Vista doesn't find wireless card

[polarice]

Hi all,
Let me introduce myself by saying I am a noob who knows just enough to be dangerous, only to myself and/or my own computer....

I have a Compaq V6205NR laptop with Vista Home Premium, 2Gb memory, nVidea Go6150 graphics (integrated I think), with a built in Broadcom wireless card. It used to connect wireless through a BuffaloWHR-G54S Router. It is currently LAN connected to the same router. A desktop computer in the house connects to that router wirelessly.

It was all good until I wanted to start connecting through the LAN while sitting at my desk. Instead of using the switch on the front of the laptop to turn the wireless off (Doh! This is my first laptop) I went into Device Manager and disabled it. When I went back in to enable it there was no Broadcom card listed, even after I clicked 'Show hidden devices'.

I don't recall the exact order of measures I took, or even everything I have done so far in attempting a fix; I have been working on this on and off for about a week. Here it is to the best of my recollection:

I tried to get Vista to find a wireless network to no avail, tried to get Vista to repair connections while physically disconnected from the LAN, reinstalled Broadcom drivers several times, and updated the BIOS. I probably did some other stuff that I don't remember.

Now I see several things listed in Device Manager that I didn't see before. 5 WAN Miniport things from Microsoft, and a thing called 'isatap', also from Microsoft, with a bunch of letters and numbers after it.

BTW, the light on the front of the computer that normally glows Blue when the wireless switch is 'On' remains Orange regardless of switch position.

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

[benzipperer]

Have you tried the Recovery Manager? It should be under start->Recovery Manager->Recovery Manager. Under Advanced Options there should be an option for re-installing the wireless driver and software.

[polarice]

I just read your post and tried it; it did not work. Any ideas on what I should try next?

[benzipperer]

There was a BIOS update in November 2007 for your laptop at http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/s...s=2093&lang=en . HP says upgrading the BIOS can sometimes clear the problem of the wireless card not appearing in device manager. In rare circumstances upgrading the BIOS can go wrong and leave your computer unbootable. You might want to try this only if the notebook is still under warranty.

[polarice]

Yeah, I did the bios.

Would physically disconnecting the card and plugging it back in do anything, if it is even possible?

[polarice]

This appears to be a fairly common problem spanning several models of HP and Compaq laptops. After some digging I found this:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/g...87277_identify