Need help from my fine ThePhins.com brethren. Basically I started up my laptop after work when I got home, and the automatic connection to my wireless router did not work. When I went to look at the "Connect to" options, there was no opportunity to connect to a wireless network. (I am running Windows XP) When I showed all my connections, there was no option to pick a wireless network, and to top it off, the indicator that my computer was looking for a wireless network was an amber color, while the tab was pushed on so it looks. The color it's supposed to be when it looks is blue. I wired it up to the internet and that works fine. Then I went into safe mode and tried to reinstall drivers for the network card. I thought that worked because when I restarted coming out of safe mode, it found the wireless. I was wrong - now when I start up the computer it doesn't have the ability to find a wireless connection, but when I restart in safe mode then restart in normal mode, it finds it. When I shut it down for the evening I have to go through that process again though. I swept through with a virus scanner and cleared some stuff out, no biggie on that front. Any thoughts?
maybe try going to the "connections" folder, find your proper connection, right click it and hit "repair connection". maybe it needs to reset your ip address.
Let me take a wild guess, it's an HP or Compaq Presario. If so, they have had problems with the mother board not seeing the wireless card. HP support will walk you through a few steps that won't fix it. Then they will mail you a new wireless card that still won't be found by your laptop. Then you will mail it off to them and a week later it will come back fixed. That's my guess because that is what happened to mine.
The connection does not exist for me to do that. It would've been one of the first things I would've done otherwise.
That's what I would do or I would simply unplug everything and give it time to reset. Or the best thing to do is google it since you can still use a wired connection and that will probably solve your problem. Also you could manually reset your wireless router with its reset button.
It doesn't actually work in safe mode. I reboot in safe mode, then restart into normal mode for it to work.
Have you tried Safe Mode "with Networking"? Tried UNinstalling the drivers and then reinstalling? Sometimes an uninstall is needed (generic guidance). Also, after some updates (patches) I ran into a friends machine that needed a BIOS update in order to work (different problem though). You may want to see if one is available just in case.
About two weeks ago my wireless quit working. No matter what I did I couldn't get it to work. So I call my phone company, where I get my internet from. I explained everything to the tech support and they gave me a couple of things to do, which didn't work. I then told them it quite working after a windows update. ( I have windows XP) He then asked me if I had zone alarm, I said yes. He told me to remove zone alarm. When I removed zone alarm my wireless worked.
i had a similar problem with my laptop, never did get it fixed. i have a 7+ year old HP and built-in wireless. the wireless just stopped working one day for whatever reason (i didn't change anything) and i haven't gotten it to work since. freakin pisses me off. if i plug in wired ethernet, it works just fine. grrrrr
Try disabling the internal wireless card and install a PCMCIA card. I've seen this kind of thing happen many times, when the internal card goes bad. Will be $50 or so at CompUSA or wherever. If that doesn't solve it, just take it back.
