WIFI Adapter Disabled

[Petronica]

I have a Compaq CQ58 which I've used for about 18 months.

Today I have not been able to access the Internet without using an Ethernet cable.

I've done some 'troubleshooting' and this tells me that the WiFi adapter is disabled. I've been told that I must have pressed a key and inadvertently switched the wireless connection off.

I've checked the start up guide and the short manual that I have but I can't find an answer to the problem there.

I know about the Flight Mode key and I have checked repeatedly that this is switched off which it needs to be in order to access the Internet.

Does anyone know how I can re-enable the WiFi adapter?

[Futoji]

Hello Petronica,
Welcome to the HP Forums.

I see that your wifi adapter has been disabled. I will try to help you with this.

Usually if a device is "disabled", it's more then likely in the Device Manager. Go to Device manager on your Notebook, and you should see "network adapters" in the list. Click on the "+" and it will show all of your network adapters installed. You should then be able to right click on the adapter and "enable" it, or "disable" it. As your's is disabled you'd want to enable.

Please let me know if this helped. Thank you for posting on the HP Forums.

[Oakburne03]

Thank you for your reply.

I didn't actually try what you suggested, as before I received your reply, and a couple of hours after I

posted, Windows starting installing updates on my PC, and after this I decided to try again to use the PC without the Ethernet cable. I found that it worked. 

I also noticed a small purple icon on the bottom right of the screen, next to icons for sound etc, which I hadn't seen there before. When I right clicked on this icon it said HP Remote so I knew then that the WiFi was working. But I hadn't actually done anything. 

When I next used the PC I noticed that the purple icon had enlarged and moved to the bottom left of the screen. When I right clicked on it and went into settings the WiFi was clearly showing as enabled. As I had never used this icon before I don't see how I could have disabled it as the ISP suggested I had.

What I think happened therefore was that the Windows updates which were pending when I lost the wireless connection, somehow interfered with the WiFi. It's the only thing that makes any sense. There had been a message on my PC stating that Windows updates were due in 2 days time. They haven't caused a problem like this before but it was reading posts on the HP Forum which alerted me to this as a possible cause of the problem, and prompted me to re-test the PC after the updates had been installed

[msjennallen]

HP Pavillion DV 5000

Installed Win 7 Pro

Wi Fi is DISABLED

Nothing appears to be giving the option of checking enable or disabled.

Synaptics software download states already installed.

TheWiFi button isnot lightingup and systemdoesn't see wifi

[lwagner2016]

OK did you click the bottom on your computer that's on keyboard that looks like tower in parenthesis or something similar to that? Because it has a light in it and that light turns red when it is disabling WiFi and green when enabling. That button is such a hassle for some people because they don't know its there and accidentally press it because it is near backspace button. On my computer it is the 13th key from left to right on the first row of buttons or easier to explain, it's f12 button. Hope this helps someone that is having trouble connecting. Now if anyone knows how to disable or enable Ethernet that would be great. Thanks!
Lindsey Wagner