Laptop suddenly detected "new hardware"...!?

_SBradley_

_SBradley_

_SBradley_

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Joined
4 Jul 2009
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736
Location
Perth, WA, Australia
Hey guys,

Last night, I took apart a laptop that was full of dust and fluff. Hoovered it out, reassembled, and powered back on. Windows booted and said:

"Installing new PCI hub driver" (or something like), then "Installing wireless connection #2".

Which I found most odd, because what can have changed? It's not like you can install cards into different slots in a laptop.

Anyway, wireless connection #2 doesn't work. It's picked up the MAC address, so it's seeing the card; it's just like it's disabled (Windows says "media disconnected") (and the hard button that's supposed to switch Wi-Fi on/off doesn't work). (The hard button is on a strip that's connected to the mobo via a ribbon cable -- and other buttons on that strip are working.) I've re-seated both the card and the cable twice, to no effect.

If anyone has any ideas, I'd very much like to hear them. :)

Thanks,
Simon
 
Any chance you might have zapped something with static when hoovering it?

Possibly try another wireless card if you have one.

gt
 
Have you tried deleting the new hardware it detected from the system devices and then doing a new hardware detection again to see if it picks them up again ? It could be just windows being silly too. Also you did make sure to put the laptop back together right and made sure all ribbon cables inside were not loose and made good contact and in their right connector ? I doubt you zapped it with static in this case but sounds like a windows issue or a bad connection somewhere.


First thing to do is not panic, try the system device clearing of the new device and if it still comes up for strange reasons, reopen the laptop (be in a good mood when doing this) and just make sure all conenctions are good and in their right places.
 
gt_junkie said:
Any chance you might have zapped something with static when hoovering it? Possibly try another wireless card if you have one.
Click to expand...

Could be. I've bought a used card off eBay for £3, so I'll try that when it arrives in a day or two.

Purgatory said:
Have you tried deleting the new hardware it detected from the system devices and then doing a new hardware detection again to see if it picks them up again ?
Click to expand...

I have. It didn't help. I also booted from a Ubuntu Live CD, and that also couldn't see the card, so it's definitely hardware.

Purgatory said:
Also you did make sure to put the laptop back together right and made sure all ribbon cables inside were not loose and made good contact and in their right connector ?
Click to expand...

Yep. I even took it all back apart and put it together a second time, with the same result.

Anyway, thanks for the advice and suggestions! I'll let you know what happens when I receive the replacement card. I'm not too hopeful it's going to make a difference, but we'll see. :) I guess the next thing would be to forget about it and use a PC Card or mini USB receiver...
 
are the wires connected to the wifi card properley? you may have knocked them when taking it apart.
 
Received the new card. It didn't help.

I'm pretty sure something happened during the cleaning process. Pretty odd, though; I've never seen anything quite like it before.

Anyway, I've ordered the Edimax USB wireless micro adapter, which "has" to work. It's not worth my time futzing with it any more. Plus the USB adapter can be re-used when the laptop finally dies completely. :)

Thanks again for the advice that was offered!
 
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