I am fixing a laptop whose wireless adapter mysteriously uninstalled itself and I found this quirky fix and chuckled a little bit.
I’ve spent quite a while trying to figure this out because (like most of you) I believe the computer is a great minus the Powerup and absent Wireless Network Adapter issues. I’ve tried everything I can think of to get these issues to work and finally I decided to open my mind to ANY solution. I found what worked for me using what I call VooDoo Electronics which was prompted by one gentleman who literally uninstalled his motherboard and baked it in the oven for 8 minutes on 475… this apparently rewets and reseats the soldier joints on the board.
Steps to attempt my fix for the wireless network card detection (in any Operating System)
Items needed: 1) HP Laptop with wireless switch set to ON 2) A program that gets your video card hot… say (FurMark from oZone3D)
- Start up computer (if you can, see power-up procedure below).
- Download and install FurMark.
- Run the program until the temperature gauge tells you it’s hot (around 100C or more).
- Close the laptop lid to put the computer in hibernate mode.
- Open the laptop lid and come out of hibernation.
- Observe that auto-detection of the wireless card process commences.
- Operate your computer normally.
If this doesn’t work, try it one more time and make sure the switch is set to the ON position.
You will probably need to repeat this process as often as needed as this presumably heats the solder to the point that the contacts work again and will not present a permanent fix. This will probably also work for people playing games who lose wireless connectivity because their video card got too hot.
I actually do have a similar issue with my netbook where the touchpad connection is faulty and the only perma fix is to open it up and fix the wire connection. Known hardware issues seem to suck more than other ones.