My son was home from college one weekend and while having fun with his sisters and friends, my wife used his computer. Everything was fine until my son suddenly remembered that he had homework assignments to be completed for classes the next day. Yeah, I did the same thing but he’s supposed to be better than me so he did get the usual finger pointing and the “why did you wait until the last minute for this” talk. Then as ear splitting as could be, “who used my computer” blasted into the air. My poor wife, terrified that she was the last one and may have done something wrong, timidly asked. “what’s wrong, honey?”.
“Can’t seem to go anywhere, this thing’s not working”. He replied with a mix of desperation, anger and somewhere deep in there, regret.
“I used it but everything was fine. I was able to do what I wanted and everything was ok. What’s wrong now?” my wife explained. I’m listening to all of this hoping not to hear the dreadful question. “Honey, did you use Junior’s computer?” Now you can’t possibly win situations like this. Our house is very wired. When everyone’s home, there are 3 laptops, 3 desktops, 2 iPhones and 1 blackberry all connected to the my measly wifi connection. For the most part, my laptop is off limits to everyone but that works for about a 10th of the time. My two little girls who hate when I call them my 2 little girls, don’t have computers and have to use somebody else’s or the main “family” desktop which is in the family’s office. You can imagine the frustration of being stuck in a room working, playing, etc.
Instinctively, they responded that they didn’t use the computer and they were using mine or were using the desktop. Oh, did I tell you that this was happening as I am about to leave for church? Oh yeah. So I’m now fully dressed, my son’s waiting on his computer to do his assignment, he refuses to use mine for whatever reason and I have to get the thing up and running.
Problem: No WiFi
Well the first thing he told me was that he can’t get a wifi connection. Then he mentions that there’s a blue wi-fi indicator on near the select button near the touch pad. Normally when the computer is turned on it comes on and stays on unless turned off with the wifi switch at the left side of the computer. It was not visible which meant it was not on. Next to the WiFi indicator is a switch which actually turns it on and off. Flipping the switch did nothing.
Mind you, we did get a connection when the it was wired into the network. This told me that the culprit was the wifi “radio” as they call it. On researching, I found that the wifi interface that was being used was the Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG, a very popular device used in many laptops. To get to it one needed only remove the back panel that hides the hard drive. The wifi interface was connected to the mini PCI-Express connector.
On checking to see where I could buy the device, I found it to be quite inexpensive. At compuvest.com it was listed at $11.50 for a refurbished model. I saw various prices and offerings on E-bay. I think we bought it from a seller on ebay and didn’t pay more than $20 with shipping. Paying keen attention to the connectors, it was easy to replace and on flipping the WiFi switch, the light came on and the connection was reestablished.
So here’s the recap when you don’t have a connection:
1. Check your wifi light. If its on, most likely your wifi radio is fine. If not proceed.
2. Turn the wifi switch on and off. If it does not come on after flipping the switch, proceed
3. Remove the back panel of the laptop where the WiFi connector would be. Make sure you check your computer’s manual if you’re not sure.
4. I was fortunate to have another computer’s WiFi radio so I was able to use it and test to make sure it was the device. If you have this facility,
5. Gently unscrew the radio from the connector and remove it from the PCI express connector and replace it.
Interestingly enough, this is also your chance for upgrading your radio if its only 802.11 A/B/G. You can upgrade to 802.11 N but it would be a little trickier and would need some additional things to do such as software upgrades.
As usual, let me know your thoughts.
So its Cyber Monday when folks are trying to buy stuff they’ve been looking at in stores. Its the day when you try to get all your electronics and other deals online with the hope of saving even more money than what you saw on Black Friday. Before you pull out the credit/debit card you should be aware of a few tips on shopping. I’m sure you must have heard some of them but hear me out. You might see something you might have missed and as the saying goes, you can’t be secure enough.
