Wireless network connection gone, not cable connection 1

[Rlah]

The wireless network connection for my 1-1/2 year old HP desktop (Window 7 Home) computer has quit working... it does not see a wireless network. Although I'm now using a Cat5 cable connection to my Cisco Valet router, it is irritating to me that I can't print to my wireless printers w/o a USB connection.

All other wireless and wired devices (PC computers, printers, Droid phone) are working to the Cisco router.

I have reset, rebooted, re-powered both the Cisco and the HP with no help. When Windows went through it's trouble shooting, it came up with an error message:
"Local Area Connection" doesn't have a valid IP configuration.
After googling that error message, I did not get helpful suggestions for my situation... I tried disabling IPv6 - no help.

So I gave up and after awhile the computer found the network through the already plugged in Cat5 cable.

Now when I go to Control Panel -> Network and Sharing Center -> Set up a new connection or network -> Set up a new network ==>> it does not see any wireless router devices. It seems the wireless part of my network adapter has completely failed... right?

Device Manager says the Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller is working properly. I did an Update Driver... no help.

I should mention that I installed VirtualBox virtual machine when I bought the HP to run WinXP in a box when I need to run old software. It installs a "VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter" to communicate between the virtual machine and the host. But it has not interfered with my networking over the past 1-1/2 years.

Can anyone help with further trouble shooting help or should I shop for a new wireless network adapter? I know wired connections but the hardware for wireless on a desktop is foreign to me. Maybe there is a cheap USB device I can buy to get my wireless connection back?

rlah

 

[lancekidd]

I assume you have a wireless NIC card for your desktop. When you go to the Network and Sharing center, under Manage Network Devices, do you see your wireless NIC card there? If so, disable it and then re-enable it. If you do not see it at all, you may have to reinstall your wireless card.

You can also open a command prompt and use the ipconfig /release command, and when finished, run ipconfig /renew command. That may help since Windows says you have an IP configuration problem.

 

[BadBigBen]

do you see any other wireless devices, e.g. neighbors router?

if you do not, then possibly your wireless NIC is defective...

as to a cheap USB device, how about a wireless adapter, e.g.

http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-WG111...S0ZU/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1329007645&sr=8-4

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[rclarke250]

I'm a little confused, why would the fact that the computer's wireless adapter not working, have anything to do with printing to a wireless printer?

I mean, that's what the wireless router does. Turn off adhoc, reinstall the printer driver, or just "find" it again in the printer properties.

What do you mean the wireless part of your network adapter has quit working? the wireless and the wired adapter are 2 separate adapters. each has there own mac address, and each could have there own ip address. Have you tried removing the wireless adapter, turning on the computer, than turn it off, and reinstall the card, and turn it back on?

does the auto discovery find the card? does it attempt to load the drivers? what drivers have you tried to load? Because you only point out the realtek fe family which is Fast Ethernet, 10/100 wired adapter, there is no wireless for this chip. What is the model number of the computer, and what type of wireless adapter does it have? Is the wireless adapter after market, or was it OEM ?

 

[Rlah]

Thx to all for input!

lancekidd
I don't see the selection "Manage Network Devices" in my Network and Sharing Center screen. But in Device Manager Network Adapters, it only shows the Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller.
As for the release / renew technique, I think Win7 network troubleshooter has already done that as my wired networking is now working fine.

BadBigBen:
I don't seem to see any nearby wireless routers, neighbors or mine. Come to think of it, I can't remember if I saw other wireless access points in the beginning or not... maybe I did. I think my upstairs laptop sees the neighbors wireless.
Thx for the tip on the wireless USB device... I'm researching that option now and may try it soon.

rclarke250:
T h a n k Y o u! I assumed that because my wireless printers no longer printed that they would not work anymore on my home network. But you are right... I reinstalled both wireless printers and they work! That has been the major irritation that I wanted to solve and now I can use them again.

I still want to maybe get wireless working on this HP Pavilion D6616 with AMD Phenom II 820 Quad-core(Win7 64-bit) factory complete desktop so I may crack open the box for the first time and look at the OEM wireless hardware to try to re-install it again or troubleshoot more.

 

[rclarke250]

Can't find the D6616 but can find a P6616, and that is here

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...81322&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&product=4301051#N457

Under networking you can see that it has a mini pcie wireless adapter, either that has died, or somehow got turned off/disabled. Check in bios to see if there is an option to turn it on again. Open the side cover, and look at where it is mounted. Looks to be, just in front of the last PCIe slot. Only has 1 antenna connector, but otherwise appears to be the same as the wireless cards found in laptops. The area is on the card to support the second antenna, but it wasn't soldered on, most likely to save money. That being said, any 802.11 b/g/n mpcie adapter will work, just attach the antenna to main, and leave the others blank. These can be found for about 10$ us. on EBAY, Here is the exact card for under 25.

http://stores.ebay.com/FTGparts/DESKTOP-MISC-/_i.html?_fsub=2534069011

,just a quick search, but something to look for. Hope it works out. good luck.

 

[Rlah]

rclarke250:
Right again... it's a P6616f by some paperwork I found.
I don't like troubleshooting wireless stuff... I had to switch to a wired keyboard to get to the BIOS setup. Anyway, I found these 2 settings Enabled:
"Onboard LAN" and "Onboard LAN Boot". I did not see anything else.
Since no wireless adapter shows up in Device Manager, doesn't that indicate a dead wireless pci-e mini card?
I'm tempted to just look at a $10 USB 300mbps wireless adapter and save the hassle of even popping the cover on this box, for example:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/330630268235#ht_2534wt_1058

Is there any drawback to these USB devices over the adapters that connect inside the box?


rlah

 

[rclarke250]

The only advantage in the box, would be the longer antenna, but if you are in the same room, or even next room over, the usb module should work OK. It's when they have to work 4 rooms away they have can have issues.

 

[BadBigBen]

on the link that RC provided, if you click the wireless card, you will see a picture of what the miniPCIe card looks like, so it's pretty easy determining where it sits and what to take out and reinsert, etc...

but yes, it is less hassle to go ahead an purchase a USB dongle and I agree with what RC said about the distance to the AP...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[Rlah]

I think that I'll look at the USB device for the simple reason that it will be more usable anywhere. For now, my cable connection allows me to print to a wireless printer on the other end of the house (4 rooms away).
After getting my wired Win7 machine to print to the wireless printers, I thought to try to see if an old WinXP wired machine could see and print to either of my Epson wireless printers... but they did not show up when I went thru "Add Printer" dialogs. I tried entering the IP address of one of the Epsons in the box to see if it would find it that way... but evidently it needed a name like //server/epson or something like that. It seems WinXP isn't nearly as friendly to wireless devices as Win7.
Any tips on this?

rlah

 

[rclarke250]

Nope, in win xp, you would want to set the ip for the printers, like 192.168.1.10. When you go to install the printer, you would create a port, and add a tcp/ip port, and type in the address of the printer. A little more work, but you can get it to work, if there are xp drivers for the printers.

 

[Rlah]

Well as it happens, our 8-year old Sony WinXP machine won't pass the post test this morning... that may be another thread here, I don't know. Anyway I may not get to try your procedure.

But thanks for all your help - Tek-Tips is my go-to forum for good advice when I need it.

rlah