FW190 - Think my internal WiFi card died did it?

Specs:
Vaio FW190 (purchased November 2008)
X-Brite HiColor Screen (1600x900)
320GB Scorpio Black 7200rpm HD
3GB RAM
Windows XP
Clean of viruses and bugs.

I have a FW190, my internet works fine when plugged in, but nothing when wireless. When I hover over the Intel PROSet Wireless Utility, it says, “No supported WiFi adapters available in the system.”

Yes, the wireless switch is on … but the “on” light does not go on. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the Intel PROSet Wireless Utility, and installed the newest update on the Sony drivers site.

I have disabled and repaired the wireless connection. I have deleted the wireless card from my system and rebooted forcing Windows to find and install it again. I have done everything I can think of except reinstalling Windows.

Under device manager, the WiFi card shows up, “Intel(R) WiFi Link 5100 AGN” as working properly.

If it shows up under device manager does that mean it’s a software thing? Or is it probably dead since the wireless switch “on” light does not go on? The system basically seems to think it’s disabled because when I tried to force a new connection, it said the Intel Wireless Card (I forget the exact phrasing) was disabled.

I think I have a one year warranty, and this was purchased in November of 2008, so it should still be covered. Is the WiFi built into the motherboard? If so that might mean a whole new machine if they cover even it. Blah, anyone have any ideas? I’m planning to contact Sony tomorrow after work. I could always buy a Express Card wireless adapter, but this just annoys me, breaks 6 months in, errr.

Thanks for any advice.

 

If you search at the FW owner's forum I believe there are some posts about similar issues with that card which were solved by some drivers downloadable at the Intel site.

BTW Did your computer come with that hard drive or did you install it afterwards? I didn't think you could get that large of a 7200rpm drive in the FW190 model -- later models, yes, but the 190 I thought only came with 200GB and was tested only for that.

This might become an issue if you send in the computer for repair -- I don't know if Sony considers a warranty to be violated by the installation of hardware by other than Sony or a Sony-authorized technician.

 

I installed the Hard Drive myself. It was a software issue, but I don't know how. I installed the original HDD that came with the laptop (and Vista) and the wireless worked. I ended up formatting and reinstalling Windows XP and it works again.

I still don't know what caused the problem, or how to fix it without formatting. Either way I didn't have to send it back to Sony, which was good.

 

Glad to hear that it all worked out.