Evo N410c is not recognising its own wireless adapter!

I have a small problem.

I reformatted the hard-drive of my Compaq Evo N410c earlier today, and installed WinXP Pro on it. I tried to connect to the wireless network we have set up at home and failed, realized that the wireless adapter was not on, and installed the drivers. I felt embarrassed.

After I installed the drivers however, the wireless adapter still wouldn't be detected, and the little green power light on the adapter itself is not on. In the greatest of ironies, the adapter worked great when I had Ubuntu Linux installed, but now when I have WinXP on the notebook again, nothing happens. (Yes, I had a very good reason for switching back to Windows. That's not what this thread is about anyway.)

HP-Compaq basically told me that since the warranty has expired I'm on my own, and suggested I take the notebook to an authorized support provider or pay them for more help. I'm poor, so neither is an option.

Help!

Thanks,
Mimsy

 

To add to my confusion, the wireless adapter was visible in Device Manager with a big yellow ? before I installed the drivers. Once I did, the wireless adapter is invisible in the device manager, and apparently invisible to the notebook as well.

/Mimsy

 

Hi, Mimsy

I looked here at the HP site:


http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=ob-27036-1

Was this the driver you installed?

If it is, I recommend going into "Add/Remove programs" and deleting anything relating to the wireless adapter - then rebooting and re-installing the driver. It might not hurt to download the driver again from the HP site, since the original file you used might be corrupted or incomplete. If by chance this is a different driver, then I suggest you try it.

I'm just guessing here, though . . . I've had a device show up in Device Mgr as the wrong type, but never not show up at all. In my situation, it was a modem that I'd installed an apparantly corrupt driver for.

 

That's the one, yes. I downloaded it a second time and reinstalled it, but without removing everything first. I'll try that and see if it helps. Thanks!

/Mimsy

EDIT:
Before even beginning the installation process, an error message popped up and urged me to confirm that "the device" is installed and powered on before continuing. I am not sure how to power it on... it doesn't exactly have an on-off switch.

 

Bump... anyone?

/Mimsy

 

I have had soo many problems like this. One thing that affected me over and over was that even if installing the card drivers, windows still had to install the device seperately using the installed drivers.

 

Say what again? confused That didn't seem to work...

I am sooo tempted to just put Ubuntu back on there now...! :tired Ah well. One last try.

/Mimsy

 

I guess the point I am making is that there are a million and one things that could be wrong, of which the windows driver install is just one common problem that I find. In pref. it is always best to go back to a system you know works.

 

looking at the pc, im guessing the wireless "module" connects via a built in USB port? if so are there drivers needed for the ports and are they installed correctly? is the adapter seated properly? or maybe damaged somehow?

if it is USB try removing the drivers for the ports and for the adapter compeletly before reinstalling a fresh download of the drivers for both. Remove the device from the port while doing this and insert it when installing/prompted to "check if the green light is on"

if its a built in device the only thing i can think to try is an older device driver for it if possible to see if that works.

if all this fails try a fresh install of windows, bit a pain i know it can sometimes sort it. when installing windows remove any devices not needed to run the machine then install them last.

and just a note, when updating drivers always remove the old ones completely then restart and install the new ones even if not prompted to restart, just incase

that about all i can think of

[Edit] just found this from a webpage:

double check your USB drivers

 

The USB drivers are as updated as I could get them, and the other two USB ports work fine... and yes, the thing is built into the notebook lid. Fresh reinstall of Windows XP sounds like more than a bit of a pain too; call me narrow-minded, but I don't think I should have to reinstall a whole operating system just to be able to use hardware that is built into the notebook to begin with.

But now I have a course of action at least. Thanks everyone who replied and made suggestions!

/Mimsy

 

VoiD and rik_na, thanks again for the time and for your suggestions. The wireless adapter still won't work, so I gave up on making it work in WinXP, but I appreciate the help none the less.

Now Ubuntu 6.06 is reinstalling as I type this.

/Mimsy