Wireless Internet help please!!!

[guiness92]

Ok im having serious internet problems with our sons computer. His internet stopped working about 3 weeks ago in his room. He claims that it started when we had a small power failure.

Here is the setup.
Verizon wireless modem / router

My computer - Wireless adapter (works fine)
Laptop - Built in wireless (works fine)
Sons computer - Lynksys wireless adapter (not working)

Ok, here is where the problem comes in. The drivers on his computer are all updated and the adapter is set up properly. The only problem is, the computer doesnt see it. I thought maybe it was the adapter that went bad, so I put the adapter in my computer upstairs. It popped up with new hardware found instantly on my computer, set itself up, and went online within about 15 seconds. So I know the adapter is good. Then I thought maybe it was his usb ports that possible went bad somehow. I took a usb card reader and hooked it up to his computer and it popped up with new hardware found instantly and it worked fine. So the adapter is good, the usb ports are good. The drivers are all updated for his adapter but the stupid computer just will not see it for some reason. This has been driving me nuts for the past 3 days. Can anyone tell me what I need to do to get this thing to work lol, before I take this thing into the backyard and unload a few rounds into it.

Oh and I tried a system restore to bring me back to september settings and still no luck.

Hopefully I explained that good enough. I give up and at this point I'm considering wiping the harddrive and starting from scratch, but would rather not do that.

Ron

 

[SuperJETT]

control panel>>>system>>>hardware>>>device manager>>>see if it has it listed as something like 'unknown' or 'other', and look under USB at the bottom of the list to see if it shows anything.

Also, try this program http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html to see if it shows it connected or not.

 

[guiness92]

Under device manager it has the 1394 which is, i think, the onboard ethernet adapter, some amdtek adapter, and another one that I'm not sure what it is. It doesnt have linksys anywhere in there. I tried removing all of them except the 1394 and still nothing. Doesnt it show up after the plug and play picks it up? What would cause the plug and play not to work only with this adapter and only on this computer? I dont remember if this adapter came with a disk or not, Im guessing it did but I wouldnt even know where to begin looking for it. Does that mean I cant use this adapter because I dont have the disk for it anymore? Or should that not matter since this adapter worked for like 7 months then just stopped working out of the blue. All the stuff from the installation disk should still be on the computer right? And I updated the drivers too. Im confused, Im horrible with IT stuff.

 

[guiness92]

ill download that usbdeview program and put that on his computer and see what that does.

 

[SuperJETT]

1394 is firewire, you said 'another one that I'm not sure what it is', what was the name on it? Did it have a question mark or exclamation point on it?

Under device manager it has the 1394 which is, i think, the onboard ethernet adapter, some amdtek adapter, and another one that I'm not sure what it is. It doesnt have linksys anywhere in there. I tried removing all of them except the 1394 and still nothing. Doesnt it show up after the plug and play picks it up? What would cause the plug and play not to work only with this adapter and only on this computer? I dont remember if this adapter came with a disk or not, Im guessing it did but I wouldnt even know where to begin looking for it. Does that mean I cant use this adapter because I dont have the disk for it anymore? Or should that not matter since this adapter worked for like 7 months then just stopped working out of the blue. All the stuff from the installation disk should still be on the computer right? And I updated the drivers too. Im confused, Im horrible with IT stuff.

 

[guiness92]

no there are no question marks or exclamation points. It was called mvar III or something like that. They were both disabled though.

 

[FxOne]

i have the same problem, my computer wont pick up any wireless networks. it says no supported wireless adapter found. i repaired the wireless software through the add/change software in control panel and after doing that about 5 times it worked then next time i turned on the comp, it is back to where i started and cant get it to work.
i tried reinstalling the modem cause the ethernet cable to the router wasnt working either and now my comp wont recognize my modem so it wants me to go online to do the plug and play alternative but i cant go online. AHHHHHHH

device manager error yellow exclamation point

intelPRO wireless 3945abg network connection
marvell Yukon 88e8038 Ethernet controller
WAN Miniport (IP)-packet scheduler Miniport

 

[FxOne]

guiness92, i ended up doing a system restore and now it works. start menu then ALL PROGRAMS then ACCESSORIES then to SYSTEM RESTORE restored from a date 2 months ago when i knew it was working and now im fixed wireless adapter is now being recognized

 

[Speedfreak]

Darin is a LOT more help that I am but also make sure that the puter is clean of all the bad vibes. Go to TrendMicro and do a House Call. It's free and will clean all the crap out of the puter malware, viruses, trojans. Also CrapCleaner is a good one that will help clean/fix the registry and freashen stuff up.

 

[SuperJETT]

I like trying to help, but on a lot of these type of problems, I really need to be in front of it personally to figure out what's wrong. Troubleshooting over a forum is hard, for jetskis too.

 

[guiness92]

Forgot to update this. The problem ended up being a bad adapter. It was the kind tha tlooks like a flash drive and sticks out the back of the comuter. He must have pushed the computer back with is feet and broke a connection inside the adapter. Funny thing is the adapter still made connection sometimes and just happened to make a connection when I put it in my computer but didnt when I put it in his.

I put a belkin pci wireless adapter card in it for now but am having a little trouble finding the driver for it. Im just too lazy to set his computer up by the router to hardwire it and put it online to get the card working properly. Oh and I wiped the drive and re-installed windows and stuff so its like a new computer again. I forgot how fast and kickass that computer was.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

[ger87410]

Goto belkin's website, in the support section. :biggthumpup:

 

[guiness92]

Yeah I found the driver they had listed for the card, put it on a flash drive, but it still wont work. I even tried putting 10 different drivers on it and it still wont work.

 

[ger87410]

Is the NIC used?

Is it recognized by the OS (new hardware found) and can you view it in the hardware profile?

What error message is it giving?

 

[guiness92]

Yeah it is recognized but said windows cannot find the driver for the device to work properly. I dont remember offhand what the error message says when I look at it under device manager. It has the dreaded yellow question mark lol.

 

[ger87410]

At this point we haven't established what operating system you're using. I'm assuming XP.

The thing to try is put the card in a known good system running XP. If you can' get it to work on there.....

The only time that I've experienced what you described is when it's for a different card, if the driver is for a different version of OS, or when the card is bad (hence my question about the card's history).

Can you tell us anything about this card? Is it new from the box (hopefully with the CD in it)? Is it a pull from a working system?

 

[guiness92]

It was pulled off a working system at my dads shop. The computer has windows xp professional which was just installed. We gave the computer a complete wipe and re-installed windows. The plug and play sees the card but doesnt have the right driver for it to work properly.

I think today Im just gonna suck it up and move his computer to the living room and wire it directly to the router and install the driver that way instead of using a flash drive to try and find the right one.

Again, thank you very much for all the help so far.

 

[ger87410]

Well, as a last resort, you can take the drivers that it used on your dad's comp and put it on the new one.

Good luck Guiness!!