My laptop doesn't seem to be picking wireless

My laptop doesn't seem capable of picking up the wireless router that I normally use.

I was having internet problems a while back but it ended up sorting itself out.

On Monday, my internet was working fine then stopped working and I didn't switch the router off etc as I normally do, thinking to give it a night's rest before trying today.

So today rolls around, and it didn't work. I tried switching the router and everything off, taking some wires out back in again but no joy.

When I use the laptop in my bedroom and not in the loft, it picks up a wifi signal and works fine. But even today, it didn't pick up a signal. When I tried a wired connection, worked fine. Removed the wire and the wifi on, still didn't work even though I was set next to the router. I try searching wireless networks and nothing comes up.

I use a Netgear router and in the midst of trying to resolve it, it came up with a Aestheros? router?

But anyways, I'm on the verge of smashing my laptop to pieces so before I do that. Anyone help me please?

 

Go to Device Manager, ask if you don't know how, and open the network section with the plus sign. Right click on your wireless adapter and select properties. Under eith power or advanced you should see a checkbox associated with the option to allow Windows to turn off the device to conserve power. Uncheck this box and apply/ok your way back out. Re-boot and see what happens.

 

If you could let me know how to do that, would be appreciated.

My internet seems to be working OK today; I can find my router in the manage my connections box. But if you can advise me on the steps above just incase it happens again.

Thank you.

 

Hi,
As Jay is off-line at the moment ....

To access Device Manager:
Start > type in ....devmgmt.msc ......ENTER [ assumes Vista / Win7 ]
Start > Run ..... for XP

Click the + next to Network Adapters ..... follow Jay's post from here

 

Thanks Jay and Ben!

Will keep that jotted down somewhere for next time if it happens again!

 

Thanks, KenB.

This fix is really more for a system that will connect wirelessly but drops the connection after 20-30 minutes needing a re-boot to re-connect. Personally I believe but cannot prove that it is faulty code in the wireless drivers that fails to report to the system that the device is indeed in use.

Even if the fix does not solve your issue it won't hurt and will likely make your wireless more reliable. The time to apply this settings change is not when/if the issue returns but before the next time you are going to re-start or power down the system.