HP tx1000z Wireless Issues

Hello. My sister has a tx1000z, and she, oddly enough, has been having issues about one month after her warranty expired. HP's Wireless Manager doesn't see the card, and neither does Vista's Device Manager. Here's the steps I've taken...

1. Update drivers (worked shortly)
I installed the newest version of the drivers. Oddly enough, I never came to a confirmation screen. Instead, one day (many days later), it decided to say that the Broadcomm drivers were done installing, and it worked for a few hours until it stopped working.

2. Reformat/Reinstall Vista
I used the recovery partition to reformat and reinstall. Very strangely, the wireless didn't work until I installed the Broadcomm drivers, and then, it suddenly showed up in Device Manager, where it was not before. This worked for a few days, but today, HP's wireless manager, yet again, shows only the Bluetooth connection.

So right now, I'm debating whether it's a software problem or a hardware problem. The card seems to be in pretty tight, and clearly, it's not 100% dead. I'm starting to lean towards the hardware side. One thing is for sure: I'm not paying $300 to get this fixed!

And yes, I updated the BIOS.

... hmmm that's odd. I restarted and it started to work again. Darn this inconsistency.

 

Same thing happened to me, different HP computer model. Make sure is not under their extended recall because of hardware problems. Check their website to see if your model # is covered.

 

$300?!

It costs under $50 for a replacement WLAN b/g minicard and 2 mins to install it

 

Yeah I know. But I'm not entirely sure if the card was to blame.

And those antennae are so hard to pry off.

 

Sounds like your card is half dead.

Its quite easy to remove the antenna connectors. You just need the right tools (tweezers, needlenose pliers). I actually did it all just with my fingers.

 

your suffering from the broadcom amd issue. Your motherboard needs to be replaced not the card. I had a tx1000z and had the same problem. It should be covered under the hp recall.

 

The TX tablets isnt under the hp recall/enhanced warranty service

 

Sigh, I was fearing that. And HP mobos tend to be REALLY expensive too. I dunno what I can do now. It's on and off really.

But then again, if it's not covered in the enhanced warranty program, then does that mean that it might not be the problem?

And I read of HP trying to get the most money out of their customers by not mentioning the warranty program. Honestly, I'm disappointed.

 

If it isn't covered, it ought to be. It has the same problematic NVIDIA chipset that the covered notebooks do. HP has wisely switched to AMD (ATI) chipsets for the current models.

 

I just checked, it's not. Well, I'm not sure what she'll want to do now.

 

I have been having these same problems starting back in summer '08. It has progressively gotten worse. It was exactly how you were saying, where it wouldn't be working, then you would do something, then it would work for like a day or three, then the next morning it wouldnt work, and now, it just plain old dosent work. I have tried numerous solutions and had others who are very knowledgeable in this field try to help me. Im dissapointed HP is not recalling this notebook. huge failure on their part, and sorry to say but they just lost a customer.

I'd say do some research and find a new laptop that wont die after barely a yar and a half of low impact use.