dell Inspiron 9200 acts like wifi doesnt exist, please help

Question

So im not the most computer smart person in the world, a while back though, my dell inspiron 9200 took a major dump on me, completly crashed. I had a friend who said he could fix it, so i allowed him to take it to see what he could do. He brought it back and said it was working fine, but after booting up, i noticed everything was gone from my desktop. On top of that, the computer acts like it never had wifi capability. I can plug an ethernet cable in and connect just fine, but i have no wireless connection options whats so ever and the wifi and bluetooth light remain off. I did go in to bios mode and enabled the wifi, but still nothing, ive tried the fn+f2 key and still nothing.  I have no clue what else to try and have searched everywhere for an answer. I dont have a restore disc and the computer has no restore points saved. the warranty is expired so they wont tell me anything on the phone without paying a fee i cant afford right now, very frustrating, any help would be greatly appreciated

PudgyOne · Answer

Anim8ted,

When you reinstalled the operating system, did you install the Dell System Software(if applicable) and the chipset drivers first? If not, the rest of the drivers will fail to install. How to Download and Install Drivers in the Correct Order

Start with the Dell System Software and the chipset drivers and follow the list.

Rick

Anim8ted · Answer

Okay, so something else i just noticed, wich may be a good indication the drivers werent installed properly is, when i open device manager, everything in the 'other Devices' tab says not installed, and that includes ethernet controller, multimedia audio controller,network controller,pci device,pci modem,usb controller, video controller. Since the last time this computer has been online through an ethernet cable, we have moved and got a whole new internet provider, so last night after i posted my thread i attempted to hook the dell inspiron 9200 online through ethernet, and i am unable to figure out how to.

Philip_Yip · Answer

This is an old XP system. XP reaches End of Life in April and should be avoided:

End of Life – April 2014 (Microsoft)
White Paper Mitigating Risk: Why Sticking with Windows XP is a Bad Idea. (IDC Analyze the Future)

Provide all the hardware IDs for all the bangs in the device manager. Right click the device, select properties, select the details tab and then select the hardware IDs.

Essentially you want to follow the legacy Windows Reinstallation Guide:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/

Download the service packs and drivers to a USB and install in the correct order. The correct install order is particularly important for WIndows XP.

Locked Topics – Laptops General

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