Laptop won't recognise its own wireless card

[Godotishere]

I have an Everex Stepnote XT5000T laptop. It has its own internal wireless card that has given me no trouble for a year. Then, one day, I wake up and I cannot access the internet on my laptop. I think I have narrowed down the problem to the card itself. I know the internet is ok because I am using it to write this, and I know there is something specifically wrong with my laptop because I live in an appartment complex where I should pick up at least 12 different signals, and I cant even find the window that shows all of the available wireless connections. I reformated my computer, and when i try to install the drivers for wlan from Everex's website, i get the pop up error: "The files you wish to remove will not be removed as the corrosponding card is not inserted." This is not a removable wireless card, it is the card that came installed in the laptop.

Any thoughts?

 

[Jorsoft]

Dumb question maybe but you've got your wireless switched ON, right? Sometimes people will bump the little switch or something and that can cause issues.

 

[Godotishere]

Lol, actually yes, I've checked several times.

On a side note, however, when I first got the laptop, I had that exact problem. I just could not get my wireless internet to work. Several days later, I was introduced to the wireless switch on the front of my computer. I promise i will never make that mistake again.

Any other ideas?

 

[Jorsoft]

This is another quick one, sometimes it can be disabled by the keyboard as well. On my laptop it's the Fn key + F8 to enable/disable the wifi card. The F8 key has a symbol like a radio tower with waves coming from it. Usually it's Fn+F8 or F10. I'd try that too.

I'd check your BIOS too and make sure wifi isn't disabled in there as I've seen that be the case as well. It's probably under Integrated Peripherals. If you can't find it then try resetting everything to defaults and see if that helps.

 

[Godotishere]

I appreciate the help, but no dice. I dont see another wireless on/off thing, not even for the fn button. Also, there is a symbol as you described it that turns on and off when i use the wireless switch, and it is on right now.

I didn't see anything in the bios whatsoever, pertaining to anything other than booting the computer and setting a password on the bios.

 

[Jorsoft]

I'm coming to a loss then honestly, the only other ting I can think of is either the card is bad or the connections somehow became unseated. Are you under warranty? Ever popped open a laptop before?

 

[Godotishere]

I don't think i am under warranty anymore. And, no, I have never popped open a laptop. I have a friend that is more qualified to do so than myself, so I'll have him come over and see if he can find any internal problem.

This, of course, is the diagnosis i was hoping to avoid, so let me throw some more info at you. If you dont mind.

1) This could just be my inability to do anything with networks, but I cannot access shared files on my desktop comp with my laptop, with or without an ethernet connection. I can connect to the internet through the connection, but not shared files.

2) When i install the wireless lan driver from everex's website, the nvidia logo splashes on screen. Is it possible that the wireless card is made by nvidia, or somehow related to my graphics card?

Thanks for your time and input! Im learning a lot.