wifi disappeared. HELP

hi guys, i just recently purchased an inspiron e1405 with the basic Broadcom 440x 10/100 Inergrated Controller network card, wifi worked well for a while, bu then all of a sudden it just disappeared. It's like there was never any wireless connection period. there was no wifi options and the dell wireless utilities dont work either.It started when i plugged a wired network connection in. i removed it, and no longer saw wifi. i went into bios, and it said there wasnt any wifi device. I downloaded new WLAN drivers and net card drivers but it still wont work. i would appreciate it if someone could help me. thanks.