# Acer aspire laptop wireless card problems!



## artie86 (Sep 25, 2006)

hi there, i hope someone can help me out!

I've got an acer aspire 3690 running vista home basic (I know, I know, Vista is awful and should be discarded at once ...) and i'm having problems with the wireless card.

I've reinstalled the drivers for the broadcom wireless devices and in the device manager, it shows the card as installed and working correctly.

The problem i am having is that when i try to switch the wireless capablity on via the switch on the front of the laptop, a little green message pops up saying "No Wireless Device" so the card doesn't seem to be linked to the switch. I have reinstalled the acer launch manager which controls the all the buttons/toggles on the laptop but still to no avail.

Is there anything obvious I have missed?

Thanks in advance guys :up:

Artie


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

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

Under *Network adapters*, please tell me all the devices listed. Also, are there any devices anywhere in the Device Manager display with yellow *?* or *!* displayed?

I'd like to see this as well.

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

Type 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.


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

Is the installed wireless driver the latest from Acer's web site?


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## artie86 (Sep 25, 2006)

ok, got an update!

I eventually got round to installing XP on my laptop as i know my way around it much better than i do vista.

Still got a similar problem. The wireless card (broadcom) is showing in device manager as fully working, and the little broadcom diagnostic tool runs, and shows everything to be working properly. All the respective drivers have been downloaded from the Acer website, including the launch manager. When i try to switch the device on via the button on the front, all i get is a little green message at the bottom of the screen saying "no wireless device."

so it seems the card is working but it is not linked to the button on the front, at least thats my theory.

Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks for the help in advance!

Artie


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

You've answered my question, but let's try John's post #2 now. Even though you switched OSes it still applies.


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## artie86 (Sep 25, 2006)

hokey dokey...

Yes there are a few items in device manager with yellow question marks on them, one of which is a "PCI DEVICE" and under network adapters, the only one listed is the broadcom wireless device, and that is shown as functioning properly.

From the IP CONFIG command i get the following:

Windows ip configuration

Host name ... : artie-5eba07c8a
Primary DNS suffix ... : 
Node Type ... : Broadcast
IP Routing Enabled ... : No
WINS Proxy Enabled ... :No

Ethernet Adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Media State ... : Media Disconnected
Description ... : Broadcom 802.11g Network Adapter
Physical Address ... : 00-19-7E-A3-81-55

Any use?


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## Couriant (Mar 26, 2002)

Perhaps it's not seeing your wireless router, or whatever device its connected to. Do you have a wireless router? and if so, is it set to deny PCs except for MAC, or is the wireless connection on the router even enabled?


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## artie86 (Sep 25, 2006)

yep the router is fully up and running, there are 2 other devices connected to it wirelessly without a problem. Thanks for the suggestion though! :up:


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## Couriant (Mar 26, 2002)

and you do not have any access lists or rules to allow/deny pcs connecting wirelessly?


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## artie86 (Sep 25, 2006)

nope, the router is constantly dishing out a signal, just a WEP key that prevents anything connecting wirelessly. The laptop does connect through a USB wireless dongle, but just the internal one i'm having problems with


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## Couriant (Mar 26, 2002)

hmm I do recall if you have windows and a 3rd party program that usually is supplied for the connection can cause issues.

Can you go into View Wireless Networks?


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## artie86 (Sep 25, 2006)

yes i can, and i know that 3rd party connection managers/programs can cause problems, so i always disable them and use the Windows connection manager


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

Get all your chipset and other drivers from Acer's web site. If they give no explicit directions about installing them, install the chipset drivers first, and then the others.


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## artie86 (Sep 25, 2006)

ok done, still to no avail. Really struggling with this one guys, anyone got any ideas?


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

Still get Media Disconnected with ipconfig /all? If you try to 'view available networks' do you get a message or an indication that there is no wireless device (similar to the message you get when trying to switch it on)?


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## artie86 (Sep 25, 2006)

no that's the bizzare thing, I view available networks, it thinks for a while then says that there is no networks available. only when i flick the switch to turn the wireless card on do i get the message "no wireless device"

Also if i try to use the "wireless network setup wizard" it shows the broadcom adapter, but will not recognize it as active. I'm out of ideas! ARRGHHHHH!


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

Maybe the adapter has failed, or maybe it's loose. If it is accessible through a cover on the bottom carefully see if anything seems to need to be tightened. Before opening the cover unplug the AC, remove the battery, and hold the power button down for a few seconds.


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## artie86 (Sep 25, 2006)

I think the adapter has failed. have uninstalled the drivers, physically removed the card, restarted the laptop without the card inserted then re-installed the drivers only to have the same problem.

Any other ideas fellas?


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

I'm out of ideas, other than replacing the adapter.  Sorry.


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## ak4net (Apr 16, 2008)

Hi, still having this problem? I am having the same problem. I also contacted Acer and they just suggested downloading the latest software and drivers from Acer und install them. After installing the driver for the wireless network adapter I shoud reinstall the LaunchManager - i have done this several times without success. I also installed Vista on a empty harddisk (no Recovery - cause i am not having the CD/DVD and even if I had one, i wouldn't understand it - its a greek version, difficult language ;-)
Please tell me if you resolved the problem - thanks!


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## Darx_Sheep (Jun 23, 2008)

I too have attempted to gain a bit of usefulness from vista by blowing it away and installing XP only to find to my horror I have problems with the wireless broadcom.

Having checked there are drivers easily available I installed XP, I proceeded to install the wireless drivers obtained from acer europe support. Like a little bewdy it worked perfectly. I then went about installing and updating as I should. I downloaded the bios revision suggested by the support download page (as it was not vista I was to be using) and also the chipsst driver. I installed the firmware and restarted. At this point I did not pay any attention to what the wireless was doing and pressed on with the chipset install and restarted. At this point I realised the wireless was not connecting ! The device was installed and I could make changes to the config of the card but every time I attempt to use the Broadcom Wireless tray icon it informs me the radio needs to be switched on. After installing the launch manager and having the use of the front edge catch to enable the device it reports in nice green letters 'No Wireless Device'. I have tried the vista bios again to no avail.

Partially admitting defeat I rang acer support only to be told that despite the Acer 3690 having previously been shipped with XP, because mine was shipped with vista they refuse to help informing me I need to talk to 'software support' at a rate of 50p/min.

I Believe this to be the fault with the chipset driver rather than the bios as epower does not show me any wireless power setting to change.
From this experience alone, acer is now off my shopping list.

Has anyone got a solution to this or have I got to throw more money at acer ?


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## Darx_Sheep (Jun 23, 2008)

After many many moons of failed reinstallations of XP I have struck gold.
As yet I haven't actually nailed down the culpret but I have got the little blighter working.

*This is for an* *Acer Aspire 3690* *With a Broardcom 802bg onboard Wireless*

Where prompted, always reboot

Flash Bios with vista bios (wrong bios install can mean *death* to laptop but in this case this is the correct bios for any Aspire 3690)
ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_3690/vista/BIOS/BIOS.zip

Install xp; (I used XPsp2 integrated)
open device manager and 'update driver' by right clicking on the unknown network device (not ethernet). Don't connect to windows update, Install from Specific location, tick include this location... and point driver search at the deepest folder within the driver dir that is created when you extract the broadcom driver provided by Acer support 
ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebo...ess Lan Driver 802bg Broadcom Ver.4.2.2.7.zip

Repeat with ethernet;
ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_3690/driver/Lan Driver Broadcom 10-100 Ver.4.37.0.0.zip

Install Launch manager
ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_3690/driver/Acer Launch Manager Ver.1.17.1e.zip

Connect to Windows update after installing all prereqs such as installer 3.1 using your ethernet connection and you should see, as I did, a hardware update is available for Broadcom Networking. Reboot and disconnect Lan cable. At this point mine started working :up:.

I haven't installed any service packs or updates as yet or indeed any other of the available drivers. All I can say is keep an eye on what you install.

Hope it works for you.
Darxy out.
Peace.


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