Wifi Mystery problem... SOLVED! AND WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 6:05 pm

I'm stumped. I spent 2 hours on this today, but the client is leaving town tomorrow for a 5 day cruise so I'll have to look at it some more when she gets back (pity - she wanted WiFi working for the cruise - they have a WiFi cafe on the ship - neat idea).

I'm at a total loss. See if any of you have seen anything like this:

Dell 600m laptop with built-in Intel/PRO LAN 2100 Wireless mini-PCI installed. WinXP Home.

3 days ago it was working fine. Today she tries to conenct to the office network and no joy.

The WiFi NIC is showing an exclamation mark in Device manager - error 10 could not load driver.

Tried all the usual: removing & re-installing driver, updating driver to latest version, even tried going back to a restore point a month ago. NADA.

Okay, it gets WIERDER. I assume the internal WiFi NIC is dead so I pop in a Blitzz Wifi NIC PCMCIA card I carry as a spare hoping to get her up and running at least. NO JOY. Same problem - driver refuses to load.

WTF?

Also tried the D-Link Wifi NIC from my lappy and SAME PROBLEM.

The hard-wire NIC port works fine - I can connect to the office router via hardwire no problem, but somehow SOMETHING is nuking all WiFi hardware.

I believe there's a network UPnP service that's required for Wifi but I didn't have time to look it up and see if it was running.

I DID check the Event Log and there's no errors concerning services - only an error about the WiFi NIC failing to load with no useful info.

Client says she never got any errors or warnings, no unusual messages. She's installed nothing - not even Windows updates (I can confirm this by checking the System Restore log - nothing's been installed for at least 3 weeks and we know it was working 3 days ago).

MS KB and Dell KB only came up with 2 possibilities - neither applies. One concerns a conflict between a recent UPnP patch and the older Intel NIC driver (patch hasn't been installed, I updated the driver, and it doesn't explain why the other 2 cards don't work).

Other possiblity is the System Restore bug that trashes networking if you use system restore to go back BEFORE installing the patch that fixes this.

While this system has never had the patch installed, and it has had at least once been restored to an earlier point, it doesn't explain why it stopped working in the last 3 days AND I have applied the registry fix AND the patch with no luck (another option is to re-install SP1 but I didn't have time for that).

I'm going to do some more research but I'm stumped right now. It's looking like a wipe and clean install unless someone here has any bright ideas. Hate to that if I don't have to - I pride myself on not resorting to that except in desperation, and she'll be into me for a LOT of labor for a re-install and restoring all her data and apps.

Believe it or not, I don't like making money that way. People come to me because (unlike most of the computer shops in town) I DON'T cop-out and just tell them they need to cough up a few hundred for a Windows re-install just because it looks a bit difficult to troubleshoot.

The occasional clean install may be no big deal for the kind of people on this forum, but Joe average lives in TERROR of losing his carefully personalized data and desktop layout. This lady is a Realtor and she has a LOT of apps and data on this system - it'll be a bitch getting it back the way it's supposed to be.

ANYWAY if anyone has any ideas, lemme know. It's a challenge, and I'd like to solve it, but I'm running out of ideas.

When she gets back I'll check UPnP services, try to re-install SP1 and MAYBE a repair install, but I don't hold out much hope for it - that's just basically pissing in the wind. Worth a shot before resorting to a clean install.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 10:43 pm

Okay, to help spark the creative juices, I will offer a REWARD to whomever comes up with a solution, or an idea that leads me to a solution:

A new Logitech MX-500 mouse. Not in the box and I threw out the CD, but you can download the latest Mouseware if you want/need it.

I'll only mail it to an address in the US though (sorry Canadians).

MegaVectra · Post by **MegaVectra** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 11:50 pm

Have you tried any other PCMCIA cards (other than NICs) to make sure the slot is functioning properly?

*edit
nm ....missed that is was a built in WiFi NIC.

MegaVectra · Post by **MegaVectra** » Thu Sep 25, 2003 12:53 am

Try these drivers.

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files ... 18639.html
http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files ... 18638.html

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Thu Sep 25, 2003 1:00 am

Can't be a driver issue - I've tried 2 other PCMCIA Wifi NICs in there (2 completely different brands), and I did d/l the latest driver for the internal Wifi. Trust me, I've exhausted that possibility.

Augix · Post by **Augix** » Thu Sep 25, 2003 3:07 am

Have u tried to uninstall the Device and reboot it . ! sounds simple but...

dadx2mj · Post by **dadx2mj** » Thu Sep 25, 2003 9:07 am

I think you have answered your own question. Just my guess tho

I believe there's a network UPnP service that's required for Wifi but I didn't have time to look it up and see if it was running.

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Thu Sep 25, 2003 10:22 am

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums ... 955&page=1

nexus_7 · Post by **nexus_7** » Thu Sep 25, 2003 11:05 am

tell her WiFi is the Devil! Then promptly smash the shit out of her lappy yelling its got the devilinside, I release you!

Problem solved.

Greg

MegaVectra · Post by **MegaVectra** » Thu Sep 25, 2003 11:13 am

Originally posted by wvjohn
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums ... 955&page=1

I don't think "Intermittent Wifi Connection" is the problem.

Originally posted by FlyingPenguin
The WiFi NIC is showing an exclamation mark in Device manager - error 10 could not load driver.

Tried all the usual: removing & re-installing driver, updating driver to latest version, even tried going back to a restore point a month ago. NADA.

Okay, it gets WIERDER. I assume the internal WiFi NIC is dead so I pop in a Blitzz Wifi NIC PCMCIA card I carry as a spare hoping to get her up and running at least. NO JOY. Same problem - driver refuses to load.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Thu Sep 25, 2003 11:17 am

DAD: The UPnP service is the best bet so far, I agree.

WVJOHN: I'm going to print that, but I don't think that's the issue. That user had a working driver, just an intermittent connection. I can't get the lappy to load ANY Wifi NIC driver - it fails with an error 10 (can't load driver). However that thread provides me with info on disabling the UPnP service which may help.

Keep it coming boys, something's bound to hit the mark, and this MX500 is burning ahole in my pocket...

rogue · Post by **rogue** » Thu Sep 25, 2003 1:30 pm

Reinstall SP1. Sounds like Windows has some corrupted files (possibly in regards to drivers/wireless networking), and SP1 just might do the trick. Something similar to this happened in Win2000 for me with my SB Live, and installing SP3 fixed it.

smb · Post by **smb** » Thu Sep 25, 2003 10:42 pm

did you make sure the "wireless Zero Config" service is enabled ?

Gand1 · Post by **Gand1** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 6:23 pm

Just got to ask, did you try another card, say a pcmcia nic instead to see if the slot works. Also Dell, if it's a Dell has a utility for most of their lappies. It's basically a hardware diagnostic util. I had a laptop that would bug if I plugged anything into the USB port. With that utility I found the USB ports were fried!

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 6:46 pm

GAND1: Can't be a PCMCIA slot issue - the problem also occurs with the internal Mini PCI WiFi card. But just to eliminate all possibilities, I will try a different type of card in the slot when I get the computer back in my hands.

SMB: Excellent point. No I did not. I will check that when I get the lappy back in my hands. Thanks.