wireless enable/disable via BIOS

[jaystarter]

Trying to get a wireless connection to a HP Compaq DC7800 ultra slim. I have spent all morning surfing HP website,googling etc and I have exhausted all tips and tricks and suspect the wireless adaptor in the PC is faulty altough it shows OK in device manager. The thing is it came from an office environment and I wonder if something has been set by an administrator. I thought I'd have a look in the BIOS but this is password protected. So the only question I would like to eliminate now is whether there would be a setting in the BIOS to prevent wireless connection? In which case I would try and contact the office for the password. Also although there is an ethernet connector only wifi card shows in device manager and connecting a cable to this direct from the router does nothing.

[John Gray]

Personally I have never seen anything in the BIOS of a PC or laptop dealing with wireless, if for no better reason that wireless usually implies an add-in card, and so the BIOS wouldn't know if one had been added in or not!

[stuck]

Trying to get a wireless connection to a HP Compaq DC7800 ultra slim. I have spent all morning surfing HP website,googling etc and I have exhausted all tips and tricks and suspect the wireless adaptor in the PC is faulty altough it shows OK in device manager. The thing is it came from an office environment and I wonder if something has been set by an administrator. I thought I'd have a look in the BIOS but this is password protected. So the only question I would like to eliminate now is whether there would be a setting in the BIOS to prevent wireless connection? In which case I would try and contact the office for the password. Also although there is an ethernet connector only wifi card shows in device manager and connecting a cable to this direct from the router does nothing.

Have you considered that the laptop's wireless may have been set to something other than the default wireless channel, because in an office environment the default (usually 11 I think) might be a bit crowded and thus it's not listening to what ever your router is transmitting?

Ken

[jaystarter]

I have tried moving it nearer to the router now and It can see the broadcast signal but even with it placed a couple of feet from the router the signal is very weak only 1 bar so seems to struggle to connect. I dont really know what Im doing so might have to give up on this, I did try a ipconfig which returned the attached maybe someone can get a clue from this?

[stuck]

If the laptop worked fine in an office environment, where it is reasonable to assume it was more than a couple of feet from the router but it doesn't work in it's new location then it sounds like a configuration problem not a hardware failure.

Are you sure the network being detected by the laptop is the one being transmitted by the router? Does the name of the network (the SSID) shown at only 1 bar match the name of the network on the router? It could be that the one bar network is a router in a separate building.

I've set my router to hide its SSID but I did that only after my children's laptops had connected to it, i.e. had the necessary WPA key in place, for the first time. When my eldest son got a smart phone we had to reveal the SSID again to enable the phone to find the router. Once it had made the connection We could hide the SSID again.

Ken

[jonwallace]

A quick pirate here. I used to hide my SSID then I read this. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/28653/de ... re-secure/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and this http://www.tomschaefer.org/web/wordpress/?p=1610" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; . I now use a combination of a really strong WPA key and MAC filtering. (and I'm not sure about the MAC filtering...)

To go back to the problem. Check the channel numbers being used in the router and the PC. I fell foul of this when I set my router to the extremely empty channel 13, only to find that this channel is used in the UK but few other places, and my equipment (PS3 I think) doesn't link to 13.

[stuck]

Perhaps I should have made it clearer, I don't hide my SSID for security reasons because hiding the SSID provides no security. It only means your average neighbour doesn't know you've got a wireless network because it isn't listed on their laptops as a faint signal.

Your more than average neighbour will have the gear necessary to sniff out wireless traffic regardless of whether or not you've hidden your SSID. You keep those sort of people out with a strong WPA/WPA2 key. You can get a unique/random key from Gibson Research.

Ken

[StuartR]

It's a pleasure to eavesdrop on such well informed security discussion.

[jaystarter]

I decided that the built in wireless card with no visable external aerial - uses the case as the aerial - and receives a weak signal. tried a USB wireless dongle and can connect OK. Problem sort of solved. I know there is an intergrated NIC on the motherboard from the ethernet plug in at the rear and had a look inside the case to make sure. yet this doesn't appear in device manager, so I revert back to the original question. Could this be disabled in the BIOS so that it doesn't show?

[jonwallace]

It's entirely possible... I've just reread the thread and realised we're talking about a desktop PC not a laptop (BAD posters!!). In which case try removing the bios battery for a couple of minutes and see if that resets the bios to defaults. Or just have a look here...

[BobH]

Many BIOS setup menus have an option to reset the defaults. Setup can usually be accessed by pressing one of the F keys - it varies by maker - during startup

[jonwallace]

I think Jeff mentioned that the BIOS was password protected, so I decided to concentrate on getting round that.

[jaystarter]

I think Jeff mentioned that the BIOS was password protected, so I decided to concentrate on getting round that.

And thank you for the links because from that I bit the bullet and re-set the BIOS password, was able to find NETWORK CONTROLLER DEVICE -DEVICE HIDDEN. Changed that to DEVICE AVAILABLE and it now shows in device manager with the yellow exclamation mark indicating a bad driver. I have tried downloading and updating various drivers but so far no luck but at least a bit of progress.

[BobH]

Sometimes the information returned by BelArc Advisor helps identify hardware which sometimes helps in searching for drivers, FWIW. In case you have never used it, BelArc is a free download.

HP seem to have used components from different makers in machines of the same model. You might use setup to display all your system information including model and serial number IDs which might help in finding drivers. Again, FWIW.

[jaystarter]

I did manage to glean quite a bit of info off the computer and trawled the HP support/downloads and tried various drivers to no avail. I ended up in their "live chat" and the helpfull assistant directed me to download links but these turned out to be the drivers I'd already tried. So gave up. Then surprise at the end of the working day I had a phone call from HP (had to fill out some personal details including phone number to use chat) asking was I satisfied with the way HP had dealt with my problem. I explained yes but it didn't resolve the problem. WHOA!! "in that case we will send you the relevant discs for XP PRO with HP drivers and utilities for that model by express delivery so that you can do a clean install if you wish" Result...just wish I'd said I prefered windows 7 if possible LOL.

[BobH]

The tech who fixed my laptop had trouble finding some of the drivers for devices on the HP 530. We eventually found them all. He has drivers regained on thumb drives to make installing them faster. He probably does reinstalls dozens of times a month. He does screen responses at warp speed

Let us know how you get along with the drivers. It might not be too late to get HP to ship Win7 versions.

[jaystarter]

Just to close this out, at 9am this morning a fedex express delivery arrived from HP. HP restore Plus DVD, Supplementary software HP backup and recovery manager CD, operating system CD for Windows XP Professional SP2. And a Corel WinDVD CD. Whatever happens I can't faul HP for service here. The delivery was sent from France incedentley.