Wireless LAN indicates it's off no matter what

Compaq CQ50-103nr Laptop running Windows Vista Home Premium.

You can see the Wireless User Guide here. My understanding is that the wireless light is orange when the wireless adapter is disabled and blue when enabled. If I press the wireless button, it turns blue for about a half second and back to orange.

I have loaded the drivers furnished by Compaq and I have no exclamation points in Device Manager.

My guess is the wireless adapter is kaput; but, before I spend any money, I would like to know what others here might know about this that I might not.

The power button for this laptop is at center top of the keyboard and the wireless button is just a half-inch to the right of it. It has the wireless symbol on it, lit in orange and it finds no network although I do have a working wireless router on which another laptop here is currently working.

 

Unfortunately, a non-working wireless adapter and a wireless light which is permanently amber is a widespread fault with HP & Compaq laptops (Google Search brings up loads of forum posts to prove how widespread it is). My grandaughter's packed up on her Compaq last year and it defied all attempts by me to fix it so I bought her a plug-in USB wireless adapter which solved the problem.

In my daughter's case, the built-in wireless adapter wasn't even listed in Device Manager, which means it isn't even being detected, which usually means the device has failed. Your Device Manager is probably not listing it either (hence no errors are shown).

If the laptop is still under warranty, HP will repair it free of charge (or at least that is what I read on the various forums last year).

 

pip22 right on the money...

 

It is listed in Device Manager and Device Manager says it is working properly.

I found a new replacement wireless adapter on e-bay for $4.99 and a used one for $2.49 (both with free shipping); I just now ordered the new one. I was reasonably certain the adapter was bad; but, I wanted a second opinion before ordering and waiting a week for it to get here from the west coast.

There are now some USB wireless adapters available so small you don't have to remove them to put the laptop in a case. I would use one of those; but, I don't want to sacrifice a USB port. Sometimes I need all three ports.