Reformatted laptop, now can't find network adapter.

Hey guys, I reformatted my computer last night(alienware m17x r2), I tried booting it up today, and for some reason it can't find my network adapter, i have gone in my device manager etc, and i have tried to download the drivers off the alienware website, and still no dice. Anyone have a similar story but with a solution ? help would be greatly appreciated!

thanks

 

Did you install the lan driver first?

 

I might have, not really sure anymore, does it make a difference? Which order should it be in?

 

just to cover all bases.. are you sure you hit the wifi button and that it's powered on?

i had a similar issue with the webcam, it just wasn't showing up in the device manager.. and then i realized there was a webcam button.. had to turn it on in order to install the drivers
hopefully your situation is as simple as that..

 

Happened to me the other day. The atheros ethernet driver wasn't installed with Alien respawn disk in my case. I had to goto another computer and use a usb, however the usb drivers weren't installed either...
I got lucky because my old windows 7 install was on my original hard drive ( I switched to ssd ) and all I had to do was point the driver scan to C:/Windows and they all fixed themselves.

 

How will i notice if the wifi button is on or not?

Thanks for the help =D

How do I know which Ethernet driver I need? Is it the same as yours(atheros)?? I wish I would have done that haha, I'll definitely do it this time that's for sure!

Thanks buddy really appreciate it!

 

top right of your keyboard there should be a light up panel showing volume controls, etc, there's one that looks like an antenna with signal waves right above the "home" key

 

Oh yeh, I've tried hitting that, thought you were maybe talking of a different one that I've never seen before=( haha

 

I think it matters...both Dell and this link provide the order in which to install the drivers.

 

Thanks I'll try it out! Also, How do I know which is which ?? I'm a complete idiot when it comes to this

 

Here is another link that may help...
Alienware M17x R3: Initial Drivers Installation | Dell

 

Did you open and execute the drivers after you downloaded them?

And what do you mean when you say you have "tried" to download the drivers?

Do. Or do not There is no try.... Yoda

 

I had a similar prob with the FPR on my M6600, I had to follow the install order that dell recommended to fix my prob. I am so used to Windows finding a temp driver to get it to work until you get the correct one.

 

I did execute all network drivers available on the dell website, and none of em have worked, tried to install em in the order it says and its a no go aswell =(

 

Ok, follow my steps to find the drivers needed.

Type in Device manager on your start bar and open it
Your network adapter or anything else without drivers will be under a tab and I forget what its called, "Other devices" sounds familiar.

You're going to right click on one, (You'll likely have multiple things without drivers)
Hit properties
Goto the details tab
Then to Hardware ID
Often times it will show multiple ids but the last one will suffice, simply copy it with a right click and paste it into google.

If for some reason the Dell website hasn't delivered the correct driver for your device this is your starting point.

 

Again, to make sure we are on the same page, you downloaded the driver on the drivers page for your computer (not the drivers that are on the link that I sent you, but the drivers that you found when you entered your service tag number on the Dell Driver Support page), then when they were downloaded, you executed each one, then when it opened, you went into the folder where it unzipped and executed the setup file..and ran the setup for each and every driver starting with the chipset drivers. Is that correct?

 

Just try this:

Go to Device Manager
Go to Network devices
Right click on the nVidia Ethernet controller // Hit Properties.
Go to the Advanced Tab.
Disable the option that says "DEVICE SLEEP ON DISCONNECT"
Reboot and and it should be fine!

Hope it helps

 

So i looked at the hardware id's, looked online but couldnt find much

here is what it says, are these drivers that i need also ??
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_422B&SUBSYS_11018086&REV_35
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_422B&SUBSYS_11018086
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_422B&CC_028000
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_422B&CC_0280

 

Did you try my suggestion? Didn't it work?

 

nope, no network devices are found yet, only network controller with a yellow exclamation mark on it.

 

I didnt have the chance to do it in order, i reformatted my computer again and ill do it tonight after work! thanks again for the help

 

Anyway this is the wireless driver that you need to install.
If it does not start an installation navigate to:
C:/dell//drivers//R242648// and run setup.exe.

 

If that's the one I think it is, I've already run it and it didn't work =(

 

Nope it isn't, I'll try it out tmrw afternoon after work' thanks a lot buddy

 

That is the one that I found with the HW ID's that you provided, it is the 6300. If it does not work then you can do it manually. Just go to device manager, look for the one with the exclamation mark, right click it, go to properties, driver, update, browse my computer, browse to C://Dell//Drivers//R242648 and select the .ini file and go next and it should do the update on it's own.

 

That worked!! Thanks a million for your help!!

Thanks to everyone else! Really appreciate it guys

 

Glad you found a solution

 

Awesome! haha I'm glad that you got that solved