Detect Wireless but can't connect

[Laurent Fontana]

Hello !

I've a HP Pavilion ze4298 with a Mini-PCI LAN Express 802.11b.

I've reinstalled my PC (with XP Home) and now, I' can't connect to my Linksys router.
With an other Laptop (IBM Thinkpad), it works without problems.

When I want to connect, I see my WLAN, but when I want to connect, it doesn't work it never get connected.

Any Idea ?

Thanks a lot
Laurent

(Sorry for my poor english, I speak better french or german...)

[Ernest Ford · Accepted solution]

Laurent,

Do you have any form of security configured on your wireless network? The most common cause of the symptom you describe is an incorrect WEP or WPA configuration on the newly reloaded laptop.

[Laurent Fontana]

hello

thanks for your answer !

I doesn't have WEP or WPA installed.
I have made a reset for the linksys (factory settings) and a new installation on the Laptop.

From other PC, it works without problem.
I've try to install a PCMCIA 802.11 (DLink) on the Laptop, then it works...

I Think, that the Mini-PCI Card doesn't work anymore...

Laurent

[Rich S]

HI Laurent,

It looks like you have the problem solved. 99% of the time it's a configuration problem and usually not a hardware problem. I'm glad you figured it out.



Rich

[Laurent Fontana]

Hello

Yes-No, the problem is corrected, but not solved :-)

I use now a PCMCIA Card, witch works.
The Mini-PCI Wireless Card don't work anymore.

I think, that the LAN Express card has a problem..

Laurent

[Jorge Pinto Leite]

Hi Laurent

It seems that the Mini-PCI LAN Express is not working...

Is it well configured in Device Manager? Is it activated?

Good luck
Jorge

[Laurent Fontana]

Hi Jorge

Yes, no problem in Device Manager and activated. The Mini-PCI Card can also detect my wireless LAN but can't connect to it.. Very strange.

I'll try tomorrow with an other router..

Laurent

[Ernest Ford]

Laurent,

WindowsXP sometimes does strange things when the ip stack becomes corrupted - see this knowledgebase article from Microsoft - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;299357 - also, if your problem relates to connecting to a local server, you need to be aware that Microsoft deliberately removed some network support features from XP home to prevent it being used in a corporate environment.

[omaJohn]

I've got two HP Mini laptops my users have had trouble with (Mini 5102 with Atom N470 1.83ghz) that use the Intel 1000 WLAN card.

1. They CAN see the wireless access point.
2. They CAN connect and communicate back and forth enough to ask me for the security information
3. Countless other machines can connect to the access point in question without trouble.
4. I HAVE turned off the OS being able to turn off the card for power consumption reasons.
5. I HAVE made sure the wireless is on, via the button on the front, with the blue light visible.
6. I HAVE (this one is particularly stressed) re-typed the security information literally about 25 times. There is no typo, it's not the wrong key, there's no configuration problem at all. I've connected with a number of other HP laptops that aren't minis without incident. It looks like an issue either with the card handling encryption (either type) or with the card accepting a DHCP configuration from the server. I can't come up with a good way to test one vs the other. I always end up with something like this:
Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.133.247
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0

The machine doesn't have any updates it wants to do, HP's site doesn't show any new drivers for the card, nor does Windows Update. The Wireless Access point did show updates, which I did (even though no other computers have trouble) and the Minis still can't connect.

Very, very aggrivating. Any help would be great.