Wireless Network Adapter Says it's Working Properly But It's Not

[Calliope19]

reinstall method?

I tried system restore; it takes me back to the last known good config - yesterday right AFTER i installed Win 7 and the issue started happening. So that's no good.

XRay: Where dod you get the hardware ID from?
Thanks.

Madtownidiot: I'd appreciate knowing that reinstall method; I'm not familiar with it. Thanks,

Cal

 

[madtownidiot]

That seems to be correct.. so heres how to erase a HDD completely before reinstalling windows
boot from the windows dvd and when you get to the setup screen type shift+f10 to open a command prompt
wait for each subsequent prompt to appear and use the following commands

1. diskpart
2. list disk
3. sel disk 0
4. clean all (this will take anywhere from a half hour to several hours depending on the size and speed of your HDD, but it's a much more thorough means of cleaning a hdd that merely reformatting
5. exit
6. exit (the proper way to close a command prompt)

then proceed with setup..
another recommendation I give to nearly everyone who asks for advice on windows setups..
set up your system so that windows and programs are on either its own HDD or a relatively small partition, with a separate HDD or partition (usually named media or downloads) for music and personal files. 60 - 80 GB for the system partition if your HDD is less than 320GB.. 100GB if it's larger than that.and get used to the idea of moving everything you don't want to lose to the other partition or HDD.. Then set up any programs and your browser to download to the other partition, make an image backup to an external drive once you've got everything working, and be done with it.. It takes a lot less time to restore from a system image than to reinstall windows, especially if it's set up this way.
heres how the I have it set up on this system:
View attachment 101829
The other obvious advantage to this is media and standalone programs are shared between operating systems in the media partition
If you want to know how to find hardware IDs... theres a sticky in the drivers forum called a better way to find drivers.. pcidatabase.com isn't 100% accurate.. but it helps most of the time

 

[xRAYTANGOx]

Ok, so last night before bed, I did something I never do. I completely shut down the computer. Usually I just go to sleep mode and shut the lid. This morning I unplugged my wired connection and then cold booted, and my best friend Mr. Wireless was back and ready for action. I guess I have to start turning it off at night and letting it cool down completely. Thanks again to all who helped with my problem, rep was added this morning.

 

[chev65]

I mentioned rebooting like three times in my other post, no wonder my suggestions weren't working.

Rebooting after making adjustments to the network is usually required.

As for the diskpart commands, we have tutorials for that here.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/91339-ssd-hdd-optimize-windows-reinstallation.html

 

[xRAYTANGOx]

I warm booted like 47 times yesterday. I think letting it sit and cool last night and cold booting helped because i very seldom turn it off since I download at night.

 

[SwbyNw]

Apologies for any necrobumping, but this is where google took me, and it resolved my issue. My story is virtually identical to xRAYTANGOx. I'm running a Toshiba L355d with an Atheros AR5007EG that I never fully shut down. About a week ago woke up with the same big red x went through the same troubleshooting though my suspect was a routine update that went down while I was asleep instead of bonjour, and finally unplugged, shut down, and set it aside to run it over to my stepdad's IT guy. The next morning I decide to take one more look, and suddenly it's good.

Today in the middle of browsing it happens again. So I come here, and ten minutes of cooling off, and I back online.

 

[Lurn4evr]

Thanks for all the tips guys. I had a similar problem after I took my Toshiba L305-5892 Laptop with windows 7 32bit apart (I had a power problem; laptop kept shutting down on me). It turned out to be a short in my power cord.

Anyway, when I put everything back together, the wireless switch did not turn on and I couldn't find any networks.

What worked: I uninstalled my realtek driver and checked the box to uninstall drivers also. I shut my laptop down. Powered it on and then my atheros wireless adapter appeared(it was not in the device manager menu before) and the wireless switch light was on too. But I still couldn't connect. So I opened the 'troubleshoot problems' option at the bottom of the network and sharing center screen. I clicked the first option (Internet connections) and went through the steps. I finally got my connection back!!!!! I realized that my wireless adapter in this toshiba laptop model was already screwed and locked down tight, so there's no way it broke that quick. It was working fine a week ago. It was the drivers, etc.

 

[akapinhead]

I had same issue and it turns out my button turning the wifi adapter on and off was not doing anything. Only when I used the FN F8 menu and chose to turn ALL ON (Bluetooth and wifi) that it finally found the wireless networks.

The FN F8 seemed to trump all other setting even in the network manager and adapter itself.