Wifi drivers broken and cannot reinstall (Intel 4965AGN)

[jo2008]

Hi,

I'm having trouble with my WiFi drivers of the Intel 4965AGN. The network adapter does not show up in Fn-F5 menu anymore and is probably software deactivated, because it does not search or list any wireless networks anymore.

Here's what I did:
While fiddling with Windows 7 because of some network sharing issues, I saw that there were newer drivers for the WiFi card available (14.03 from Lenovo). So I installed that but noticed that the driver version in the device manager did not go up to that version but was stuck at 13.4. Also other driver versions (older ones from Lenovo, other ones directly from Intel) did not change the installed driver version.

So I deinstalled the driver and ticked the box "delete driver" so that maybe the new version would be found then. That didn't work, but made matters worse because the WiFi adapter did not work ever since.
Symptoms are:
- Does not show up in Fn-F5 menu
- Does not list WiFi networks
- Driver software says that no adapter was found
- Device manager entry is there and without error

I was finally able to install another (older) driver, but with no better outcome. Right now, in the device manager, it shows up without errors as "Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN", driver version is now 12.4.1.4..

I tried
- reinstalling the driver package (several versions)
- deleting the driver files from WIN\system32\drivers
- uninstalling the drivers while in Safe mode
- reinstalling drivers with/without intel software.
- Reinstalling the lenovo power management drivers.
all with no luck.

My guess is that for some reason the association between the network adapter and lenovo drivers (for Fn-F5) is broken and that it is merely a software issue.


Out of ideas.. cable-bound.. desperate for good tips and greatful for your help,

Jo

[taichi]

Just out of curiosity, have you gone into your BIOS and looked to see if you might not have inadvertently (through the driver install/uninstall) disabled the card in BIOS?

[ajkula66]

I've never had this happen under W7 but have seen it (with Intel cards only) many a times in XP...with various final outcomes...

This is going to be somewhat of a blind leading the blind, but I'd uninstall Access Connections along with every single driver for the wireless card to the point of yellow question mark in Device Manager, then would physically remove the card, re-insert it and start from scratch.

Good luck.

[jo2008]

Thank you for your feedback.

I've also never had issues with the Intel drivers.. they have been updated quite often after all. Don't know what was different now.

I uninstalled all power manager stuff, the hotkey driver and the wifi drivers. After restarting MS Office wanted to activate itself due to a hardware change (wtf).
Now, I can't even see the wireless card in the device manager. Not even a device with questionmark.

Will open up the Thinkpad on the weekend to rip the card out. Then reinstall the Lenovo stuff according to the clean install guide and then put the card back in.

Jo

[taichi]

Did you ever check the BIOS to see if the card was disabled?