WIFI wont work

[trainsdownunder]

Hi all

Been struck by gremlins ! and am completely stumped.

A few days ago my USB Wifi unit packed up. Not too worried as it has been a faithful servant and well past it sell by date.

So I bought a new one different unit but still using Realtek Drivers. Loaded the drivers, plugged it in and ...... nothing.

Tried it on the laptop (Win7 64 bit). Loaded drivers, plugged it in got notification of Wifi network and connected fine.

Back to the Desktop PC (Win7 32bit), did it all again... nothing. well no notification of Wifi, but it does recognise the device.

Borrowed my mates USB wifi today. Exactly the same. Everything works fine on the laptop but not my Desktop PC. On the Laptop I can see all Wifi devices and so can my Wifi router - just my £"$%^ Pc that wont. Any ideas what services may or may not be playing up to cause this.

Frustrated !!!!

[Bealman]

How about your phone? Mine connects as soon as it gets near functional WiFi.

George

[Caz]

Got a vague thing at the back of my mind that I had a similar problem once and it was something to do with how modern routers connect and some old PC's can't interface with them to find the wifi.   

[DCCDave]

Possibly driver versions. Manually un-install the drivers and let the discovery happen again.

Failing that I'd suggest the manufacturers forums, or a call to their help line may prove fruitful.

Cheers
Dave

[trainsdownunder]

Thanks all for advice

How about your phone? Mine connects as soon as it gets near functional WiFi.

Iphone, Ipod etc sll connect perfectly when in the same area.

Sounds like you have some malware....

Nope all checks run clean (Malwarebytes running in background with Seek & Destroy constantly) Have tried some other Root cleaners, but no difference.

modern routers connect and some old PC's  can't interface with them to find the wifi

Been working fine for the last 18 months till the USB adapter packed. the Adapter is definitely dead as have tried on other machines - isn't recognised.

Possibly driver versions. Manually un-install the drivers and let the discovery happen again.

Tried several times no different.

As I said it's not the adapter as that works on all other machines and installs correctly is enabled etc on the main PC. It just cannot see any networks to connect to. I don't even get a WIFI icon.

Runing Ipconfig does not show the wifi service so I suspect a window service is not active but have no idea which one to look for. Unless of course the Fire wall is blocking it, but all things there seem normal

[EtchedPixels]

Let me query one assumption "the wifi adapter died"

Did the adapter die or the USB port (or both)

Does other USB stuff work on that USB port still ?

[trainsdownunder]

After 2 days of buggering around stopping and starting services I finally got it going again.

No I have no idea what it was or which service but all things pointed to the Mobile device service sections. Anyway all is now fine, apart from one dead adapter, and SWMBO is happy as there are no longer Cat5 trip wires strewn around the house.

Oh the joys of windows 7

Thanks again for input guys