Asus P8Z77-V Pro wi-fi connectivity does not work.

I recently moved my PC from an apartment (where it was connected to the internet via ethernet) back home where I have to use wi-fi. When I first built the PC with a Asus P8Z77-V Pro motherboard last fall, I had absolutely no problem with my motherboard's wi-fi card working with the wireless network (provided through a Cisco Linksys E4200 router) at home where I built it. Since I brought it back home from the apartment last week, the PC's wi-fi card has been unable to detect the wireless network. When I click the networking icon in the windows 7 taskbar, the menu that appears says that there are no connections available. The icon itself has a red X through it as well. I right-clicked on the network icon and clicked on "troubleshoot" only for Windows to fail in fixing the problem. I tried "ipconfig" in command prompt only to be told that I am disconnected. The router is located one floor below the room where the PC is located but is still within a very reasonable proximity. I moved the PC down to the same room as the router and found that it detected the wireless network with weaker signal strength than should be at that distance (three bars instead of five). I moved it back to the room where it supposed to be situated, and found once again that the PC could not detect the wireless network. I called Asus tech support, and they suggested that I update my BIOS, wi-fi card drivers, and router firmware. None of these worked in getting my PC connected to the wireless network and the wi-fi card drivers where up to date in the first place. I also moved the router to the same room where the PC is located only to have it again fail to detect it. The distance however between the PC and the router was larger than when I brought it to the room where the router resides. It was concluded by Asus that the wi-fi card is defective and an RMA was setup where I might have to send back my entire motherboard.
My question is that putting aside the very real possibility of defective hardware, could this be a simple problem that has a simple solution. When I had the PC in the apartment, I tried to setup my wi-fi card as a wireless access point via the Asus Wi-Fi Engine utility. When I did, I remember seeing a new wireless device appear in the list of network adapters in the device manager and the Windows network and sharing center. This device is named "Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter." Could this be part of the problem? I must mention that as of right now AP mode in the Asus Wi-Fi Engine utility is disabled. Any help is greatly appreciated.