Issues with Broadcom 802.11 b/g WLAN adapter..?

[xerostrife]

Hello..

Sorry my first post is going to be a 'help me plz!!' post.. but I'm reaaally stumped.

I was downloading updates through Windows Update a few days ago.. and I selected a few of the drivers that appeared as options. Unfortunately, that was a mistake. My laptop worked fine for a short time before it froze on me.. and the next time I booted.. I could not find the Broadcom 802.11 b/g WLAN entry in the Local Area Connection (under Network Connections) that I usually have.

It does show up under the device manager .. and claims to be working properly.. but.. it really isn't. I can't view any nearby wireless connections at all.. so I really don't think it's a problem with my router or anything like that.

There's a switch at near the bottom of my laptop (where I also plug in my headphone and microphone) .. when my wireless connection works, it is a blue light. If it's off/disabled/not working.. it's an orange. When I switch it on/off right at startup.. it freezes the computer. (Not sure if that random info would help... but there you go.)

I tried reinstalling the original drivers that came with my computer many many.. MANY times. And I tried looking online for newer drivers from the HP site by looking up my model number and downloading/installing the driver... but nothing. When I do an 'ipconfig /all' .. the Broadcom doesn't show up at all. (So renewing/releasing doesn't work) I tried resetting BIOS settings as well.

I looked up the device in device manager and I can't even view my Device Instance ID. (Comes up as: ROOT\MS_PSCHEDMP\0000)

Some basic computer specs:
dv9005ca HP pavilion
Windows XP MCE
AMD Turion 64 x2

Anyways... any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

 

[JohnWill]

1. Open Device Manager.
2. View, Show Hidden Devices.
3. Uninstall ALL the drivers that appear in Network adapters.
4. Reboot and install the proper drivers.

NEVER update drivers from Windows update, this happens way too often for hardware drivers.

 

[xerostrife]

Uninstall all of the network adapters? Even the irrelevant ones? I'm afraid I wouldn't know how to re-install all of them if I did that. A list of everything under the Network Adapters .. if that helps. This is with all the hidden ones as well.

- 1394 Net Adapter
- Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN - Packet Scheduler Miniport
- Direct Parallel
- NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
- NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller - Packet Scheduler Miniport
- WAN Miniport (IP)
- WAN Miniport (IP) - Packet Scheduler Miniport
- WAN Miniport (L2TP)
- WAN Miniport (PPPOE)
- WAN Miniport (PPTP)

Anyways... I tried to remove the Broadcom one (in Safe Mode and normal mode) but it wouldn't let me. It said that it may be required to boot up the system.

And yeah.. if I ever get this fixed.. I'm definitely ignoring any driver update suggestions from WU.

 

[JohnWill]

The Packet Scheduler Miniport is used for alternative connections to network services, don't know what's going on here.


Let's make sure you're seeing all of the hidden devices.


Create a file with NOTEPAD containing the following lines and save it as FIX.REG

You should have 3 boxes on the bottom in NOTEPAD.
1)Filename : fix.reg
2)Save as type: all files
3)Encoding: ANSI
If you do not change it from txt type to All files type, then the file will actually be fixcd.reg.txt, this won't accomplish the desired result.

-------------------------- Use text after this line --------------------------------
REGEDIT4
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment]"DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES"="1"

-------------------------- Use text before this line --------------------------------

Double click on FIX.REG and say yes to the Merge Into Registry question.

Reboot, give me a screen shot of everything under Network adapters with View Hidden Devices enabled.


I suspect the Packet Scheduler Miniport devices are used for QoS on the connection. We are probably not seeing the phantom driver that actually has those drivers linked, maybe the above correction will help.



Next, one way to remove these things at times is to uninstall the network hardware associated with them, reboot, then install the network hardware.



Please do this.

Hold the Windows key and press R, then type CMD 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.
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.

 

[JohnWill]

The Packet Scheduler Miniport is used for alternative connections to network services, don't know what's going on here.


Let's make sure you're seeing all of the hidden devices.


Create a file with NOTEPAD containing the following lines and save it as FIX.REG

You should have 3 boxes on the bottom in NOTEPAD.
1)Filename : fix.reg
2)Save as type: all files
3)Encoding: ANSI
If you do not change it from txt type to All files type, then the file will actually be fixcd.reg.txt, this won't accomplish the desired result.

-------------------------- Use text after this line --------------------------------
REGEDIT4
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment]"DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES"="1"

-------------------------- Use text before this line --------------------------------

Double click on FIX.REG and say yes to the Merge Into Registry question.

Reboot, give me a screen shot of everything under Network adapters with View Hidden Devices enabled.


I suspect the Packet Scheduler Miniport devices are used for QoS on the connection. We are probably not seeing the phantom driver that actually has those drivers linked, maybe the above correction will help.



Next, one way to remove these things at times is to uninstall the network hardware associated with them, reboot, then install the network hardware.



Please do this.

Hold the Windows key and press R, then type CMD 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.
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.

 

[xerostrife]

Here's the screenshot of the first part of your instructions.

I was just wondering.. I checked out the path in the registry that you outlined in the reg file.. but I didn't see an entry for DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES"="1"

I'm not sure if that was supposed to hidden or anything... but thought I'd let you know.

Here's the ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : NOVA-L
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 3:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-16-36-C2-57-71

The NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller was always disconnected from what I remember... the first time I booted up my new laptop out of the box... it was already like that. I never connected through the internet using the nForce networking controller.. but through the Broadcom adapter I mentioned in my very first post.

Here is an old ipconfig I've done in the past to show you what it was like when my internet was functional.

Windows NT IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . : Kira.xx.xxxx.telus.net
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . : 154.11.129.59
154.11.129.187
Node Type . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
NetBIOS Scope ID. . . . . . :
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . : No
NetBIOS Resolution Uses DNS : No

Ethernet adapter {5A58B0A5-B885-435C-B86B-6C0E3C983A6B}:

Description . . . . . . . . : Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN - Packet Scheduler Miniport
Physical Address. . . . . . : 00-1A-73-02-5D-D9
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.101
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
Primary WINS Server . . . . :
Secondary WINS Server . . . :
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . : Mon, Jan 1 2007 3:09:30 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . : Tue, Jan 2 2007 3:09:30 AM

Ethernet adapter {8AE33C3E-AB8D-4E02-80C1-D60FEC5DD0FA}:

Description . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller - Packet Scheduler Miniport
Physical Address. . . . . . : 00-16-36-C2-57-71
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . :
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . :
Primary WINS Server . . . . :
Secondary WINS Server . . . :
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . :
Lease Expires . . . . . . . :

Also, I'm not sure how to go about in uninstalling the network hardware that you described. I don't suppose you mean through the device manager again do you?

Thanks for your replies!

 

[JohnWill]

I know that registry entry isn't there, that's the point. We want it to be there, which is the purpose of that script.


You first disable the networking adapters in the BIOS, then you can uninstall them when you show hidden devices.

 

[xerostrife]

lol No. I was saying that AFTER adding in reg.fix.. that entry still isn't there. Which is my point.. is it supposed to be there afterwards?

I only found one network-related entry in the BIOS.. which was already disabled... [see attachment]

and still.. it won't let me uninstall the Broadcom entry of the network adapters in the Device Manager.

I managed to uninstall:
- 1394 Net Adapter
- NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
- NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller - Packet Scheduler Miniport

 

[JohnWill]

It's odd that that is not working for me now. Something must have happened to my little script.

Create a file named FIX2.BAT with the following contents.


set DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES =1
cd\ %SystemRoot% \System32
start devmgmt.msc

This will open Device Manager with all the hidden devices shown. You can also add the variable DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1 to the system environment variables for it to be permanently enabled.

 

[xerostrife]

The .bat file seems to have worked. The device list is still exactly the same before. The 3 adapters I uninstalled before: - 1394 Net Adapter - NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller - NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller - Packet Scheduler Miniport ..seems to have reinstalled themselves when Windows detected them. But other than that.. I'm getting no luck with removing the Broadcom or the other ones.

 

[xerostrife]

A slightly new development...

I tried using the Recovery option from my laptop, which restored everything to its factory state (I hope)... and now I don't even see the

Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN - Packet Scheduler Miniport

entry under the Device Manager.. everything else that I listed above before is there.

Is it possible that it's a hardware problem now? I've tried opening up my laptop and removing and reinstalling the mini card... as well as reinstalling the broadcome drivers.. but nothing seems to be working.

[Edited] Found an article on the HP website that addressed the issue.. It is indeed a hardware problem and luckily my laptop is eligible for a free fix so I'm going to ship it out in a few days when the package arrives.

(http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c01087277#identify)

Thanks for all the help!