wireless worked before, now it doesn't

I received a custom Gateway laptop as a gift which didn't come with software. I don't know the exact model number of the laptop (and no i cant find it anywhere on the laptop). It came with Vista and I installed XP on it. First thing I did was install intel wireless drivers for 4965AGN which it has, and i got internet up and running within a minute which worked great.

Since I didn't have driver cds or software, I went on the hunt for drivers I could download and install to get everything working (all done via wireless). I ended up installing the mainboard drivers from Gateway for the T-series (cpuid identified the mainboard as T-series). Things were installing, got the USB up, webcam, etc. It didn't install things like Bluetooth or the fingerprint reader. After installing though, the wireless seems to have completely been killed. I can do a search for networks in the area and I can see them, but I can't even connect to my own. It says something like "signal may be out of range. Try connecting again." (paraphrasing), even though it has full signal since I'm right next to it.

It didn't work for awhile until I left it alone for awhile and then installed drivers for the intel 4 express chipset media accelerator drivers. It worked again for a minute or two up until the point I restarted to finish the installation. Now it doesn't work again...

Does anybody know what is going on? I uninstalled the drivers for the wireless and reinstalled them again numerous times but that didn't change anything... I'm thinking of just reformatting and reinstalling windows again since I don't see a system restore point that was before I installed those mainboard drivers...

 

There might be a model/serial number listed in the BIOS.

I imagine you corrupted some drivers while installing others, especially if those drivers weren't compatible with your laptop. When a laptop comes with Vista, there's a very good chance that there aren't any XP drivers available. I recommend going back to Vista. You might want to do some Googling to see if Gateway supplies a restore partition on their laptops, and see what key combination is necessary during boot to enter it.

 

Reset the Windows Protocol stack. Google this you'll find how to do that.

 

hmm yea I just confirmed it again (from a fresh install of XP)

Here's exactly what I did:

1) install XP
2) installed SP2
3) installed intel 4series express media accelerator drivers downloaded directly from intel (win2k_xp1437.exe)
4) installed drivers for the 4965agn 802.11n wireless also downloaded directly from intel (12.1.2.0_X_Drivers.zip; WORKED ABSOLUTELY GREAT)
5) installed the intel GM45 chipset drivers again downloaded directly from intel (infinst_autol.exe)

After the restart from installing #5, the wireless was killed. I can see all the networks around me, but I can't connect to any of them. Previously I tried resetting the ip stack and that didn't do anything either.

So apparently there is something in the GM45 chipset drivers package that doesn't agree with the 4965agn drivers, but what that is I dunno, because that driver package enables the use of usb and all sorts of other stuff...

 

Start with the chipset install first from scratch, then install all peripherals after. The chipset install might overwrite the config needed to make your wireless work.

 

hmm nope that didn't seem to work. I just started from a fresh install again, and this time installed the chipset drivers first, then the wireless. And it's a no go.

I did a system restore to befor the chipset install and installed the wireless first and it's working again.

Things in the "other devices" in the device manager are:

Ethernet Controller
Mass Storage Controller
PCI Device
SM Bus Controller
two USB controllers
and three Unknown Devices.

After I install the GM45 chipset stuff, bluetooth, the fingerprint reader, and the webcam are all detected, but only the webcam is working since I don't have the drivers for the bluetooth or fingerprint reader yet. Ethernet Controller doesn't seem to be installed. But even before restarting, even while still connected to my router, I can't access the internet anymore. Once I restart, I'm bound to not be able to even connect to my router anymore.

No idea what the GM45 drivers installed, but I had the device manager list open while installing, and noticed something popped up into the network devices section, but disappeared soon after...

 

"signal may be out of range" message seems to me the OS can talk with the WIFI card. Installing the chipset drivers sort of indicates that the data interface between OS and WIFI card is somehow messed up. I assume there are no hardware conflicts in the hardware manager, same as interrupt conflicts? (resource tab)

Try NetStumbler (wardrive tool) as a WIFI network scanner - does it show the same networks?

 

Nope I don't see any hardware conflicts within the network devices or controllers or anything...

I used NetStumbler and it sees the same 11 AP's that the Windows wireless thing sees. It disabled the Windows Zero Configuration thing before running. Could that possibly have anything to do with it not working after installing the chipset drivers?

 

Has Gateway a driver set for the intel wireless? The 4965AGN card is prolly not the factory installed card. Check the BIOS revision, is there an update? If so what do the release notes say? Thread carefully with BIOS upgrades..

 

Yup that's right, the person I received this from said they put in the 4965agn themselves. I'm not sure about Gateway, but the drivers i downloaded were direct from intel.

 

Do the mainboard drivers from Gateway - T-series come in flavours? Any chance on a mismatch there?

 

hmm I don't believe so. I think the T-series only had one download, which I believe is probably the same as the one I dl'ed from intel since it has the same intel installation wizard