Hardware Troubleshooting

Wireless networking hardware components are subject to the same kind of abuse and faulty installation as any other hardware component. Troubleshooting a suspected hardware problem should bring out the CompTIA A+ certified technician in you.

Open Windows Device Manager and check to see if there's an error or conflict with the wireless adapter. If you see a big yellow exclamation point or a red X next to the device, you have either a driver error or a resource conflict. Reinstall the device driver or manually reset the IRQ resources as needed.

If you don't see the device listed at all, it's possible that the device is not seated properly in its PCI slot, or not plugged all the way into its PC Card or USB slot. These problems are easy to fix. One thing to consider if you're using an older laptop and PC Card combination is that the wireless adapter may be a CardBus type of PC Card device. CardBus cards will not snap into a non-CardBus slot, even though both new and old cards are the same size. If your laptop is older than about five years, it may not support CardBus, meaning you need to get a different PC Card device. Or, if you've been looking for a reason to get a new laptop, now you have one!

NOTE As with all things computing, don't forget to do the standard PC troubleshooting thing and reboot the computer before you do any configuration or hardware changes!