The wifi device in my compaq v3218la completely dissappeared?

I think this might be too obvious but typically there is a little switch on the front of the laptop. You have to have it switched to ‘on’ for the wifi to work. Most people don’t even know about these switches until they accidentally hit them.

The Wi-fi in my Compaq just disapeared too. And no Bodyhead, it was not becasue the little switch on the front. It had disappeared completly from device manager – when the is was switched to off device manager would still show the device as part of the computer but marked as disabled.

Do you have a recent backup or restore point? Did you update the drivers? Do you have xp auto downloading and installing their updates? and if you do, have you learned your lesson?

@tWrex I doubt it is driver issue as if it was Windows would still recognise the fact there was hardware there – it would be an unrecognised device or if you were lucky unrecognised network device. If device manager can’t even see it you are fucked. (I did try a restore, I also tried a format and fresh install). To be honest I think HP are using low quality parts that can’t take the amount of use people get out of laptops these days.

@Lightlyseared I have seen drivers totally fry a device. Did it to a video card I had about 6 years ago. Still boggles my mind. Maybe the device was going anyways and it was just good timing. Eh.

Oh yeah and HP’s are the shit (and not in the good way). I have an HP dv9000z. Unusable as a laptop now. Why? Laptop hinge broke. $2000 laptop and a year out the hinge breaks. Thanks HP. And they won’t fix it either. Jagoffs. That’s why I got my new Macbook Pro. 6 months in and I still haven’t had an issue. And I know if I do, I just take it to the Apple Store and they fix it. Almost like a real business! I know there’s a site to show you how to fix the hinge, but I don’t have the tools to do it. I may have the patience, but I definitely don’t have the tools.

naaah, its not drivers, its not the switch, not even the software. the wifi device just dissappeared, i even opened the motherboard setup, when booting, and the damn thing doesn even appear as an option in the boot order screen.
I tried several antivirus programs just in case, but i didnt installed a thing, just been using the wifi, turned off and connected to cable, and the other day it was completely missing. Oh and the switch in the front doesnt even turn on the blue light. even when its not in windows.
Thats why i think maybe the circuit failed, a shortcircuit,... i dont know. but I definitively didnt hit the notebook, or drop it, or spilled something on it.

you’ve used it too much and the wifi chips are toast.

Yeah I’m gonna have to agree with @Lightlyseared. You could try to boot into Linux and see if it pops up under the devices there.

That’s actually a pretty good idea. Get a disk image (like knoppix, ubuntu live, etc) of some linux system. Boot into the live version (which won’t damage your data) and see if the wireless card is listed in the system info.

aha, thanks, i’ll try that. i dont know those softwares, but its a good start; i’ll check them, thanks!

manual, it may not recognize your card but it should at least be listed in the system info as an unknown device (kinda like the device driver place). If you have a relatively new laptop just look for your wireless card name somewhere in the ‘unknown’ information. Sometimes with laptops they will put the wireless brand and model data on the back of the laptop near the model number for the laptop (i.e. Realtek 8020b).

If you don’t see it when booting with one of these live cds, you may have a dead wireless card.

if you know how to grep through your dmesg you could see it real easy like…

dmesg | grep bcm
dmesg | grep b43
dmesg | grep prism

Not really sure what wireless card you have, but those should cover it.

dmesg | grep wl might be good too if it’s onboard/intel based

I unscrewed a little cover on the back of the notebook, and checked the brand of the chip in the little circuit there,... Its a broadcom chip, so surely its the defective circuit. but i cant do nothing about it, because i paid for warranty. so, the only thing left is to take the notebook to repair. hope its only that, being a modular constructed hardware surely the guys there will replace the little board and that’ll do.
...hope…
oh and ubuntu rocks.

so glad you liked it! one of the best os’ I’ve ever used. and I played with commodore64’s!

I have the same problem with a Compaq wifi light stays wont turn blue and can’t find device in the system directory. Its probly defective. ?

well i booted in ubuntu and the device doesn even exists. i guess component failure. and its so lame, because i have wifi in my place of work, but in home i don’t; so i bought a little wifi device so i can go to my backyard and be connected. well this lasted ONE week and the fucking thing died. So the only way is to call the support guys and ask them to fix it, warranty is running.
And by the way, i had a ZX Spectrum. and i’m thinking to paint the little rainbow on the corner of my laptop :p

If you know what you are doing it is not too difficult to replace the internal WiFi board yourself (they are pretty cheap and you can put an Intel one in which is better), but if it is under warranty get them to do it.

GUYS GUYS! i cant understand what just happened… I runned a few scans with Advanced Systemcare 3.01 and did a few things later…. and turned the notebook off,... i watched a movie,... did some stuff… and turned it on because i needed to look at mail… said that it found a new hardware, and suddendly the blue light was on and the icon in the tray reappeared… it asked the password for my network, i logged in and thats it, wifi again…
could be a virus or a trojan or something that maybe was fucking with my hardware?

Sounds like a long shot but you may want to start in safe mode and run some scans just to be safe.

naaaa it never worked again. so i sent the notebook to the service,... and they said they have to fix the motherboard and it wouldnt take long. next week, the inssurance guy called (the service must check all things with inssurance, i dont know why, my notebook is still on warranty) and this guy said they prefer to change the entire motherboard due to reported failures with that model… at least two weeks more.
meanwhile, im just waiting. :(
but,... when it comes to replace the motherboard, they shouldnt have to format it as long as it be the same model, right? i’ve never changed a motherboard before, so i dont know what will be the consequences for me when i have the notebook back… (i dont like the spanish version of windows, maybe if they format it, surely they install that one)

If it’s the exact same part they probably won’t format it. They might though. Maybe a format is company policy. A fresh install of windows will always boot. One that someone has been using for even a month won’t ALWAYS boot.

Good luck.