did, because this is a complicated way to do it, beyond the abilities of the average user. To get to Device Manager, click the Start Button, then right-click on Computer and choose Manage, then Device Manager. Look for the wifi adapter in the right panel, right click on it, and make sure it is enabled.

It is possible that her computer has an option provided by the wifi adapter manufacturer which will allow her to go directly to the properties screen for the wifi adapter. If this exists, it will likely be in the lower right corner of the screen, near the clock. But it may also be on the start menu under All Programs.

Check the properties of the network adapter. Make sure that you have unchecked any option which allows it to go into power saving mode. In other words, you want the card to be active all the time, never going into power saving mode.

Meanwhile, perhaps she can use an Ethernet cable to connect directly to her router.