My laptop won't connect to any wireless networks, even though it has before.

StormFoSho

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Feb 16, 2014
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My Laptop cannot connect to any wireless networks even though it has before. It doesn't list any wireless networks at all, so I can't connect. I've tried turning it on and off, resetting the router, turning wireless connectivity on and off, but to no avail. It was working perfectly fine one minute, and when I turned it off and turned it back on a few hours later, it wouldn't connect. It's a Windows 7 XPS L502X.
 
Solution
Dear StormFoSho, sorry for the late reply. Is it in any way possible to check out your WLAN card? Now I can understand that you might be a little hesitant to opening up your laptop but luckily you've got the L502X, so it's really easy. Remove the battery and the AC adapter. Use a Philips screwdriver (if you don't own one yourself, chances are you can borrow one from a friend) to open up the bottom of your laptop. Here you'll find a little chip with two wires (black and white; these are antennas) attached. Now check and see if those wires are fully attached (they click on with a snap) and check and see if the WLAN (wifi) chip is inserted into the required module correctly.
If that doesn't work, please tell me and i'll help you straight...
Hi

Does the wireless have a hardware or software switch?
If sure it is on look in device manager to ensure windows thinks you have wireless network device

Does anything else connect to your wireless access point?

Comeback with some answers as there are too many options as to likely problems

Regards
Mike Barnes
 
@mbarnes86
Other devices are able to connect to the wifi router. My phone, a few other laptops, my desktop, and the gaming devices. Also, device manager says I don't have any wireless networks.
 
Hi
I presume XPS means a Dell
The user guide should tell you if there are any hardware or software switches for the wireless card

If Device manager does not show a wireless network device or a device with a problem requiring a driver you will not be able to go any further

a USB wireless N dongle may be a temporary solution .
Nano size ones are very small .

Regards
Mike Barnes
 
Dear StormFoSho, It's possible that either your wireless card is not enabled due to a switch or a button (these tend to be on the sides of the laptop or near the keyboard) or a combination of buttons (like fn and F2 on your laptop). It could also be due to a driver issue. To see if it's a driver issue, go to device manager and expand the folder for network adapters. If one of the icons is covered by a small grey circle, it means the device is disabled {right click it and click on 'enable'}. If one of the icons is covered by a yellow question mark, it means that no driver has been installed for the device [right click, install driver. if you need to connect to the internet to download it, you might have to use an ethernet cable/dongle to connect to your router or use another device. If one of the icons is covered by yellow triangle with an exclamation mark, it means you've got a bit of a problem. If this is the case, right click on the icon, click 'properties' and look for an error code.
Please post the name of the device which is causing trouble (it could also be an microsoft driver error) and please post the error code on this forum. Good luck!
 
So I checked Device Manager and it says Hamachi Network Interface has a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark. When I right click on properties it says, 'This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31)'

Thanks for the response, hope this helps.
 
Also, I just tried to plug in an Ethernet cable, and it didn't connect to the internet on that either.
But it said I had no network access, not internet access.
Hope this helps.
 
Dear StormFoSho, I've been doing a little research and it turns out that the Hamachi driver which you're having problems with is not a hardware issue but most likely to be a software issue. Hamachi is a programme which allows you to log in to accounts (Minecraft for example) in a different, more secure manner than you would usually log in. However, Windows is trying to use the driver for accessing the internet. This means that what you have to do is uninstall the Hamachi software in control panel.
If that doesn't work, please report back.

PS: Nice laptop!
 
Lol, thanks Guavas.

So, I deleted LogMeIn Hamachi with 'Uninstall a program' and now it says I'm not connected to Network 2 anymore, it just says I have no connections, but it won't list any wireless networks.
 
Dear StormFoSho, sorry for the late reply. Is it in any way possible to check out your WLAN card? Now I can understand that you might be a little hesitant to opening up your laptop but luckily you've got the L502X, so it's really easy. Remove the battery and the AC adapter. Use a Philips screwdriver (if you don't own one yourself, chances are you can borrow one from a friend) to open up the bottom of your laptop. Here you'll find a little chip with two wires (black and white; these are antennas) attached. Now check and see if those wires are fully attached (they click on with a snap) and check and see if the WLAN (wifi) chip is inserted into the required module correctly.
If that doesn't work, please tell me and i'll help you straight away.
Good Luck!
-Guavas.
 
Solution