Not Picking Up Connection

Question

Okay, so I have my friend's laptop right here and she says it's completely trashed. It takes forever to load anything sometimes, she says, and other times it runs fine but crashes often. I've just been running it and doing certain things on it, and I haven't noticed much of either. But, anyway, her main problem is that she says she bought this computer online from Dell, but she picked all these different options and built it up herself, having them make it, her picking out the parts. She chose to have wireless internet, but it's internal. There aren't any cards on the sides, like most wireless connections, right?

She said that she used to have internet from her parent's house, from an actual provider and they took her laptop and did something to it to get internet to work on that computer. She moved out of her rent's place, and now has her own place somewhere else that sends out a free internet connection to any computer in the area that can pick up the connection. The only problem is, she says her computer won't pick up the signal anymore. The way I understand it,the old company's Local Area Connection and 1394 Connection both show up in the Network Connections. The LAC says that there is a network cable unplugged. How could anything be unplugged?? The 1394 Connection says Enabled, Firewalled.

I don't know anything about it, but she doesn't either and doesn't have internet and I said I'd look it up. The computer heats up exTREMELY fast, and gets extremely warm. Do you think there is a possibility that it burned out? That the internal card messed up because of the heat or something?

esquire · Answer

There are two advantages to an internal wireless network adapter on notebook: 1)  The antennae are housed in the back of the LCD, and 2) because of #1, there is no need for any protruding parts on the side to house the antenna unlike an external adapter.   Most notebooks house the wireless network adapter on the underside of the motherboard, so it is easily accessible by removing a couple of screws and a cover on the underside of the casing.  And in order to conserve battery power when the user does not have a wireless network to connect to, there is a switch that turns the radio on the wireless network adapter on and off.  Some brands do this by having a physical flip switch (Sony, Toshiba, for example), but Dell does it by a combination of two keys:  Fn+F2.   The Local Area Connection represents the ethernet connection and unless you have established a network connection by LAN cable, it will display a 'network cable is unplugged' status.  Is there a wireless network connection icon?  If not, you need to verify if the wireless network adapter exists physically by opening the mini PCI cover on the underside of the notebook.  Next you need to check if Windows can detect the adapter by going to Device Manager.  The wireless network adapter is listed under Network adapters category.  If you need help locating the wireless adapter physically, look up the user guide/service manual appropriate to the notebook model here:  http://support.dell.com/support/systemsinfo/documentation.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~cat=12&~subcat=86   A malfunction hardware, such as the wireless network adapter, can cause slow response time (I came across a similar issue recently), but you should first ensure it hasn't been infected by any virus and spyware.  Make sure there is an antivirus program and it is up-to-date with its subscription.  If it has expired, your friend will need to pay to renew the subscription, but there are freeware available as a replacement.  There are also free online services offered by most security application vendors that you can use to check for virus:   http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/default.asp http://safety.live.com/ http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/security_response/index.jsp (click on Symantec Security Check on the right)     Regarding the heat issue, notebooks can heat up quickly and get very warm - the CPU can run anywhere from around 104ºF/40ºC and 122ºF/50ºC (or higher) in room condition, without air conditioning.  Hard drives usually run hotter than CPU.  Currently, with air conditioning off, the CPU on my notebook is running at 42ºC/108ºF, but the hard drive is at 49ºC/120ºF.  First thing you can do is to make sure the vents on the notebook are not obstructed (and there may also be vents on the underside), but if you want to take quantiative measurements, you need to install software.  I use Notebook Hardware Control:  http://www.pbus-167.com/chc.htm, which also gives me temperature readings.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

Not Picking Up Connection

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