No wireless on laptop

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I have an HP laptop and an HP desktop connected in a wired ethernet LAN to my Verizon DSL modem/router, model AGT 704WG The router also has wireless capabilities. I plan to buy an iPad and connect it via WiFi to my network. The router has been configured for wireless access. I have been unable to connect to or even “see” any wireless networks in Network Connections (I do see a Boadband item labeled Verizon, which is Disconnected). This is strange, because I used to see other nearby networks. I have also noticed that the wireless icon in the tray is no longer there. There is a wireless slide switch on the front of the laptop, with a light. The light is on no matter which position the switch is in. I checked Network Adapters in Device Manager and found only the 1394 and the Intel Pro 1000. No wireless! Does this mean that the wireless adapter has failed? Or is it just hiding?
Any suggestions for the next step?
HH

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Hi Howard,

Have you checked in Network Connections for any hint of a wireless device?

The fact that the wireless switch light stays on regardless of whether it is in the on or off position does not sound promising. Check the following before assuming the worst and replacing the adapter.

Check your BIOS to be sure your wireless adapter is still set to enabled . If it has been set to disabled it probably would not be seen in Windows Device Manager.

Do you see anything listed under Network Adapters with a red ‘X’ displayed beside it? If so, right click it to check the properties. You may need a new wireless driver from HP.

Do you see any unknown devices anywhere in Device Manager that have a yellow ‘?’ or ‘!’ beside it? If you see either of these, download and install a new chipset driver from HP.

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Hi Gerald,
Thanks for your suggestions. I did get it to work by doing the following :
In Device Manager I clicked on the Network Adapters and, lo and behold, the Intel wireless adapter showed up, but with a yelllow icon. Clicking on that I found that there “are not enough resources…”. So I disabled the 1394 adapter, then rebooted and the Intel adapter came up normal! Then I went to Network Connections and could see other nearby networks. Yeah! After logging into my network I got a status of Limited or No Connection. Clicked on Repair this Connection and found that it could not get an IP address. Do I have to do something with the DHCP setting? It is set to get IP Address Automatically.
Howard

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could you post the output of

Code:

ipconfig /all

from the command prompt?

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could you post the output of

Code:

ipconfig /all

from the command prompt?

Here it is.

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Have you looked in Mobility centre check to see WiFi id not disabled?

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Have you tried unplugging your router for at least 10 seconds, plugging it back in, then restarting your computer? I also have an HP notebook, and every once in a while my wireless adapter (or my router – I’m not sure which one is the culprit!) connects only locally and refuses to connect to the internet regardless of how many times I click on “repair this connection.” Unplugging the router usually does the trick for me.

Hope this helps!

Mollie

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You are sure that you have a connection to the wireless network? Check that you show signal strength for your network and that it shows as “connected”. I don’t think you said what OS you have on this machine so cannot give you precise directions how to do this. For some reason you are not getting an address from the DHCP server and a failed connection to the wireless router is the first place I would look……

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Here’s a summary of where I am.
Molly, I rebooted the router but got no change. Figured the router was not the issue because wired LAN had normal connectivity to laptop.
My wireless network adapter is working fine. Light on my laptop wireless switch is now blue. It was yellow, so I guess that’s good.
On the Choose a Wireless Network screen I see my network (Howard) and another nearby network. Howard has signal strength Excellent, Limited or no Connectivity.
Sent the results of ipconfig /all to mercyh.
HH

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For a test you could assign a static IP address temporarily.

(this would be done on the Wireless network interface on the laptop)

Match these settings: (information taken from you working wired ipconfig results)

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.64 This needs to change to an unused address I would suggest 192.168.1.210. It would be good to ping the address with the working desktop before assigning it.

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
71.243.0.12

After you get these settings on the wireless network connection, pull the plug on the wired connection and test if you have network access..

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For a test you could assign a static IP address temporarily.

(this would be done on the Wireless network interface on the laptop)

Match these settings: (information taken from you working wired ipconfig results)

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.64 This needs to change to an unused address I would suggest 192.168.1.210. It would be good to ping the address with the working desktop before assigning it.

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
71.243.0.12

After you get these settings on the wireless network connection, pull the plug on the wired connection and test if you have network access..

OK, we’re making progress. The static IP address, …210, worked. I now have Network Status of Connected, Speed 54 MBS, full signal strength. However, when I pull the plug on the wired connection I lose my internet connection. Firefox says “The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded.”
When I ping the IP address from the laptop, with and without the wired connection, I get 4 packets sent, 4 packets received.
When I ping the IP address from the desktop, I get Reply from 192.168.1.65 Destination Host Unreachable. IP 65 is my desktop, IP 64 is my laptop.

Thanks for your help.
Howard

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You did add the default gateway of 192.168.1.1 and the DNS servers as 192.168.1.1 and 71.243.0.12 ?

Try pinging 8.8.8.8 from the laptop with the wire pulled.

also try pinging 192.168.1.1 (the router)

The fact that you cannot ping .65 is inconclusive at this point. Did you first check your desktop’s IP with ipconfig? If your desktop has a firewall, it may not allow ping…(ICMP Echo)

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Yes, I added the default gateway of 192.168.1.1 and the DNS servers as 192.168.1.1 and 71.243.0.12 .
Pinging 8.8.8.8 with the wire pulled failed, as did pinging the router at 192.168.1.1.
Both worked with the wire in.
I am going to try to refresh the wireless adapter’s driver and reboot. More later.
Howard

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Just tried another laptop, with the same results. Leads me to believe that the problem is in the router, not the laptop.
HH

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I am unfamiliar with that router hardware and cannot seem to find the manual online…… I do agree that it is probably the router although the coincidence of you losing your wireless network interface on that machine AND the router causing trouble at the same time is a bit improbable unless you have never used either device in those capacities before….

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I am unfamiliar with that router hardware and cannot seem to find the manual online…… I do agree that it is probably the router although the coincidence of you losing your wireless network interface on that machine AND the router causing trouble at the same time is a bit improbable unless you have never used either device in those capacities before….

Google Actiontec gt704wg router and you will find all the info you need. Actiontec provides this DSL modem/wireless router to Verizon.
You are correct, I have not used the wireless capability of the network adapter or the router before.
I will contact Verizon Help next week. They have been helpful before.
Howard

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Google Actiontec gt704wg router and you will find all the info you need. Actiontec provides this DSL modem/wireless router to Verizon.

Yeah, I tried that but from what I find, Verizon has plopped their own firmware on that thing and I cannot find a Verizon specific manual…..

Some routers have options to not allow network to the Wireless interface on the router, some have the option to allow LAN only and not WAN, etc…..

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What model HP laptop is the one with the original problem? The reason I ask is because there are several models of HP laptops with nVidia graphics chips that have a design flaw. If the laptop gets rather hot, the solder securing the nVidia chip in its socket melts, causing the chip to “creep up”, eventually causing the video to quit working.

One of the early signs of a problem like this is wifi that quits working. Check out the following link to a thread on HP’s support site:

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Display-and-video/HP-Pavillion-TX1000-series-common-GPU-display-motherboard/td-p/65739

The thread talks about the HP TX1000, but there are apparently other models that had/have the same problem.

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What model HP laptop is the one with the original problem? The reason I ask is because there are several models of HP laptops with nVidia graphics chips that have a design flaw. If the laptop gets rather hot, the solder securing the nVidia chip in its socket melts, causing the chip to “creep up”, eventually causing the video to quit working.

One of the early signs of a problem like this is wifi that quits working. Check out the following link to a thread on HP’s support site:

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Display-and-video/HP-Pavillion-TX1000-series-common-GPU-display-motherboard/td-p/65739

The thread talks about the HP TX1000, but there are apparently other models that had/have the same problem.

The laptop model is HP Pavilion dv9030 US that is 3.5 years old. I do have that nVidia chip and last year read all about the problems it caused. So far my video is fine, but the loss of wireless as an early warning seems ominous to me. For now I will turn the laptop off for the weekend and try it after it cools down.
I still think it’s a router problem since I have tried two other, working, wireless laptops with the same results. They can log into my wireless network but can’t get a good connection.
HH

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The laptop model is HP Pavilion dv9030 US that is 3.5 years old. I do have that nVidia chip and last year read all about the problems it caused. So far my video is fine, but the loss of wireless as an early warning seems ominous to me. For now I will turn the laptop off for the weekend and try it after it cools down.
I still think it’s a router problem since I have tried two other, working, wireless laptops with the same results. They can log into my wireless network but can’t get a good connection.
HH

If you had access to another router, that would help confirm or rule out your current router as the problem.

I hope the “nVidia problem” isn’t the problem here, as a permanent fix for that problem isn’t either easy, or cheap. There are some “Do-It-Yourself” fixes floating around out there. I tried one on my niece’s old TX-1000 laptop. It involves cardboard, aluminum foil, thermal compound, a 150-watt light bulb, and one copper penny. Oh, and did I mention you had to tear your laptop apart to fix it?

And, as an indication of how successful my repair effort was, the hard drive from that laptop is now an external hard drive, and the 2GB of ram is now in my Acer laptop.

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Hi Howard. One of the things that I noticed about all of this is that you stated at the very beginning that the router was configured for wireless. Is this something that you did, or did it come pre-configured?? You may want to check those settings inside the router. Verizon is very bad about setting up things their own way that won’t work with everything else. In your IP.TXT file you attached, it showed an IP address of 169.254…. this is an invalid address that is not responding, which tells me that the laptop is not reading the router correctly. Good luck and hope you get it working.

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Thanks to Carroll and Terry for their responses. No I don’t think it’s the nVidia problem (thank goodness) because I think my video would have died by now (I followed several HP forums on that subject a year or more ago).
As for the router, Verizon walked me through reconfiguring it last week. After that I was able to see other nearby networks. The problem seems to be with the DHCP not giving my laptop an automatic IP address. Putting in a manual address, 192.168.1.210, didn’t help. I’ve been reading up on the Autoconfiguration IP Address, 169.254.167.22. This is supposed to be for a network that does NOT have a DHCP server. My router does. Looking at my ip.txt file I see Autoconfiguration Enabled is Yes. Perhaps that conflicts with DHCP Enabled.
I can’t test that now because I am out of town without my laptop. When I return I will test that and will also take my laptop to a neighbor and see if I can log onto her network.
I’ll post those results in a few days.
Thanks again for everyone’s suggestions.
Howard

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My router does. Looking at my ip.txt file I see Autoconfiguration Enabled is Yes. Perhaps that conflicts with DHCP Enabled.

No, actually the “autoconfiguration” (at least, the kind that generates an address in the 169.254 range) is a way for a computer on an IP network to be able to get up and running, when it can’t get a reply from a DHCP server. Of course, network resources aren’t generally available in that scenario, because the other nodes on the network are on a different subnet, if they’ve been able to get an address from the DHCP server.

I

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Your settings are correct for DHCP, however we have already determined that your problem is deeper then just not receiving an address from DHCP as when you assigned the address statically you STILL did not have connection to the network. Obviously if you are not connected to the router, you cannot obtain a DHCP address from it.

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Your settings are correct for DHCP, however we have already determined that your problem is deeper then just not receiving an address from DHCP as when you assigned the address statically you STILL did not have connection to the network. Obviously if you are not connected to the router, you cannot obtain a DHCP address from it.

OK, but how do explain that the laptop wireless connection says “Connected, Signal Strength Excellent, Speed 54 mbs”. I think it also says (I’m away from the laptop) “packets sent 50, packets received 0”. This suggests that the router is not responding.
HH

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OK, but how do explain that the laptop wireless connection says “Connected, Signal Strength Excellent, Speed 54 mbs”.

This tells us that the radio in the laptop and the radio in the access point are talking. This does NOT mean that you are connected to your IP based network. You could take out all the IP address settings and still have the above message.

Until you can find IP settings on the laptop or settings on the router that will allow you to ping the router’s IP address there is not reason to look further.

When you go into your router’s administration pages is there a place where you can see the wireless clients? is your laptop listed?

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Problem Solved! Would you believe that there was a typo in the WEP Key? I went into the router to review all the parameters and found the router’s WEP key was one digit off from the one I entered. I had been using the WEP key that the Verizon tech had e-mailed to me after he helped me configure the router. How’s that for help?
I can now see the Internet and the router shows my laptop and all the computers on my network. Whoopee!
Thanks to all you Loungers for your suggestions. I’ve learned a lot from this thread.
Howard

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