Wireless died suddenly, help

[HelpNeerder123]

I was playing a game online at a friends house, using their wireless, when all of a sudden my wireless died. I thought it was just their wireless but when i went home to connect on mine, i still had a problem.

I've tried turning the switch on and off to no prevail. When i go to connect to a network, my wireless detects nothing. I found an option to find the problem, and it told me my wireless was turned off, so i checked the switch and it was on. i also went to my computer and to device manager, and checked my network devices and they are apparently all working fine, so i really don't know what the problem is here. Please help...

also, i saw on another post that i should copy+paste what my what my cmd says when i type ipconfig/all

C:\Users\ownage>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : ownage-PC
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection 2:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-13-E8-35-51-6B
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::814c:215:1b37:bc89%10(Preferred)
Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.188.137(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 251663336
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8101 Family PCI-E Fast Etherne
t NIC (NDIS 6.0)
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-03-25-41-4F-BB
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 6:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.domain_not_set.invalid
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 7:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.{791A2CAB-97CF-406B-96BB-A1BC890BD
6D4}
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::5efe:169.254.188.137%14(Preferred)

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 9:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-00-54-55-4E-01
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 10:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #3
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

C:\Users\ownage>

 

[9Nails]

Quite the mystery!!!

If your card was disabled or not working it wouldn't show up with this much information in the ipconfig /all report.

It also looks like you're on Windows Vista of some sorts since your home path is: C:\Users

Your Wireless card's network stack is also working. It's assigning itself an Automatic Private IP Address. (APIPA) That's the weird little address that you get starting with 169.xxx.xxx.xxx in the IPv4 Address line. Usually to me, it means that you computer tried to ask the network for an address but nothing was configured to respond to it. So it gave itself an address - which is mostly useless in this case.

I think, maybe, could you try to disable any firewall settings? (Just turn your firewall(s) to Off and test again to see if the problem went away.) If it goes away, then you know that some rule in the firewall is doing this to you. Do you have Symantec Anti-virus installed? Because I've seen that come with a firewall that screws up a computer on more than one occasion. It wouldn't be the right way to configure a firewall, but it might be blocking the broadcast responses.

 

[HelpNeerder123]

well i had two firewalls on my computer, there was windows firewall and mcafee firewall. the windows firewall was already turned off, but the mcafee was still on. so i turned that off, but it didn't seem to do anything. so i am currently restarting my computer and letting any updates run, and then i will try again. hopefully that is the problem, but it didn't look like it...

and this is an edit i posted a little later: it did not seem to do anything, and after i restarted it i tried turning the switch on and off to see if it would help, but it didn't. so any other ideas?

 

[LookinAround]

1) You should only keep ONE firewall turned on. Keep the other turned off

2) As 9Nails points out, the Wireless IP address starting 169.254.xx.xx means your wireless card can't connect/get an IP address from your router

Suggest you power-cycle your router as well.

 

[HelpNeerder123]

ok, by power-cycling im gonna guess you mean unplug stuff and all that. I turned off the modem and replugged some cables and what not, but that still didn't do anything, and there is another laptop is running off the wireless and that works just fine. and i can't connect at my friends house either. i could try to unplug the router and modem and try again that way, but i don't think that will make a difference, but then again i really have no idea what im talking about.

My mom was looking at my laptop earlier and she thinks that the switch to turn the wireless on is broken. my the looks of the information i posted, would that be a possibility?

 

[HelpNeerder123]

i have moved my laptop from place to place a lot and sometimes it gets bumped so the switch could have been broken that way. im not sure if that would cause the problems i'm having or not though.

 

[LookinAround]

I don't have a good answer to your question (sorry) but wanted to reply as i see no one else has replied yet either (maybe they're also not certain). I don't have a wireless on/off switch on my own computers to look and and check

But tell us the exact make/model of your computer? That may also help shed some more light on the issue

Tho a general observation based on what you;ve said,

I've tried turning the switch on and off to no prevail. When i go to connect to a network, my wireless detects nothing. I found an option to find the problem, and it told me my wireless was turned off, so i checked the switch and it was on. i also went to my computer and to device manager, and checked my network devices and they are apparently all working fine,

I'm not optimistic you may want to take a look at buying an add-on wireless adapter

 

[HelpNeerder123]

it is a gateway M-6817. and ty for the response even though u weren't sure what to do. and would u happen to know how much one of those add-on wireless adapters cost?

 

[LookinAround]

Hmmm... I completely forgot that Function (Fn) keys can turn your wireless on/off as well. Take a look at this link

1) There should be a wireless indicator light, does it turn on?
2) Note in addition to turning the wireless switch on, note the function keys also turn it on and off. Try hitting both Fn+F2 while wireless is switched on

/* Edit */
You can shop around but think a USB card for wireless G Networks are about $50 USD. Here's an example from Staples

 

[HelpNeerder123]

OMG!!! pressing those buttons turned it on! thanks soo much for all your help, even when you weren't sure what to do. i really appreciate it. that was such a simple fix to :haha: