unable to install wireless driver after recovery

[rebeltaz]

I have a Toshiba Satellite A205 that was dropped while running and the hard drive crashed. I replaced the hard drive and used the System Recovery discs that Toshiba sent me to restore the laptop to an out-of-the-box condition. Everything seems to be fine, except that the drivers for the wireless adapter are not installing correctly. Vista only sees it as an "Unknown Device" under "Other Devices" in the Device Manager. I tried installing the driver manually from the Toshiba web site, but it wouldn't take it; I tried letting Vista look on the Internet itself, through a LAN connection, to try and locate the drive but it reported that it couldn't find a driver...

Toshiba is telling me that the laptop has to be factory serviced for a defective wireless card, but I have trouble believing that since this same technician also told me that unless I updated DMRI, DRMI, DMI or something like that on the hard drive, then it "wouldn't accept all of the information written to it." I've been doing computers for twenty-five years and, unless I am missing something, I have never heard of such a thing!

Is there anything else that I am missing or that anyone knows that I am doing wrong? I already got paid for replacing the hard drive and restoring the system, so I am having to do this for free. I really need some help here. Thanks....

 

[flavallee]

Double-click the "Unknown Device" entry to open its properties window, then click the Details tab.

Look for a string that has DEV_ and VEN_ in it and has 4 characters after each one.

Advise what those 2 sets of characters are.

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I've worked on a couple of Toshiba Satellite A-model laptops, and they had an Atheros AR5005G wireless adapter, but that doesn't mean your laptop has the same one.

There also is the possibility that the wireless adapter got damaged when you dropped the laptop.

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[rebeltaz]

Atheros? They told me to download the Intel driver...

Anyway, I can't find the numbers you are asking for. On the Hardware IDs tab, it days:

USB/VID_08DA&PID_8197&REV_0200
USB/VID_08DA&PID_8197


Does that mean video on that unknown device?

 

[flavallee]

It should be in the "Details" tab.

Does that laptop have a built-in wireless adapter or a plug-in USB wireless adapter?

What's the entire model number of that laptop? A205 is just part of the number.

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[rebeltaz]

The wireless adapter is built-in.

Let's see .... Model number is PSAF3U-0NR00V

 

[flavallee]

Here is the Toshiba specifications site for that number.

The actual model number of that laptop is A205-S5804

If you look in the "Communications" section, it lists the wireless adapter as a Realtek 802.11b/g Wireless LAN

This appears to be the driver that you need.
(Click the "Downloads" tab, then select "Windows Vista - WiFi", then click "Realtek Wireless LAN Driver")

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[rebeltaz]

Thank you. That driver fixed it. I don't know why Toshiba told me that it was an Intel adapter... Thank you again!

 

[flavallee]