WLAN Autoconfig - WIndows 7 Professional 1

[flubbard]

Have a laptop with Windows 7 Pro where the wireless card does not function. The card appears to be installed with the correct drivers, but the WLAN AutoConfig service will not start.

When checking dependencies, both the Extensible Authentication Protocol and the Remote Procedure Call are started, the other two (NDIS Usermode I/O Protocol and Native WiFi Filter) do not appear in the services list, but both appear started under the device manager (view -> show hidden devices)

The laptop is a dell xps m1330 and the wireless card appears to be Proset/Wireless 4965AGN, identified by PCI\VEN_8086/DEV_4229

Bios and driver appear up to date an appropriate for Windows 7.

In looking around, there seem to be many instances of the WLAN AutoConfig not starting, but no clear cut solution. Any thoughts would be highly appreciated.

Thanks - flub

 

[kjv1611]

Have you checked the wireless switch to be sure it isn't set to off? I know that's really common particularly with newer (last few years) laptops.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[flubbard]

Yes, it is not the switch. I am pretty sure it's not a hardware problem either as I have now booted it in puppy linux and have the wireless up and connected. It just does not work through Windows 7.

Does anyone know if a driver issue would prevent the WLAN Autoconfig service from starting?

- flub

 

[kjv1611]

Sounds like you need to look for some alternative wireless drivers.

See if anything here gives you some help:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=340751

I found some of the best drivers for an XPS m1330 that I recently setup as well as my XPS m1530. The drivers listed say they are for Vista, but they worked great for Windows 7, which is often the case.

If those don't work, this one may also offer something, further in the pages, but I'm not sure - I only looked a the first page, and didn't see anything yet about wireless.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=340751

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[linney]

Does this Intel WiFi Driver Scanner say anything about your current driver?

Official Intel WiFi Drivers

http://driverwhiz.com/drivers-en?br...-90000000434&gclid=CPPSiZKVnaACFQowpAodwWiDdg

Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN Mini Card Network Adapter Drivers

http://www.userdrivers.com/LAN-Netw...-WiFi-Link-4965AGN-Mini-Card-Network-Adapter/

 

[flubbard]

I ended up finding the solution. It appears to have been related to the service (WLAN AutoConfig). It turned out that a necessary file (c:\windows\L2Schemas\WLAN_profile_v1.xsd) was corrupted and showed at zero length.

Best I can tell, the xsd file is supposed to be a valid XML file containing necessary information for the service. The service would throw and error that the XML header was invalid upon trying to start because the file was not present.

Solution: Copy the offending file from another computer that has a good install of Windows 7 (did not need to be the same, i.e. I copied from Home to Professional). I'm sure there's an easier way to do this, but I ended up copying the file using puppy linux as otherwise Windows complains about overwriting a system file that is in use.

Hope this helps someone else.

- flub

 

[kjv1611]

Glad you got it taken care of, and thanks for the update. That's definitely an odd one, worth noting.