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Question

wifi button on laptop broken

Mar 23, 2013 1:59PM PDT

I can't turn on wireless on my HP laptop (button fell off). Can't turn it on with FnF8 or in devices, or in networking. Is there some other place I can turn wireless on? Everything else is working fine on my computer, but it's toast if I can't get Internet.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
TRUE. THIS CAN HAPPEN. Why?
Mar 24, 2013 12:42PM PDT

The button doesn't directly turn on the wifi. There is some "helper application" that HP installs to respond to the button and turn it on.

You see this a lot after folk use a registry cleaner.

In closing I can't be any more specific since I can't fine the model number.
Bob

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Fixed wireless on my HP Pavilion dv2700
Mar 24, 2013 2:20PM PDT

Thank you for your reply Bob. It does appear that the helper application will work only if the switch is turned on. I decided to do something radical late this afternoon after trying everything I could find on the Internet for hours. I removed the screws on the bottom cover and pried open the area where the wireless button was and used a tiny screwdriver to push the switch to the on position. It took a while (after putting it back together) to get it to run, but I finally got to a start window that would let me load the OS and now it is working again.

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So this was a hardware failure?
Mar 24, 2013 3:54PM PDT

Good to see you worked around that. Please post model numbers in the future.
Bob