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General discussion

Windows 7 shuts down WiFi facility. Why?

Nov 12, 2010 1:01PM PST

I am using a HP Pavilion DV3 note book, running on Windows 7 32 bit, which has WiFi facility. I also have a wireless broad band modem. Until recently, I could connect to Net without cable. Suddenly, Windows 7 has shut down the WiFi for reason that this appliance has reported a problem. There is no hint as to what is the problem. HP wireless Assistant shows that WiFi is disabled. Windows device manager allows enabling of WiFi. But, when I enabled it once, after sometime, it again got disabled. The broad band wireless modem seems Ok as its WLAN light is on. Therefore, the problem seems to be with the OS. What could be the reason? Can Cnet community please help me?

Discussion is locked

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Sorry for the delay.
Nov 29, 2010 1:30AM PST

I am stumped here because the error message is not one I've seen. But you write WLAN and Wifi which can be different things. A "broad band wireless modem" could be one of those cellular internet connection USB dongles and those are not managed by windows 7. Also, said connection should continue to work even when the wifi is disabled or off.

Then again I did come across a person that had a broadband card and it only worked (not really!) when the wifi was on. It turns out they were a little confused and not very technical to see that their broad band was not working and their connection was some neighbor's wifi.

Sorry but you have a mystery here clouded by missing messages and uncertain details.

But then again, if you can make it work, this IS THE MICROSOFT WAY! I'm finding folk to be less tolerant of glitches!
Bob

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Wlan shuttiing off
Nov 29, 2010 12:08PM PST

Dear Mr.R.Proffitt,

Thanks for your message. I am equally mystified by the shutting down of wirreless connection between the wireless modem and the notebook. Since last two days, it has again started working well, with no interference from me. Even as I write this reply, my notebook has wireless connection to modem which is a few feet away!

For your information, the broadband modem is not a USB dongle. It is connected to the telephone line (hardwired). Between the modem and the notebook, there is no wired connection.

Anyway, I am happy that it is now working well. But, this unpredictable behaviour is bothersome, as one would not know what to do when it happens next!

Thanks for your time.

Yours sincerely,
B.N.Gururaj,
India.

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Quite often this type of connection problem
Nov 30, 2010 7:44AM PST

can be fixed by simply switching the wireless modem/router off, counting to 10 and switching on again. This causes the modem/router hardware to reset and it's firmware to reload which resets any existing incompatable conditions that may occur from time to time. If your problem comes back, try this first.

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sometimes due to the mfg providing their own wifi utility
Nov 30, 2010 10:17AM PST

win7 has a built-in utility to handle your wifi connections nicely. but some manufacturers (like dell and hp) pre-install their own managers and they don't play nice with the win7 built-in manager. you typically have to use one or the other... if you try to enable/configure both, it's likely neither will work.