HELP.. My 1-year old HP's internet stopped working all of a sudden. I was using it for about 10 minutes then put it into standby and when I came back to turn it on, it just won't connect to the internet anymore. There's this light that indicates whether the internet is on/off and every time I turn on the computer, it lights blue. Now it stays in orange and its saying that Windows cannot find any networks. I'm running Vista. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Did you restart? I know my friend had a problem with Vista losing his network. He'd have to either log off or restart and everything would go back to normal.
That light does not indicate whether you are connected to the internet or not. That is a light to tell you which way the switch is turned. Currently, in amber that means your wireless and bluetooth are OFF. Push it to the left, then it will be on, illuminated in blue, and you will be able to connect to wireless networks.
Its on, but its still lighting orange. I did everything from restarting the computer, to restarting the router. Could it be that the switch is broken cause when I used to turn off the switch, it would usually say the WLAN is disconnected, now its just not doing anything?
Does it detect networks in the area, but you just can't connect? I had this problem yesterday at my parent's house. Their laptop wouldn't connect to the wireless network. Turned out the network key was wrong. Kind of strange because a guy from Verizon visited their house 2 weeks ago & had changed the network key. The laptop still connected fine for a week or two & then wouldn't connect. Was kind of strange. Go to your router configuration and make sure you are using the right network key on the laptop.
I took the laptop to Best Buy today and I got a bad news. They said that Windows update wiped out MAC address? so in that case, I have to send it to HP for a replacement of motherboard which would cost me more or less $500 (less than half of what I paid for the whole laptop) not including shipping. I only bought one year warranty since I have not experienced this before and never thought it would occur. They also told me that about 15 people with HP laptop has had this happen before. Anyways, they just told me that I can buy a USB to connect to the internet. It looks ugly but it works for now while I look for a new laptop but it's not gonna be HP. Thanks for the replies guys.
Don't know if Vista has the same option, but in XP I had the same problems whenever I closed my laptop and came back to it the connection would be broken. I would just right click that box and hit "Repair" and presto, Internet. I have two questions... Are you sure it's picking up your router's signal, not a neighbors? Have you tried searching on Google about your computer (model number) and the loss of wireless internet connectivity, just to see what people have done to solve this. As far as I know, MAC Addresses come from your network card and they can be spoofed/cloned/randomly generated. Now if something happened to your built in WiFi, I can see them needing to take it in and replace the motherboard, but otherwise no??
It's a long shot but try these steps on boot-up: 1. Ctrl + F11 2. Ctrl + Alt + F11 3. Ctrl + (F1 - F12) One of these should let you reformat the computer. Backup what you need and just reformat the computer.
I tried searching but didn't find anything. I only found people having their internet switch broken. I don't have any neighbors so I'm sure I'm the only one who has a signal within .5 mile radius. I guess the problem really is my built-in wifi or else they wouldn't have told me to replace the motherboard.
RESTART YOUR ROUTER The router and computer rebooted will solve the wi-fi issue. For the router a simple unplug, count to ten, plug it back in, and voila! It happens to me at least once a week witrh Vista.
The router has nothing to do with Vista. If you are needing to restart your router each week, you have a router problem, not a vista problem.
Huh?...... The MAC address is in firmware, and while it is theoretically possible to change it, it is a very difficult task IMHO. [More likely is "spoofing" another address - It does still have the real address, but the low level networking routines *can* be hacked to make it appear different. A pretty difficult task.] However, I don't see how a S/W update can "wipe it out" - Although, I concede I haven't tried to, and have no intention of, using Vi$ta. If it's a correct diagnosis, even a complete wipe of the hard drive isn't going to fix it - It's still going to be missing it's MAC addy'. Which is bad..... I presume (but would love for someone with Vi$ta experience to jump in here) that you still have the "control panel -> networking -> setup (?) windows in Vista - You probably "poked" around here when installing your USB "card". There should be something in here that allows you to display the MAC address - I suspect you should actually now "see" two networking setups - The original and the new USB thing. If you select the original, is it "missing" the MAC address? Further, and I haven't looked, *if* it's a Vista update that's doing the damage the great-unwashed are going to be *howling* from the rooftops for a fix - Have you tried any of the "HP-Vista" forums? (at HP possibly?) Another possibility is the networking chipset on the M/board has died - That would certainly cause the loss of MAC address, but is nothing to do with a Vista update (Unless of course the Evil Empire is now issuing updates that destroy peoples computers.....) Hopefully, you've got the sucker backed up *properly* - If so, I'd be tempted to try loading one of the Linux distributions - "ubuntu.com" has one which you can download and burn an install CD - Run that, and fairly early on it'll be looking for the network - It *should* find the MAC address, and thence get an ip address from (probably) your router and away you go - You don't actually have to install Linux, but at least you'll know your H/W is still good (or not of course....) I'm tempted to go search this issue, but don't really have the time right now - Good luck, cheers, Ian
Good find! As I said, it's actually "spoofing" a different MAC address, not changing the real one. [Although the end result is obviously the same] However, returning to the "claim" that a Vista update caused the problem - I'm simply not convinced...... I'd try and load a different OS as mentioned above - If Linux can't find the H/W then I'd say it's died and isn't anything to do with Vista. Cheers, Ian
F11 will boot up the recovery partition and allow you to recover everything to factory settings. I also own an HP notebook and I HATE IT. Next laptop I'm getting is going to be either a Sony or a Thinkpad.
Actually you are wrong on this. While it does not make sense at all that the router should be reset, but it actually works. That has been my issue with Vista every week since the beginning of this year on my slimline HP. One day it all stops working, but every other device in the house continues to work normally. I reset the router and my Vista box is able to sign back on the network. About 3 months ago my brother started crashing at my place, his HP Vista laptop had the same issues. What does that tell you? It does not mean the router is bad (in these case we do have a netgear) but hey it is like the days before cable, for some reason you have to sit just a little to the left of the tv to get better reception, does not make sense, but it works. Rather than get in to why the OS is so bad, and try and get a phd in writing your own drivers, 10 seconds to unplug and replug a router and it works after that is not such a bad thing. That is until it becomes part of my morning constitutional. HP + Vista = bad news
I just bought a Sony, POS. I will go for the Thinkpad next. If I didn't need a PC, I would seriously just get a Macbook Pro.
one of the first thing to do is to connect an ethernet cable from your router/modem to your laptop, your Local Area Connection should then state Connected and You would able to browse internet via ethernet. If that = true, at least most likely your router/modem is ok. power cycle your modem (or log into the router to reset ap), and i would go to control panel -> network sharing centre -> (on the left hard side second last option) manage a network connect -> find your wireless local area connection. the reason we do this is because i think the icon that you circle is a normal ethernet local area connection as wireless connection icon looks slightly different, but i have not paid too much attention so i can't say for sure. now if the wireless local area connection has a cross on it and says unplugged, right click on the icon and click on "view avalible network", if it doesn't do it, most likely its your wifi. If it has a triangle with an explination mark and says "connected with no or limited connectivity", right click -> disable, restart laptop, then get back to the same spot and enable, that should do a reset and see if it solves the problem. If you don't see your wireless connection there, then go to device manager and see if the wireless controller is there.
Why do you *need* a PC? - What's it doing that you can't do with a Mac? [Note that I'm not trying to be funny here, but its a really old argument which very rarely stands up to examination.] Cheers, Ian
Especially when the Intel based macs have bootcamp preinstalled and let you run windows. I just replaced my trusty Acer laptop with a MacBook. Dual boot works very well.
Really? I've heard great things about their business line (with the really thin screen). I did some research on the thinkpads and they seem to be very well engineered. Personally I had the Apple craze for a little while, actually a month ago I was just going to buy a black macbook and just scrap my HP which is less than a year old (that's how much I hate it!) but honestly I thought about it and to me paying over 2k for a macbook pro doesn't make sense. I could probably get the same specs on an intel based laptop and run leopard on it for 2 thirds of the price. My friend just ordered an alienware and it came out to ~$1900 with an intel T8100, NVidia 8700GT etc... Also an option.
And I was hoping Ian would have just ONE thread without mentioning Apple or Mac (Not MAC address). I guess I will never get my wish! -Fellow Apple User
Sorry I'm only trying to help. As a fellow user, you know how your quality of life improves and you get laid more once you switch
