Dell Inspiron 9300 Suddenly cannot find any wireless networks

Question

A few days ago my Dell Inspiron 9300 stopped finding wireless networks to connect to. I have attempted to connect to my friends wireless network at their house and have also tried to find networks that are normally up in my neighborhood but my laptop sees nothing.

I have tried letting windows manage my Wi-Fi as well as Intel PROSet/Wireless.

The card is an 'Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG' which I have updated the driver for and have also tried uninstalling/reinstalling the hardware device all together.

Thinking that a Windows Update might have caused the problem I attempted a system restore but that was no help.

I have tried turning the device on/off with the Fn+F2 keys. When I do, the WiFi light above the keyboard turns on but goes out within a second or two.

Any suggestions at this point would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Message Edited by agreatjedi on 04-11-2007 04:07 PM

volcano11 · Answer

Look under the MiniPCI card door on the bottom of your computer and make sure that the wireless card is securely seated in its slot and that the antenna wires are connected:   < ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>   Steve

agreatjedi · Answer

Everything is well connected in there. I tried removing it from the laptop as well. The card itself looks fine and is being detected as having no problems under the Device Manager when I plugged it back in.

volcano11 · Answer

Perhaps you should try using the power of the Force to figure this out.  Maybe even better would be to try using the diagnostics to see if they detect a problem.  The diagnostics should be found in the Intel ProSet utility.   Steve

volvogirl1 · Answer

I don't know if this is your problem, but what I've found is this.

2 INTEL PROSET 2200BG WIRELESS FIXES I’VE FOUND

1. We have an ongoing problem with our Intel Pro 2200BG which I’ve asked here before and there isn’t a reason we can find. Sometimes when we try to use the Pro2200 we get the message…..Another application is controlling the wireless adapter.

The fix I found is to right click the IntelPro Icon on the right side of the taskbar and select USE MICROSOFT CLIENT, then right click the Icon again and select USE INTEL PRO. This toggles it off then back on.

2. If the Intel Pro Icon disappears from the task tray, Open Intel Proset on Start-Programs. Select Tools at the top. Select Application Setting (first one).

Christine

Dimension E520 Desktop
MS Media Center Edition 2005
Intel Core 2 Duo processor E6300
2GB dual-channel DDR2 SDRAM
320GB HD
D: is Philips DVD-Rom DROM6316
E: is NEC DVD+-RW ND-3650A

Inspiron 6000

Comcast Cable Modem to Alpha Shield firewall to Netgear Router. Wireless to Inspiron 6000 and wire to desktop.

agreatjedi · Answer

I ran the diagnostic and this is what it gave me:

Hardware Test: Passed; Wireless Hardware is enabled

Driver Test: Passed; Driver is loaded w29n51 Version 9.0.4.26

Radio Test: Passed; Radio is ON

Scan Test: Failed; There are no networks available to connect

I am certain there are wireless networks to connect to because I just did a scan on another computer.

I also tried your ideas volvogirl but had no luck.

Aside from attempting a complete reinstall of XP because of a wireless card I'm totally stumped.

Gina Q · Answer

It looks like you might not have the latest driver. The test shows the driver as 9.0.4.26 and the latest driver is 10.5.1.0. Download this file R138749 and save it to your desktop. Then go to ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS and uninstall the Intel wireless driver and click remove. Then reboot your system. Once you're back up double click on the file you saved and install it and try again.

bnewcol · Answer

If we can't connect to the internet because of the wireless connection not being found, how can we download the driver?

volcano11 · Answer

If you cannot connect to the internet, you cannot be reading this message or replying to any post.  Since you obviously can connect to the interent, did you ever think about downloading the driver on the computer on which you are reading this message, then copying it to removable media, taking the removable media to the computer without internet access, copying the file from the removable media to the computer without internet access, then running the file on that computer to install the driver?    Steve

bnewcol · Answer

Yes, I did think of that. I am on a MAC however, and I wasn't sure when the download wasn't responding like I thought it should if it was going to download OK, so stopped the download. Didn't know if it would download to a MAC. I have spent 6 hours on the phone with Dell and the laptop that is having the wireless problem (my father's) and after doing many things, they can't figure it out so a tech guy is coming out in a couple days. Thank you for your help.

agreatjedi · Answer

I tried that driver update but it did nothing for me.

I am able to connect to the internet because a wired connection still works fine.

So I re-installed XP to the manufacture defaults knowing that if this did not work then it must be a problem with the card. Surely enough I still could not find any networks so I'm betting it's simply a problem with the card itself. I do thank you all for your help and suggestions.

A friend of mine is letting me borrow an old external Netgear card which is working nicely, but is only a temporary solution. When I go to purchase a new card, what would you guys recommend? Should I go with something internal or external? What is a good brand to go with? etc.

I need something that is fast and reliable and works well with on-line games.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

Dell Inspiron 9300 Suddenly cannot find any wireless networks

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