Gateway laptop wireless on/off

It's a typical day in computer hell. This time, it's a new Gateway
NX560 laptop. The owner did a rather decent job of updating Windoze
and removing all the garbage that came pre-installed on the laptop.
The Intel Centrino Pro something a/b/g internal wireless was working
perfectly.

However, after a few hours to updates, uninstalls, utility installs,
verbal abuse, and such, the wireless elected to suddenly quit. The
"show available networks" didn't show the nearby wireless router, or
any of the neighbors routers. The icon in the system tray showed that
the wireless device was enabled. Repair connection did nothing
useful. My laptop worked just fine with the wireless so router, so it
wasn't a router failure. I was stumped.

Most such laptops have 3 to 7 different ways to turn the wireless on
and off. So, I systematically went through the list of potential
culprits.
1. Hidden on/off switch: Nope.
2. Added connection manager to manage or replace WZC: Nope.
3. Vendor supplied drivers and management application such as
Intel Proset: Nope.
4. WZC enable/disable: Nope.
5. Disabled driver in Device Manager: Nope.
6. Disable wireless services in
Control Panel -> Administration -> Services: Nope.
7. Keyboard function key combination: Yep.

Hit <Fn><F2> on the keyboard and the wireless turns on and off.
Nowhere on the desktop, system tray, or in any application could I
find an indication that the wireless is enabled or disabled when
<Fn><F2> is invoked. I guess one has to do it blindly and try to
remember the current state. Also, it <Fn><F2> in the middle of a
session and you get disconnected.

So, if your Gateway laptop apparently looses all wireless
connectivity, just blindly pound on <Fn><F2> to recover. Yech.

--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

"Jeff Liebermann" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> It's a typical day in computer hell. This time, it's a new Gateway
> NX560 laptop. The owner did a rather decent job of updating Windoze
> and removing all the garbage that came pre-installed on the laptop.
> The Intel Centrino Pro something a/b/g internal wireless was working
> perfectly.
>
> However, after a few hours to updates, uninstalls, utility installs,
> verbal abuse, and such, the wireless elected to suddenly quit. The
> "show available networks" didn't show the nearby wireless router, or
> any of the neighbors routers. The icon in the system tray showed that
> the wireless device was enabled. Repair connection did nothing
> useful. My laptop worked just fine with the wireless so router, so it
> wasn't a router failure. I was stumped.
>
> Most such laptops have 3 to 7 different ways to turn the wireless on
> and off. So, I systematically went through the list of potential
> culprits.
> 1. Hidden on/off switch: Nope.
> 2. Added connection manager to manage or replace WZC: Nope.
> 3. Vendor supplied drivers and management application such as
> Intel Proset: Nope.
> 4. WZC enable/disable: Nope.
> 5. Disabled driver in Device Manager: Nope.
> 6. Disable wireless services in
> Control Panel -> Administration -> Services: Nope.
> 7. Keyboard function key combination: Yep.
>
> Hit <Fn><F2> on the keyboard and the wireless turns on and off.
> Nowhere on the desktop, system tray, or in any application could I
> find an indication that the wireless is enabled or disabled when
> <Fn><F2> is invoked. I guess one has to do it blindly and try to
> remember the current state. Also, it <Fn><F2> in the middle of a
> session and you get disconnected.
>
> So, if your Gateway laptop apparently looses all wireless
> connectivity, just blindly pound on <Fn><F2> to recover. Yech.
>
> --
> Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
> 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
> Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
> Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

hit Fn and F2 by accident........yea right.

On Tue, 11 Jul 2006 05:56:03 +0100, "OhNo" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote in <(E-Mail Removed)>:

>hit Fn and F2 by accident........yea right.

Nonetheless it can happen -- I recently hit Fn+F5 on my ThinkPad T41 by
accident when in a hurry to hit $ (nearby Shift+4). Fortunately that
pops up ThinkVantage Access Connections rather than just toggling the
radio directly, and the state of the radio is faithfully reflected in
the System Tray in any event. That kind of good engineering is one of
the reasons I've been so faithful to the ThinkPad 600/T-series -- great
machines with great software.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_How_To>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>