Internal Wireless card ceased detecting networks

Question

I have a Dell Inspiron 8600 with the Intel(R) PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3A Mini PCI Adapter and today for no apparent reason it disconnected from my wirelesss network and has been unable to detect any wireless networks (usually there are a couple around here that I can see) I know the network is working because my friend is still connected to it with no problem. I have tried uninstalling the wifi card, and upgrading the drivers and it still doesn't detect any networks. I'm pretty sure it's not a problem with my OS, because I stuck a PCMCIA wificard in the side of the notebook and it detected and connected to my network just fine.

I'm thinking that the Intel card just up and died or something, though device manager says it's working properly. Do these cards die often or could it be something else?
How can I replace the internal wifi card?

bacillus · Answer

make sure you haven't inadvertently turned off the card! try Fn+F2 which turns the card on/off

spaanem · Answer

Ha! That was it. Thank you very much. I feel nice and stupid now. You'd think the OS or something would somehow indicate that the card was turned off.

Oh well thanks for your help, it's much appreciated.

bacillus · Answer

:smileyhappy:

jakrinda · Answer

@bacillus wrote: make sure you haven't inadvertently turned off the card! try Fn+F2 which turns the card on/off Not to sound computer-jargon challenged, but what is Fn?

bacillus · Answer

Fn is the function keyboard key which is between ctrl and the windows key. it is used it in conjunction with other keys which have blue writing on them hence the Fn+F2 combination.

jakrinda · Answer

Oh gee thanks! I think I found this out early this morning.

BTW >>> my Intel ProSet Wireless is working just fine now, since yesterday afternoon. After 6 days of fooling around with my settings, uninstalling and reinstalling and visiting numerous forums I finally fine tuned the settings of my Linksys WRT54G and Voila!

zozma · Answer

Would you please share just exactly what settings you fine-tuned? there are lots of people out there (including me) who would like to know how to get these Intel cards working right!!

jakrinda · Answer

@zozma wrote:
Would you please share just exactly what settings you fine-tuned? there are lots of people out there (including me) who would like to know how to get these Intel cards working right!!

Here are my router settings:

http://members.cox.net/ja-krinda/WRT54G_basicsetup.gif

http://members.cox.net/ja-krinda/WRT54G_advancedsettrings.gif

It was really changing some of the Advanced Settings that finally connected me.
Message Edited by jakrinda on 09-29-2005 09:36 AM

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

Internal Wireless card ceased detecting networks

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