T500 - Sudden Wireless Woes ("not installed?")

[Marked_0ne]

Just the other day, my wireless internet stopped working. It was from no physical damage or jarring, and I don't remember any particular event other than it wasn't working when I woke up on Tuesday. For reference, I've had my t500 for almost a year and the wireless adapter has worked flawlessly until now

I've tried countless things, from the obvious to less obvious and can't fix this:

1) wireless switch on front is definitely switched on

2) fn+f5 returns this message


3) I reinstalled the wireless drivers from the lenovo driver download page and reinstalled them (both a "modify/repair" install as well as a full remove and replace install) but this changed nothing

4) My device manager only seems to list the ethernet/lan port:

However when I select "show hidden devices" these all come up and they all appear to be in proper working order:



This is particularly important because all this week I'm at a place with only wireless internet (I'm using someone else's computer)
My wireless adapter appears to be in working condition but is for some reason disabled, powered off, or otherwise non-functioning. Anyone know what else I could try to fix this, its been a major hassle!

[Harryc]

What happens to wireless if you boot up a Linux Live CD. Like Linux Mint 8.0 ?

[Volker]

You don't have a wifi card driver loaded in the "show hidden devices" section. All that shows up is the Teefer2 miniport, which is part of the symantech firewall but does not talk to the actual hardware.

I'm pretty sure your wifi card died and you need it replaced. It might just be lose in its minipci socket, so if you are out of warranty I would start by checking that.

[emeraldgirl08]

I second Harry's comment. I'd try and keep some Live version of a Linux Ubuntu or Mint distro in case something like this happens again. That way you can continue to work in case something happens to your Windows partition. In fact I'll go out on a limb and say "everyone should carry some Live version of a Linux distro" just in case!

If there is still no wifi then Volker may be right about a loose or malfunctioning Wifi card.