Wireless card disappeared from device manager

[jlmwrite]

I see I'm not alone in this problem; a lot of folks with older laptops seems to have their wireless connections disappear over the past few days.

My DV6253CL(running Vista) is a couple of years old; it was working fine very last night (I use sleep mode every night) and when it "woke up" this morning the wireless light had changed to orange.  Fiddled with the wireless on/off button for a minute, then rebooted.  Nothing,  Went to the device manager, and the Broadcomm wireless adaptor has disappeared,

Used device recovery to reinstall the Broadcomm drivers, but after a reboot the adaptor still doesn't appear.

Now about 4 years ago there was an enormous rash of wireless adaptors that died secondary to heat problems.  HP fixed 'em in warranty and issued a new BIOS update to keep things cooler.   My first thought was oh crap, the wireless adaptor died again.  But I ended up on the forums when I came to check prices for a new adaptor, and whaddya know -- LOTS of people had their wireless adaptors disappear over the past few days.

Now that's just too much of a coincidence.  SOMETHING went wrong somewhere.  System Restore didn't create any checkpoints so I can't do a system restore.  The last Windows update I got was 3 or 4 days ago (is this ringing a bell for other folks?) but I haven't rebooted since then.  And no, I haven't installed any new software in at least a month, so that's not my problem.

Eiher someone at Microsoft messed up on the last batch of Windows updates, or a whole bunch of us experienced hardware failures on our wireless adaptors in a 3 day period.  Off to buy a cheap USB wireless adaptor so I can keep working wirelessly and hope that someone at HP who actually knows what they are doing -- or more likely someone on the forums -- finds a solution for us.

[rhedLhyon]

had the same problem.. put my laptop to sleep when i went out to buy my lunch and when i came back, turn my comp back on the noticed that i wasn't connected to the net anymore. i checked the wireless troubleshooting but everytym i try to open the hp wireless assistant  there's no more nothing  popping out.. tried the system recovery and rebooted my device a couple of times but still had the same problem.. this is just annoying and frustrated at the same time cos i don't wanna stuck in my room using the net all day..

[jlmwrite]

Yep, exactly what happened to me!

I'm ashamed to say I called HP tech support -- and got exactly what I thought.  First, the tech went thru the usual "Sorry you're having these issues" followed immediately by a denial that anyone else is having this problem!  Even when I insisted HP's own forums were full of folks having the exact same problem with embedded wireless LAN cards, he said there weren't any problems logged.

And as I expected, he asked me to download the "latest" drivers (which I already had done, but played along).  Reinstalled them, rebooted, and still nothing but the ethernet card showing up in Device Manager.  Then came the Microsoft moment -- "OK, now I'd like for you to get your system restore CDs out.  This will take some  time, and you will lose all your data".  I just hung up.

So...  I found a replacement Broadcomm card yesterday for $12 and  just got an email a few minutes ago that it shipped.  We will see what happens when USPS gets around to delivering it!

[jxregal55]

I have the same problem, so i went a bought a usb wireless adapter but it does not work. it show that its there but will not connect to the internet.

[johnsonfamily]

Also having this trouble.  Happened in the middle of a Skype call.  Their laptop crashed during the call.  It took mine overnight to crash.  My parents, who i was talking to during skype, called Dell and they sent out a tech.  They are getting work done to their laptop under warranty.  I am glad it wasn't just us.  We thought maybe it was a virus or something.  NOW what to do we do to fix this?  I am not sure rebooting everything will help.  And someone else said the usb isnt working.  I am lucky my laptop is new, and under warranty but i think it had to do with a microsoft update..I did update a few days ago.  Let me know if anyone figures it out.  I was able to readd my wireless once...but it dumped it as soon as it was turned off and now i cannot get it to recognize it again.

[kersplash]

I am fighting the same problem on my v6310us notebook.  After years of working the Broadcom 802.11 wireless device was no longer seen in device manager.  I followed all online suggestions.  reinstalled drivers and bios.  ran Microsoft's malicious software removal tool.  System restores.  Anything I could find.  What works is to run the full disk diagnosis at startup.

I have been though this 4 times now.   When the Wan adaptor fails I reboot F10 and run the disk diagnostic.  After it runs the Wireless is fine for several reboots but eventually fails again.

I don't understand.  My first thought was hardware.  Then Driver.  Then Virus.  I don't think something is stepping on memory or that there is an IRQ conflict.   What happens during the disk diagnosis?  The tool never finds an error.   Is a counter reset that malicious software uses to launch?

[jlmwrite]

NOW I'M ANGRY!

I got a brand new Broadcom card yesterday.  Installed it in about 2 minutes, turned my laptop on, Windows installed the device drivers automatically and I was back in business.

Put my laptop to sleep last night as always.   When I woke it up this morning, no wireless. My Broadcom was missing from device manager.  What the [text removed]is going on HP?

[johnsonfamily]

My parents ended up getting a new mother board and everything is fine now.

[jlmwrite]

Update:

I did some more searching, and this problem seems to have been around for several years.  The general consensus for one batch of people was bad motherboards and/or wireless cards.

However...  Another group of folks have found (like me) that multiple cards didn't change the problem.  One solution was to boot into safe mode with wireless networking, and the other was to remove the power cord and battery, hold down the power button for 20 seconds, replace everything and reboot.  Whaddya know -- this worked!

The first time I booted into safe mode, it detected my Broadcom card, installed the drivers, and the blue light came on.  Booted back into Windows normally, and it was gone.  Repeated that with identical result -- 5 times in a row!  Worked in safe mode but not in normal mode.  Sounds like something in Windows blocking or uninstalling the drivers.

Next I tried the power trick.  As soon as I booted into Windows normally, the blue light came on!  Shut the computer down, rebooted and the Broadcom adaptor was missing.  Did the power trick again, and it was back.  The general speculation is that the motherboard, battery and wireless card aren't playing nice together; somehow the motherboard is storing a value somewhere telling the battery not to supply power to the wireless card, hence no blue light in Windows.

I don't think these tricks are mutually exclusive.  Since this is eminantly repeatable on my laptop, I think Windows reads something somewhere out of the motherboard that tells it not to power up the Broadcom card.  That's why it works in safe mode, and that's why it works normally after resetting the power.

But I'm darned if I can actually solve the problem...

[bradleyjr420]

having the same problem

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