Dell Laptop Wifi Problem

[sunedog]

I bought my kid a used Dell Latitude 630 1.5 years ago and it worked very well for him. Suddenly the wifi doesn't work. He is running Windows Vista Business. The wifi switch is on and the wifi light glows, but it doesn't see any available wifi signals.

The antenna icon in the system tray is missing. I see a network icon, and it has a red x over it. When I hover over it, it says, "Connection status unknown. The dependency service or group failed to start."

I connected the laptop directly to my Linksys wireless router with a network cable. It still doesn't work. The red and yellow lights on the network cable connector glow (one blinks - can't remember which one).

We have other computers and devices in the home that are all working wirelessly normally.

I have run three virus / malware scans and picked up a few things but was able to delete them. Have rebooted computer multiple times.Looked at the device manager and see two network cards. Both report to be running normally.

Any suggestions? Does it have a wireless card (hardware)?

(Trying to get this resolved before I leave town on business early Sunday morning. I will have limited access to this site Sun - Wed, so please understand if I don't respond to a message in that time period.)

[MTI]

The 630 has a PCI-e 802.11 b/g wifi card, which can easily be replaced, however, consider a USB wifi dongle that will support 802.11n.

[sunedog]

Thank you. I have a Samsung 802.11 USB dongle I bought for a smart Samsung TV. So I plugged it in to the computer and the result is it says it needs driver software. I bought the dongle a while ago and don't recall getting a disk with it. Searched the entire C drive for appropriate driver software and came up empty. No surprise since the laptop is several years old and the dongle is about 1.5 years old.

Hooked the laptop back up to the network cable and still no love. The red light on the connector is solid and the yellow one flashes, if that is any clue.

Might have to take it to a repair shop when I get back to have wifi card replaced.

[MTI]

The Samsung dongle likely won't work as the chipset (ralink or abocom?) may have been modified to work only with the smart tv. You could try doing a search of the chipset maker's website for windows drivers.

[sunedog]

OK. May pick up another dongle. Backing up his laptop right now in case in needs major surgery. Thanks!

[Ara T.]

Go to device manager... Any exclamation points? Could be a simple driver issue. I'd probably try reinstalling windows with the recovery software before buying a new card.

[sunedog]

Originally Posted by Ara T.

Go to device manager... Any exclamation points? Could be a simple driver issue. I'd probably try reinstalling windows with the recovery software before buying a new card.

Been to device driver and no exclamation points. Don't have the recovery disks. Bought it used (cheap). Wouldn't know how to reinstall windows anyway. But thanks.

I'm off to Austin for a few days and will have to put this on the back burner.

[Ara T.]

If you have a valid Windows key on the underside of the laptop, which you should, the windows isos are readily available. Look up some tutorials on how to install Windows, very easy.

[JamesDean]

I know HP sells the recovery media for $15. Dell might as well.

"Connection status unknown. The dependency service or group failed to start."

No matter what hardware you try, it likely wont work. A networking related service failed to start.

[uberwgn]

Originally Posted by sunedog

Been to device driver and no exclamation points.

I would do something really simple like uninstalling the driver (in Device Mgr) and then re-boot the machine which will re-install the driver.

I've had wireless cards go out before but they typically act up before completely failing. Hopefully this will be a very e-z fix.

[Ara T.]

Originally Posted by JamesDean

I know HP sells the recovery media for $15. Dell might as well.

"Connection status unknown. The dependency service or group failed to start."

No matter what hardware you try, it likely wont work. A networking related service failed to start.

Actually probably has a recovery partition. Get to it by pressing F8 while booting up in most cases.

[Can't Know]

I would first look at the running services, at least the ones set to start automatically.

Windows key and r key, then type services.msc into the little ui that popped up, then hit enter. Sort the services by startup type. Then look for the automatic ones and find the one that isn't started (besides perfmon or whatever it's called.

Good luck.

[sunedog]

Originally Posted by uberwgn

I would do something really simple like uninstalling the driver (in Device Mgr) and then re-boot the machine which will re-install the driver.

I've had wireless cards go out before but they typically act up before completely failing. Hopefully this will be a very e-z fix.

OK. I'm back in town. Thank you everyone for your suggestions.

I see two network adapters in Device Manager.
- Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Controller
- Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card

Which is the Wifi board? Should I uninstall the drivers for both?

If I uninstall the drivers, can I be assured they will re-install on start-up? Remember I have no internet access with this computer (even no wired access), so I don't know how I would download replacement drivers.

[Can't Know]

Originally Posted by sunedog

OK. I'm back in town. Thank you everyone for your suggestions.

I see two network adapters in Device Manager.
- Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Controller
- Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card

Which is the Wifi board? Should I uninstall the drivers for both?

If I uninstall the drivers, can I be assured they will re-install on start-up? Remember I have no internet access with this computer (even no wired access), so I don't know how I would download replacement drivers.

Since NEITHER ONE is working -- you can't connect with wifi or cabled -- messing with the drivers isn't going to help you.

Start with the services. That's what it's telling you, that a service didn't load. Until that happens, you don't have network capability. It's that simple. JamesDean and I have both tried to make this point.

It may be that one of the viruses you had knocked off a file necessary to a service, and you may be able to restore that. But start your diagnostics with the services.

After all, if your engine won't start, it doesn't matter what the tire pressure is, true?

Good luck.

[JamesDean]

Perhaps,

The Dependency Service or Group Failed to Start - Consider It Fixed

Might be helpful