I have an HP Pavilion notebook and my wireless is GONE after Internet Explorer 8 update.

Just recently updated last night to IE 8 and after the reboot they asked me to do I find that my wireless assistant and even the wireless device listed in the hardware components are missing. All that's left right now and I'm using is my notebook still able to do ethernet.

Reinstalling the wireless BIOS isn't working out. What else can I do?

 

IE8 should not disable any hardware. Any chance you have a wireless switch on your laptop that turned it off?

Also, you say HP Pavillion, but did not mention the model number.

There was a very large number of HP models with known heat problem that manifested itself as the wireless adapter disappearing followed by a complete motherboard meltdown.

HP chose to address this in two ways--first, there was a BIOS update (that essentially underclocked you gpu) which prevented the aforementioned meltdown, and they had a "quiet" warranty repair where you sent in your laptop and they replaced the motherboard. I know two people who got new motherboards this way.

Sounds like that could be your problem.

 

Sorry, had it originally in the title but forgot to put the name in again. It's the HP dv6000z. I've check to make sure the switch isn't off and it's still missing from my Network Adapters under Device Manager.

 

The dv6000 is definitely one the mentioned notebooks with this problem, but I don't know if the dv6000 Z is included.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01087277&lc=en&cc=us

Is the Z version a non-us product?

Go to the link above and check your model number with the additional model specific info

Sounds for all the world like you are one of those impacted by this

 

Yes, it was bought from hp.com a few years ago. Unfortunately, it's not covered by warranty anymore. The bios is up to date according to the link you gave me but I guess the only thing left is to see how much it'll cost to have it repaired.

 

The "Z" designation indicates that the notebook in question uses an AMD processor.

Going back to the issue, the wireless problem seems to be rampant for this particular generation of HP notebooks. The best solution that I could think of is to get your own wireless USB or PC card adapter and use that instead since it might be pretty expensive to get the internal one replaced.

 

Please note the link I provided is for the EXTENDED Warranty, which was added on to the original warranty. The EXTENDED warranty exceeded the original warranty for this problem and perhaps it still applies.

Justin,

Thanks for that....never knew what the Z was for

 

install ur wifi driver again or use system restore ,
N.B. google chrome much better

 

ARGH! How did this problem happen? Anyways, I'll look into the wireless USB and PC card adapter. But where's a good site and product to start?

 

Poor design. You should take a shot at seeing if you can talk _HP into replacing the motherboard and the wireless if your system is indeed one of those with the problem described.