Acer WiFi button ?

Hi

I'm thinking of buying my first laptop an Acer Aspire 7520 and it has quick launch key for Wifi , Does anybody know if this key phisically turns off WiFi or just disables windows from working with it ?

Thanks

 

It just switch off your wifi connection.Every laptop have that button

 

I think it's just stopping the service that's enables you to use wifi. So nothing physical

 

it can be a pain some times, when you move your laptop you can press it by accident.
my WiFi button is on the left hand side edge.

 

It is physical (at least in some cases)- this button usually requires some additional software (i.e. Acer Launch Manager) and if you don't have it installed you can't use Wi-Fi.
All services are running all the time- it cannot be about services as you may use either WZC or whatever software your WiFi card producer provided- in each case there is a different service for that.

 

on my aspire 7110 i use the broadcom software as the WZC would keep droping connection every couple of hours and you had to open services and restart it.
with the broadcom i've had no trouble what so ever for three months.

 

Well I don't have launch manager installed here. The bluetooth and wifi buttons still work. the other two don't anymore. So It could be physical, but you don't need launch manager to use the buttons

 

Some laptops have a button or slider or bios settings to phisically turn off the power to the WiFi so it is completely off in the same way as removing the WiFi card and frees up the slot address , But others have a short cut key to disable WiFi in windows control panel in the same way that you can right click on WiFi and choose disable and all this does is stop windows from talking to the WiFi and from what i've read the card goes into a low power state but from time to time it will broadcast Wake on network packets to check if it is needed.

So it's not completely off and i wondered how Acer tend to control the WiFi on there laptops.

 

:yes: ...and Acer has a physical switch-all services are running, device manager shows the card (it's not disabled device) but it's powered off.

 

On the Acer Aspire 7520 the WiFi button is on the Easy-launch strip at the top next to the keys for email , bluetooth , Acer Arcade ect ect

So if the WiFi is disabled by this button i could reinstall windows or linux on a fresh formatted drive and WiFi would still be off until that button is activated again ?



.

 

This button won't work at all without Launch Manager installed.
This is not a mechanical switch so you need drivers to enable/disable Wi-Fi.
Anyways- on a new system you need to install this program before you can enable Wi-Fi so basically you can call it disabled by default on a new system

 

I tell you it worked on my machine without launch manager. Only the wifi and bluetooth button worked without launch manager. I did install the drivers for wifi and bleutooth, so maybe that's why they worked. The other to buttons didn't though.

 

It doesn't work on mine without the Launch Manager- meaning different machine, different situation...

 

hmm ... weird

 

Thanks for trying to help.

Does anybody have a direct Email Address to somebody in support at Acer as i sent a email a week ago via the webpage but no reply.

 

My question to Acer

"Does the WiFi button on the Easy-launch strip physically and permanently turn off the WiFi or does just it just disable it via windows control panel ?"

Acer Support Reply

"Hello, Thank you for contacting Acer. Regarding your enquiry, You can disable these within the device manager."

So there you have it , Acer support like every other support use selective reading and manage to twist a question and never answer it.

 

sjeesus, what an answer ...
if you're talking about useless

 

useless and to think i waited a week for that answer

 

I emailed them back and what a complete waste of time.

Acer support can't even tell the difference between something being completely off or being in standby.

My email back

"I don't want to disable the WiFi card on the Acer 7520 Gemstone i wish to completely turn it off."

Acer Reply

"To turn your wifi off, you will need to disable it in device manager"

 

A good answer would be: "To disable it, you gently push the wifi button on the top left of your laptop, To turn your wifi off, you need to rip the f****ng thing out of you laptop".

 

When you install the chipset driver of your notebook, the driver tells windows what each button is and some times windows can detect it by itself.
My Aspire 5920G worked alright without launch manager but I installed it anyway because I wanted to customise the buttons

 

Acer support could learn a lesson from fujitsu siemens as i emailed them today about a laptop and asked if the WiFi key was a windows short cut key or a hardware switch and they replied just over 3 hours later.

They understood what i was asking and pointed out that the WiFi switch on the laptop was a hardware based and would turn the WiFi on and off regardless of the software installed and to add to that they even sent a pic pointing to where the WiFi on/off slider was located on the laptop.