[junkowski]

I just spent the last several days trying to find the solution on this site to getting my wireless connection back. I could not find the solution, so I'm trying this post.

I re-installed Windows XP Home on my Dell Inspiron 700m because the system was getting way too slow to be useful. I did msconfig and turned off what i thought might be safe to turn off, but that only improved performance slightly.
Anyway, after re-installing windows, the system is spunky again, but the previously working wireless no longer seems to work. The Windows Help told me to go to Network Connections and "click the wireless network connection icon". Unfortunately, like the other folks, the icon on my system is missing.

As instructed to other folks, I went to Device Manager and I found that everything under Other Devices had a yellow question mark or exclamation point. I went to Properties on some of these devices and the message said "The drivers for this device are not installed (Code 28)". I then went to Dell Support to see if I can find the drivers for my wireless modem. I got some files but when i clicked on the Reinstall Driver button, it said it could not find the drivers.

I opened the command line and typed "ipconfig /all" but nothing came up. All it said was "Windows IP Configuration".

So now I'm lost. Not sure what to do next. Check the modems physical connection? Any assistance would be much appreciated.

[Borzi]

From what you've explained, you didn't reinstall XP with the disc that came with it eh? In order for the relevant hardware in your computer to work, you need the drivers that allow XP to communicate with them. Stock standard XP only comes with some drivers, newer hardware thus probably won't be covered, hence, your wireless card is one instance for which XP doesn't have the driver. This gives you three choices, reinstall using the Dell disc (usually filled with a bunch of useless programs but will have the necessary drivers/config for your laptop), you can go to the relevant dell support site for your laptop here ---> http://supportapj.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=au&cs=audhs1&l=en&s=dhs&ServiceTag=&SystemID=INS_PNT_PM_ 700M&os=WW1&osl=en&catid=&impid=
and download the drivers and install them as needed (you can identify which you need from device manager). Or you can just upgrade to a new operating system like Windows 7 (hey, it's pretty damn good) although, upgrading may still not solve your driver issues and they may still need to be downloaded.

[sijugk]

In order to bring back the wireless network icon ,you need to install the wireless adapter driver on your computer. It is available in the CD which came with the adapter.

[junkowski]

unfortunately, i could only find 1 operating system cd and several application cd's. my older dell 8200 has a drivers/utilities cd but this was before wireless cards were built into laptops.

[junkowski]

yeah, this is where i went to get the drivers. and it looks like i've got a heartbeat. the intel pro wireless 2200 seems to have done the trick. it's alive!

thanks for confirming i had my nose in the right place.