Acer Aspire 5935G: No Wireless

I'm in the UK and just received this laptop today as a gift. It was not brand new but quite new. I was warned that maybe the wireless isn't working.

I've run the recovery partition. Win 7 64 bit Home Premium.

The Wireless Networks icon always has a red X. Other wireless devices are working fine.

In Device Manager everything looks correct: Reported to be a
Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card.
However on the Acer drivers page the two WLAN offerings are both Intel

Service & Support

Wireless LAN Intel Wireless LAN Driver (5100/5300/5150/5350) 12.4.1.11 4.8 MB 2009/10/21

OR


Wireless LAN Intel Wireless LAN Driver (CondorPeak) 12.5.0.59 7.1 MB 2009/10/23

I guess the second is correct ?

I played around and at one point the router was detected but no connection after trying the password.

I rebooted ... now Dell again and I can't remember/ reproduce the steps that helped. Red X. Everything else appears to work.

Anyone had this issue ? Do I need a new WLAN card ? Different drivers ?
Would I need to buy a PCI express wireless card thingy ?

I'm totally STUCK

Stevie

 

Have you tried pressing the wireless LAN communication button/indicator? (Left hand side of keyboard)

 

Hi, I've never used Acer before (always had HP or Dell).

The left side wireless button toggles between off (no light) and on (yellow light). It is on. The icon next to the clock has a red X with the hover text of 'Not connected - No connections are available'. In this house we have 5 laptops (mixed brands) connected. The router has no advanced security enabled (i.e. MAC allow/deny list).

Acer UK support page seems to be low on content.
Are those two WLAN drivers listed above relevant ?

 

Whooooa

Wind back a bit here : It would be useful to ask your kind gift giver the history of the wireless problem.

You said in your first post that Device manager thinks the wireless card is a Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card. Who knows, maybe it is. this device is the right size, has the same connector etc . . but what is it doing in an Acer Laptop ?

Second, If it is indeed the Dell card it uses a broadcom chipset, so actually neither of the two drivers you mention above would be 'right'

BUT: Is it really a dell card ?

You could open up the flap on the bottom of the laptop and look for clues - take a photo if it is just a mass of numbers. You should see a small card like this http://cgi.ebay.com/DELL-1390-MINI-PCI-E-WIFI-CARD-E1505-E1705-1525-M1330-/220568044091 with two aerial wires going to it.

Next step - actually the same whatever the answer. Go to device manager, uninstall the driver, remove the device and reboot.

Next step: windows may identify the 'new' device and install a driver it. Cool
Or if it was the dell card head over to dell support, get a driver for a 1525 studio 1535 or similar that uses this card and is for your OS. Otherwise see what happens if you try to install both the two acer drivers above - generally the driver installer objects if if can't find the device and is being asked to overwrite anything.

Let us know

 

Thank you very much. I like to help out on forums but laptop problems aren't my field at all.
The card:

Imageshack - trashb.jpg

I uninstalled the driver, restarted and Win 7 Home Premium detected the 1390 and installed OK.

I have to go for a flight but later I think I'll try the Dell driver from Dell but my first quick check suggests that Win 7 installed the latest Dell driver anyway.

I'm thinking the device/ connector may be faulty. The person who gave it to me received it from an employee of Acer and said Wireless was ok but my friend never had success.

Otherwise it is a very nice machine.


PS: Would it be a challenge to replace the card ?

 

It won't be just unscrew the card and remove it thats it. Otherwise check laptopvideo2go forums for the latest broadcom drivers I did that and my wireless works great and doesn't cut out.

 

Ah Thanks for the picture. As you will also have worked out it is definitely a dell card taking a vacation in acer land.

Worth having a go at making it work . . W7 probably installed the right drivers so it should be ok really. If not then assuming the wireless switch is on what do you see in the system tray or if you run network diagnostics?

Alternative approach as you said you had several laptops in the house is to swap the card in another (ideally Acer) over. The only things to watch out for in removing /replacing are easing the two antenna plugs out (carefully) and not losing the fixing screws when working in the 'pit'. Then just unplug the card from the socket and swap.

Final point in your photo - it goes a bit out of focus at the top but the two antenna wires are actually connected to the two card sockets aren't they ??

 

Damn, you are right. At least one is not connected- one connector is visibly free and the white antenna wire looks like it's not connected to anything.

 

SUCCESS !!!!

Bruboo - maximum credit to you.

And indeed each reply was very useful.

I didn't have access to a toolkit yesterday but when I sat the Acer right on top of a wireless router: there was a faint and working signal (to my surprise). Surfing was possible. Moving a very short distance stopped the fun.

I bought a computer toolset this morning, connected a loose cable [exactly as advised] and bingo.

What I didn't mention is that I'm now planning to give this almost new machine to my girlfriend as she has a truly ancient Win ME laptop and deserves something better.
I'll be thinking of you guys when she thanks me

AM

PS What I learnt is that there are still many great people will to lend their expertise to strangers, AND having an image for troubleshooting these things is priceless.

 

Oh excellent

Pleased to have helped and thanks for telling me it did. (I hate it when it just goes quiet )

Enjoy

B