[Nevars]

I am having home network problems and one step suggested to me was to uninstall then reinstall the network adaptors on both of my computers.

My laptop was on the network via wireless. I tried to uninstall the wireless adpator but I think I uninstalled some associated software by mistake (there is a list of about 6 software items in each network adaptor properties, including TCP/IP IPV6 and IPV4 for example.) I then ended up with the wireless network adaptor disappearing completely.

The network adaptor "Local Area Connector" is still there, and under its properties I can see that TCP/IPIPV4 and IPV6 are still listed, but no other elements of software. I am now using an ethernet connection to my router to stay connected.

After losing the network adaptor, I rebooted in safe mode in case the system would be able to reinstall automatically and then rebooted normally. No wireless network adaptor. In case it was a driver problem, I went to the Dell website and reinstalled the right network driver for my XPS1530 laptop. That made no difference, still the wireless adaptor is not listed.

I then ran the Windows troubleshooter and managed to get a message "Intel(rR) WiFi Link 4965AGN adaptor is experiencing driver or hardware related problems".

Help please. As you can tell I know enough to be dangerous and not enough to be useful. What do I need to do to get my WiFI network adaptor back? Have I deleted software that other adaptors need as well?

[TheShooter93]

I tried to uninstall the wireless adpator...

Why are you trying to "get it back" if you were trying to uninstall it in the first place? Or am I misunderstanding?

Well, my first suggestion would be to try a System Restore once you've tried again to install the most recent drivers.

[Nevars]

Thanks,

I am trying to get it back because I want to continue to use my laptop WiFi and the network adaptor that I deleted is the WiFi adaptor. Currently, I can't use the WiFi card in my laptop.

As noted in my previous post, I was trying to fix a network glitch. Someone had suggested to uninstall and then reinstall my network adaptors. The network glitch was about "unknown devices" in my network map, between my computer and the router. There is no device there, but an "unknown device" was shown. However right now, I'd settle just to be able to use my WiFi. The network problem can wait until later.

Another way of looking at my current issue is that I have WiFi on my laptop but cannot use it because I can't access it. As noted in the earlier post, the windows network troubleshooter confirmed that there is some sort of problem, but does not tell me what.

Is it true that if the right WFi driver is installed and working, and the WiFI card is working okay, Windows should automatically recongise the WiFi and apply the driver?

What is a "System Restore"?

Nevars

[JohnWill]

What is System Restore


Hold the Windows key and press R, then type devmgmt.msc

Please respond to all the following steps.

1. Under Network adapters, please tell me all the devices listed.
2. Are there any devices under Network adapters that have a red x displayed?
3. Also, are there any devices anywhere in the Device Manager display with yellow ? or ! displayed?

It would be best if you could post a screen shot of Device Manager with the Network adapters and Other devices sections expanded.

To post a screen shot of the active window, hold the Alt key and press the PrtScn key. Open the Windows PAINT application and Paste the screen shot. You can then use PAINT to trim to suit, and save it as a JPG format file. To upload it to the forum, open the full reply window and use the Manage Attachments button to upload it here.



Let's see this as well.



Hold the Windows key and press R, then type CMD then press Enter to open a command prompt:

In the command prompt window that opens, type type the following command:

Note that there is a space before the /ALL, but there is NOT a space after the / in the following command.

IPCONFIG /ALL

Right click in the command window and choose Select All, then hit Enter to copy the contents to the clipboard.
Paste the results in a message here.

If you are on a machine with no network connection, use a floppy, USB disk, or a CD-RW disk to transfer a text file with the information to allow pasting it here.

[Nevars]

JohnWill and TheShooter93

Thank you very much for your trouble in replying. My adapter is back.

When attempting to uninstall - reinstall my Wifi network adaptor on my laptop, I had actually uninstalled several pieces of software including "Client for Microsoft Networks" from the adapter, before finally somehow deleting the adapter altogether.

Eventually I saw that although the LAC adapter (for my LAN connector) was still present and working okay the files that I had uninstalled were gone from it as well. For example "Client for Microsoft Networks" was no longer present in the properties for that adapter. I then saw that I could reinstall these items from within "Properties" box for the LAC adapter.

Once I had done that, I rebooted and the WiFi adapter was re-created and works fine.

All in all, just me being a novice and making a mess without having a clue what was happening.

Thank you very much for your time and help. It is nice to know that there is help out there. Every time I read a reply from someone, even if it doesn't solve my problem it does help me to dig deeper and to understand more.

Nevars

[JohnWill]

The object of the exercise was to get the machine working again.

Job done, thanks for the feedback.