[SOLVED] Laptop dosent detect its wireless card as a wireless card

[jamie_983]

ive recently baught an old laptop and hoped to refurbish it and give it to my son, all was going well, but after i installed Vista home premium i noticed i can not connect to the internet via wireless.
The command to turn n the wireless card is FN and F10 and when i do this the light for wifi turns on but vista detects it as an unrecognisable usb device.
after searching a bit i found the right wireless driver, but it still dosent work.
its an E-system (or ei system) 4213 and has a Ralink wireless card i think.
even after installing drivers for it it still dosent detect the card as what it is. does anyone now why this is or can anyone offer any advice?

[johnwill]

I suspect that the utility that enables the wireless function is not loaded, and it may not even be available for Vista. You should load the O/S that was originally installed and visit the manufacturer's website for the drivers and utilities.

[jamie_983]

Thanks for the quick reply.
The laptop originally came with the same operating system, the reason for installing it again was because the OS was corrupt and wouldn't allow access to the laptop.
unfortunately there wasn't a manufacture website but i was told there made by Dixon's,i found a website where the drivers were available, but this is still no use, after installing them the wireless card still isn't detected as a wireless card.
Ive installed numerous drivers from the site which seem to work though, and i have also BIOS flashed the laptop, and reinstalled the driver after, still with no luck.

[alpenadiver]

Has the wi-fi card ever work, it may be dead. If the laptop has a PCMCIA slot I would look into getting a wi-fi card.

[jamie_983]

Yeah the laptops wireless card has always worked and still turns on with the right command, but is detected as unrecognizable

[alpenadiver]

Have you been here: http://www.ralinktech.com/ralink/Hom...t/Windows.html

[BCCOMP]

Hi,
Here is a link to all your drivers:
http://support.thetechguys.com/layout.aspx?ID={abd5d58c-d36d-4558-b893-1bd75cd161b1}&CatID={c1a47e9a-c8f2-4521-9ed2-6cfb27333fc2}

Uninstall the wireless driver you have installed in both Add/Remove programs and in the Device Manager. Install the Ralink Driver from the link posted above.

Let us know if it installs.

Thanks,
Bill

[jamie_983]

Alpenadiver thank you for the link i have yet to visit that site, do you now what i would need to download from there?.

And Bccomp I have used the drivers from that site but it only installs the software, when i move my mouse over the icon on the dock it says Ralink wireless LAN card not exist.

any more ideas?.
thanks.

[alpenadiver]

Does device manager show the model of your wireless card

[jamie_983]

Device manager shows no recognition of the wireless card, just the LAN Ethernet controller

[johnwill]

If nothing shows up in Device Manager, even under "Other devices", the wireless card is disabled in the BIOS, loose in it's socket under the laptop, or dead.

[jamie_983]

Well it's definitely not dead because it's still detected when i press the command to turn on the card, so i think you could be right about the BIOS.
how do i go about enabling it in the BIOS?.
thanks for the help.

[johnwill]

Well, you enter the BIOS setup and look for the option to enable/disable the wireless.

[jamie_983]

sorry i sounded a bit stupid there!, i should of mentioned that in the BIOS there is no option to enable/disable anything like WLAN or audio ect.
Is there some type of hidden option somewhere?
if it helps its a phoenixBIOS setup utility.

[BCCOMP]

Hi jamie_983
Enter the Device Manager.
Look for errors (Yellow! ? or Red X)
Post the errors you have.

[jamie_983]

Bccomp there is one error, its a yellow triangle with an ! and this is under other devices.

[BCCOMP]

Right click on this error>Properties>Details Tab
Scroll to Hardware ID
Post the info you find.

Thanks,
Bill

[jamie_983]

Usb\vid_0bda&pid_8189&rev_0200
usb\vid_0bda&pid_8189

[jamie_983]

Bccomp you sir are a genius!!!!
i decided to google search the info you directed me to, and it came up with a wireless network driver, installed it and it works!
thank you so much for you're help and time!.
also it turns out the 'teck guys' have the wrong make of driver for this model of laptop on there site then.
Many thanks.

[BCCOMP]

HI,
This is strange.
These numbers indicate you have a Realtek RTL8187B USB Wireless card.
Try this driver:
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...=true#RTL8187B
This site is usually very slow.

If it does not work for you try this one:
http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/NET...007-WHQL.shtml

Let us know how you make out.
Bill