G73SW wireless problems.

Hi,

I just recieved my G73SW today, and I am having some major wireless issues.

My laptop isn't even acting like it has a wireless card. I don't see the 'wireless bars' typical on a laptop or wireless device, I only see the little monitor with a plug symbol on it like you do on non-wireless devices.

I've clicked on and off and on and off the Fn+F2 settings with F2 and through the taskbar, my little 'LAN tower' light up thing lights up and off when I mess with the F2...

I've checked the devices and drivers and such and the only thing I have seen that may seem off is some random Realtek LAN driver said it didn't have drivers, but I don't know if that is the problem.

I've troubleshooted, looked for a manual switch on the case, and done everything except uninstall stuff.

Should I uninstall the ASUS Wireless Connection 3 thing it came installed with and let Win7 take over or something?

I have a driver disk that came with the packaging, but I don't know if that'll help. I'm tired of pushing buttons that I don't know what they'll do or installing/uninstalling and having issues, so if anyone can give a definite answer that'd be awesome.

 

First thing, check in device manager if your wi-fi card is listed there. Under network adapters. It's probably an atheros ARxxxx wireless adapter. If it isn't listed, open the back panel and re-seat it. If you still don't see it try re-installing the drivers. The wireless console shouldn't cause problems, unless your wi-fi adapter is disabled of course .

 

Okay...Network Adapters...

I see...

Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller

...that doesn't sound like Atheros... >.>


Also, under 'other devices', and I'm not sure if this matters, but 'network controller' shows up with a yellow triangle exclaimation point sign and under the main device list thing, my laptop shows up as 'needing troubleshooting'.

What does all that mean?

 

It sounds like you need to reinstall your wireless driver.

I think it's azurewave that you have

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download G73Sw

 

That.

/10chars

 

Maybe you hit fn-f2 and turned it off by accident.

 

I don't understand why people even bother trolling in forums like these...

Anyway...

I connected my laptop to the internet with a cable and ASUS automatically updated a lot of stuff while I was searching for the correct drivers for my wireless problem...

I went ahead and used the azurewatch download, which shows up as the atheros driver, but whatever...

All I had done was download that, and ASUS was done with it's updates and told me to reboot, figured I'd mess with drivers after I saw if ASUS fixed it themselves...

No...they did not...

In fact, now my backlit keyboard is broken, my Power4Gear power management options are broken, and I still have no wireless...just bars...yay, bars...

EDIT: Pizza came, had to set the laptop down...

After closing it and then opening it again, not restarting it, the backlit keyboard is suddenly working again.

Also, when I restart the laptop the first thing that pops up on the desktop is 3 or 4 errors that say things like 'You must be on an ASUS to use that' or 'ATK 0100 must be installed'...

 

Reinstall the atk package.

Don't use asus live update - it's not good.

 

I'm unsure of where that driver is located at to uninstall it...

Also, I now have 3 network adaptors.

EDIT: The installer also has the uninstaller. I'm good.

 

Go to the page I linked earlier: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download G73Sw

Download the ATK package, the first time you should select remove/uninstall.

Then reboot and reinstall it. Should be gravy.

 

I'm not sure why, but I had already downloaded the ATK thing. Used that download, so far the other broken stuff is back to normal, but I'm still without wireless support, with 3 network adapters.

 

Hm, you should have a realtek adapter for wired ethernet, an azurewave/atheros adapter for wireless and maybe the other one is a miniport adapter. I have no idea since you didn't specify.

Make sure wireless console 3 has wireless enabled. If that doesn't do it, see if it shows up in start->run ncpa.cpl

If it doesn't show up it's hardware disabled, your next stop would be removing and reinstalling wireless console 3 and power4gear.

 

Ah, sorry, now I have...

Atheros Osprey Wireless Network Adapter
Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter
Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller

I reinstalled Wireless Console 3 before I installed what I thought was going to be the Azurewave stuff.

I can choose 'manually connect to a wireless network' now, but it still won't actually make a connection and still doesn't show any other wireless networks in the area.

I went to the ncpa thing and played around with the three things there, which were the three things I listed before, except the WiFi miniport and Atheros one have a red x on them.

I've also restarted the router and stuff.

 

It sounds like you have a problem connecting to your access point now, at least you have the driver installed.

If you haven't this time, completely uninstall and reinstall wireless console 3, not just a repair installation.

 

Even if it was the access point, I don't see how that could keep me from picking up the 17 other wireless connections floating around my house...

I un/installed the Wireless Console 3...still nothing...

I think I'm just doomed to never have wireless internet.

 

No the problem isn't your AP, I mean you at least have the device installed now and the problem is now connecting to your (or any) AP.

In terms of not seeing any access points, I'm not sure what the problem is based on what you've said. If you go to start->run services.msc
is wireless zero configuration enabled/running?

I'm confused as to how you got here - I suspect you removed some bloatware and something went awry, maybe you have disabled some services accidentally or maybe you did something with selective startup.

If it came messed up like this out of the box you might want to just wipe everything out with F9 as it boots to factory restore.

 

That should do the trick if all else fails, if you haven't installed much programs/games yet that's what i would do.

 

Well, after reading tons of guides on everything ASUS, I wanted to clean install Win7 and start from scratch, because then I would have no bloatware and could get a real feeling for my laptop...I had guides and crap galore, but I hadn't even gone online before I started the process because...it wasn't something I needed to do, and I had never had this problem before. Even my fossilized Dell laptop has wireless and it just isn't a problem I've ever had.

However... I was not aware that the XOTIC PC burned recovery DVD did not work with my model/laptop, and a big gigantic ERROR in red popped up, and locked up my laptop. My only recourse was F9 recovery partition, which I used, which gave me back control of my laptop in it's, supposed, factory state...which, did not have wireless working.

One thing I am thinking about and I don't know if it matters at all, but the wireless card I chose was a Bigfoot Networks Killer Wireless N 1102 card with no wireless accessories...and...maybe that was a bad choice. I have no idea where to look to see if that card is even in my system, I have no Bigfoot programs or devices on any listing in my laptop, and perhaps there is some driver malfunction or incompatability that no one has thought of. Under my laptop order, it's not like I see any other kind of wireless card or adapter or anything, so perhaps those things just aren't listed, or perhaps there is another conflict somewhere that the ASUS live-update did or that the recovery partition wasn't set up to account for, so when I did a fresh factory recovery, it didn't have the 'tweaks' that made it work in the first place.

I don't know, I thought I was doing everything right but that stupid recovery DVD from XOTIC set me down a terrible path.

 

Sounds like you're missing the driver. Reinstall it, and you should be good.

It's really not a big deal.

 

I wish the 'Banned!' under your username was true.

Anyway, to the nontrolls of this forum who helped me out so much, I really appreciate the time and effort you put into trying to help me.

I wasn't downloading random drivers because I am very timid in that regard, and it just did not occur to me to download the Bigfoot stuff, I have no idea why.

I have wireless now, though! I'm so happy! I suppose the Bigfoot driver wasn't on the partition.

Thank you all so much, take care.

 

Well, getting the drivers was the right thing to do. We just assumed you had the stock atheros wireless adapter that's why we told you to get the atheros drivers. Getting the bigfoot drivers was what you needed, the factory reset installed the atheros drivers.

I guess i should have asked if you had a different wireless adapter installed but it didn't occur to me at the time.