MSI Wind U100, no wireless connectivity

[EXCellR8]

I am having a problem getting a netbook to connect to a wireless network. The computer detects that the network is in range (typically 4/5 bars) and that it's unsecured. when i try to connect it fails for some reason. TCP/IP settings are configured as automatic for now but no manual settings help the connection. The wireless card is working fine but it should be connecting to this network automatically. I'm not sure why it's broken...

Computer is an MSI Wind U100 running XP Home Edition SP3. I've reinstalled the Wireless Card driver a couple of times but that hasn't helped. I'm thinking about just doing a repair install but the computer doesn't have a CD/DVD drive so I'd like to avoid doing that with a USB flash drive. I'm running Virus scans now just in case, but it looks like the settings for the wireless card are just messed up.

Here's what it reads when I run ipconfig /all; yes, all other computers with wireless connections on the network work fine.

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : msi-u100
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 802.11b/g Mini Card Wireless Adapter

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-21-85-B3-84-BE

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8102E Family PCI-E Fast E
thernet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-21-85-E5-23-CE

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : fe80::ffff:ffff:fffd%6
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

Obviously the settings are incorrect but nothing I've tried has worked, so I'm sort of at a loss. I don't get any messages that detail why it's not connecting, just that it cannot connect for reasons unknown. So, any help with this would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for any information.

 

[raybay]

You are going to continue to have difficulties without a CD ROM install disk. Have you tried migrating an entire install disk to your USB Flash Drive or asking the question on the MSI website ?

 

[EXCellR8]

I've been doing a bit of browsing on MSI's support site but I think the problem lies with Windows, because all of the system's devices check out and are working properly. It's my sister's computer and she's always messing it up. I've had to reformat the HDD with a USB before but I can borrow an external disk drive from a friend to use. I think that's probably what I will end up doing because I've already spent too many hours trying to figure it out. I don't know how she manages to break this thing all the time...