where's the wireless gone?

ok i know this may have already been answered before but i can't find anything like it from the forum search.
i'll make this brief.

my little sister just got a new laptop, it is a Balence notebook pc with integrated 802.11b wireless net card. yesterday it was working fine. but when she restarted it after downloading windows media player the net card seemed to vanish. I've found that the card is still there in the computer, but all of the links, (like the little monitors at the bottom of the screen, and the link to wirless connections in the "connect to" portion of the start menu) are gone. i know the componant is still in there but i have no links to start it back up. and when i follow the trouble shooting guide it gives me an error saying something like "cannot connect : error 10"
i don't know what to do, and both me and my sister are going buggy!

if anyone can help us get her computer back online that would be great!

thanks in advance for any help.

 

Ok,assuming your using XP:
goto start, then connect to: It should say something like wireless connection or wireless connection 2 or something. right click it and at the bottom click the box that says show icon on taskbar. Then (assuming that works) on your taskbar, double click it, and make sure that you have put your WEP key in. Also just to rule everything else out. on another wired computer, type in 192.168.1.1 then enter your router password and make sure that under your wireless tabe you have it set for the appropriate setting for device types. (i.e. 802.11B and G or Just B or just G.) In my house i have both so i have it set for mixed. Obviosly use what you need. If that is correct make sure that there the wep key you are using is infact in the router. (this just hit me: did you power cycle the router/hard reset?) That would cause the router or Wap to come back on with just the defaults...hope all this helps...

 

thanks for the info, yes i am working on windows XP. but i can't do what you said to do. when i go to start then to "connect to" there isn't a wireless connection icon to work with. it was there when we first got the computer and hooked it to the internet wirelessly. but when we resarted the computer it was gone.

any suggestions on how to fix it?