Anyone good with laptops?

[hail2theskins3]

I have a Gateway 7410 notebook that I bought 4-5 years ago. I've never had any problems with it but now it won't connect to wireless internet. Everyone in my family has notebooks and can connect to our wireless internet but mine can pick up the wireless signal but won't connect. When I click repair it goes through all the steps but then stops when trying to renew the IP address. Anyone know what the problem is? Any help would be appreciated.

[GibbsFactor]

Sounds like you need to put the encryption back in.

[Capt Rich Fla]

You want to look at porn! Don't you? DON'T YOU?!:D

[Larry]

Could be lots of things.

One thing to try is to see if it will connect to other wireless sites.

Take the thing to some local hot spot. (Starbucks or whatever). And see if it will connect there. If it does, then you know that all of the hardware is good. (Odds are, it is, because you can see the local router. But it's a quick test.)

[Baculus]

Did you check the wireless switch to ensure it was turned on, if you have one on this laptop?

http://support.gateway.com/s/software/microsof/vista/7515418/7515418su505.shtml

Edit: NVM, I just realized you said you can receive the wireless signal. Duh.

Larry's advice is good - see if you can connect to any open, unencrypted wireless networks. Also, I assume that you have your network as a profile in your wireless configuration software - I would advise to delete this and to recreate it, ensuring you reenter any security key.

Also, are you using the Microsoft wireless zero configuration utility, or a third party one? And is this an onboard wireless device, or a PCMCIA card?

[hail2theskins3]

Thanks for the help but nothing seems to be working. I tried to hook it straight into our internet source but not even that worked. I'm pretty sure something pretty serious is wrong with it. It's about time for a new notebook anyway :)

[swisha]

Thanks for the help but nothing seems to be working. I tried to hook it straight into our internet source but not even that worked. I'm pretty sure something pretty serious is wrong with it. It's about time for a new notebook anyway :)

Did it ask for you enter a encryption key when you attempt connect to it? You might want to try turning off your Router/WAP and wait 15-30 seconds and turn it back on. I know you said other people can connect to it, but some wireless routers are weird like that and just needs a reset.

The other thing could be it is out of IP addresses to assign which is why it fails at "obtaining an IP address..." If you can, log into your router and check that there are enough IP addresses for everyone.


BTW, was your laptop ever successfully connected before?

[Larry]

Hey, there's lots of things that it could be that are a whole lot cheaper than a new laptop.

For example, for a while there (around 2 years ago) I saw a bunch of computers where somehow the Norton Firewall got set to disable all access by IE. After the first few times I spent a bunch of time figuring it out, it became one of the things I checked for.

I'm assuming when you mean "straight to out internet source", you mean "I cabled it directly to my internet modem via Ethernet"?

(If so, there may be some things to consider. Here in my town, if you use Cox internet access, you have to:
a) Disconnect whatever's connected to the cable modem.
b) Disconnect power from the cable modem
c) Wait 2 minutes
d) Restore power to the cable modem
e) Wait 2 minutes
f) Connect the new device to the cable modem

If you don't do things that way, then Cox will refuse to issue the new device a DHCP configuration.

But still, it's a good test. If you're using an Ethernet connection, then you're eliminating the wireless NIC, all of the wireless security, and IP configuration that's specific to the NIC (like IP addresses, DHCP, and firewalls).

[HOF44]

If all elese fails and you are about to junk the laptop download and install Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/) as your operating system and see if that works. Linux is great for older machines.

[Larry]

Actually, if you want to run a test . . .

Download and create a Linux "Live CD". That's a bootable CD that contains Linux. Boot from that CD, and see if you can use your wireless.

If it works, then you know it's a software problem.

If it doesn't work, it doesn't necessarily tell you much. It could just indicate that the Live CD you made doesn't recognize your wireless NIC, for example.

But it's a quick, cheap, non-destructive test.

[Baculus]

Thanks for the help but nothing seems to be working. I tried to hook it straight into our internet source but not even that worked. I'm pretty sure something pretty serious is wrong with it. It's about time for a new notebook anyway :)

When you did that, assuming you directly connected via an Ethernet cable, was it continually attempting to obtain an IP address? Did you have a networking icon with a red "X"? Also, have you attempted to repair the connection via Start > Control Panel > Network Connections, right-clicking the local area network icon and selecting "Repair"? What happens after you attempt that?

Further yet - when you attempt to browse the internet, have you attempted different web pages, such as google.com, etc.?

I doubt if both your wireless and wired on board network devices are going to fail, so bar a protocol-related issue, it is probably something resolvable that is being overlooked.

Let me ask you this - have you seen anything that may indicate a virus, such as random browser pop-ups?

[motorhead]

You might want to try this.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811259

[.Guy.]

Try reinstalling the wifi driver.