broadcom wireless conundrum

I am having trouble with a wireless connection on an HP pavilion ze 4500 notebook. Interesting thing is that up until a week ago everything worked fine. I have added no new software or hardware. My op sys is XP, the wireless card is a Broadcom 802.11b/g and the router is a Linksys WRT54G. I am using the Braodcom wireless utility to connect, instead of XP's program. I have disabled all security features on the router - so wireless security shouldn't be the problem. Also, another computer is able to connect wireless to the network, so I know the connection is good from the router out to the Net. The HP can see the network, but will not connect. I have run the limited diagnotic programs that came with the computer and it claims that the network card is good. Now, one posible source of the problem is that my girlfriend uses Hotmail and the site, as you know, places numerous adware and spyware programs on unsuspecting computers. I have used a program (Spyware Nuker) to find and remove these programs.

My quetions are:
1. Does this problem sound familar to anyone?
2. Does anyone have any suggestions on what else to try?
3. Has anyone had any problems with adware disabling a wireless network?

 

Can you go back and use a Restore point from a date when you know the wireless was working?

 

The only issue where a wifi card will see the network but not be able to connect is when MAC Filtering is enabled and the card is not in the list of approved MAC addresses. Check your router and see if this is enabled, if so, enter your MAC address and see if it works, or you can just disabled MAC filtering as a test.

-Vb-

 

Wow, your problem sounds just like the one I had. You even have the same wireless card and router.

Here’s a link of my plight: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=22553

I thought it was the router at first, but after talking with Linksys I realized the router was fine. Then I thought it was the card, but it seemed to be ok too.

I did the things that Linksys told me and Gateway, but nothing worked. I also tried suggestions that the people here had and still nothing worked.

I eventually did a whole recovery which didn‘t really bother me because this laptop is newer and so I had only installed two programs on it. I can now connect to the internet just fine.

We seem to have the same exact problem and also the same wireless card and router… hmmm….

 

First of all thanks for the advise. Unfortunately, it still doesn't work even after disabling the MAC filtering.

 

I am starting to strongly suspect that it is an incompatability between broadcom and linksys on a software level.

 

Yea, but he claims it used to work up until last week... thats really odd...

 

Yeah, that's what mine did too. It worked the first 2 or 3 days with my router then all of sudden stopped. Something must have gotten screwed up too since it didn't even work with my dad's router and it's not a Linksys (though his modem is).

I haven't had any problems with connection since I did that total system recovery a week ago.

I just wish I knew what caused it. If you do a Google search you'll see others with the same or simliar problem.

 

CWS,

Since the problem just popped out of nowhere, you may want to consider an OS reload. It could have been a driver/OS update that was taken that may be causing the problem. Also, it's possible a corrupt/missing driver file could cause this type of a problem. This is almost sounding like a software problem, but it's hard to say.

You can always try replacing the wireless card in the unit, or try using an external card (PCMCIA if you have one) and see if it works. If so, then its probably a issue with the card itself (the diag programs are not 100%).

-Vb-

 

Thanks Venombite and everyone else for the input. I am leaning toward the idea that it is a driver update problem - given the sysmptoms I think that is the most likely problem. I know that there is still a chance it is the card, but my limited experience says that it is almost always a driver incompatability when wierd problems like this pop up. I tried downloading a driver for the wireless card that was written by HP. This seems to have no affect on the problem. Therefore, I am contemplating an OS reload to go back to the original Broadcom driver that was working. The problem I have with this is, if it is the driver updating automatically, won't it just happen again?

Also, this may sound like a stupid question, but I try to stay away from Windows as much as possible, isn't it pretty much impossible these days to reload just the XP OS. Doesn't one have to do an entire system restore, essentially wiping out the other files on the hard disk. If that's the case it may be easier for me to just disable the internal wireless card and go buy something that actually works well. Any advise in this area would be greatly appreciated.

 

Well the only thing I can tell you is that my connection has still been great since I did the full system recovery 10 days ago which did put my laptop back like it was brand new.

Good luck with whatever you try, let us know what happens.

 

CWS,

You're welcome. Hopefully something here will resolve the problem.

It is possible to do a system reload especially if it's an HP notebook. I'm assuming it's one of their newer units and if ithat's the case, HP ships a full XP OS CD with the units. It doesn't have all the software that get's loaded, so you can perform a clean load. It also comes with a driver and application recovery CD/DVD to restore the drivers & software back to how it was on day one.

Regarding the OS reload, with the HP XP OS CD, you can reload the system without wiping it. When installing the OS, it'll give a repair option. Just select this and it will install the OS on top of itself without wiping your data (shouldn't, but just backup to be sure), but the only issue I can see with this method is that it will not repair/replace the drivers for your WiFi. This is a driver that is installed afterwards and is not part of the XP OS. I'd recommend a full wipe as this will eliminate a lot of problems as well as increase performance (if you're using the original OS load that came with your notebook when you bought it). All the HP apps/utils/drivers loaded and running in the background really kills performance. Just take a look at my product review for the nx8220. Checkout the tests I did between the original OS load and after a manual OS load. BIG improvement.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2397

The drivers should not be updating automatically unless it got the update from Microsoft's Update service. You can just disable automatic updates and you should be OK. Actually, if you took an update from Microsoft, this could have started the problems. I usually don't like taking the updates for drivers from Microsoft's site, I go to the actual manufacturer's site and get them directly.

To disable Automatic Updates just do the following:

Right click My Computer -> Properties -> Automatic Updates -> Turn Off Auto Updates & click OK.

I hope this helps resolve the problem. I do recommend doing a full system restore (wiping all data), but just make sure you backup everything before doing so. You can download the drivers online or you can just use the drivers located on the included HP CD's. The drivers & software are selective from the CD so you don't have to install everything.

Good luck!

-Vb-

 

I had just wrote a nice post for this and got and error, lost the info. so here is a short message.

Check all your user settings on this system and make sure that the configure wireless in all of them match your original router working settings. I just had this issue with my daughters laptop and after 36 hours it turned out to be DUH.... I had setup a connection on a non-administrator user which was selecting another signal for whatever reason......

Well that setting was locked into the broadcom and would not allow the administrator to change it. So check all the user setting's.

Another issue, long shot, easy to try, Microsoft autoupdate (WONDERFUL USE OF MY COMPUTER AS A RESEARCH TOOL FOR microsoft!) They have changed Network settings to the new Ipv6 (don't ask, I am not fully sure) It will slow a 100M connection to a crawl. Fix is to default back to Ipv4 by opening a command window and typing " Ipv6 uninstall"
Now I'm back to normal, could be a possible issue.

I bet it's the user issue. Good Luck.