Compaq Notebook - Network Connectivity Problem

[BobS]

I made a post to several of the ng's about my Compaq notebooks Presario
M2000 series, not being able to reconnect to the wireless network after
sleep mode or hibernation.

This apparently only pertains to those with Broadcom 802.b/g WAN cards and
using the Broadcom wireless utilities.

The fix is back-asswards to what Compaq's Tech Support has been telling me
for the past month. The have stated that the service "Wireless Zero
Configuration" must be disabled. I even managed to find that statement in
another forum and since I'm using the Broadcom drivers (not Intel wireless
drivers or Microsoft's) it made sense. Not so.....

Well, after 3 weeks of waiting for Compaq's return call and/or email, I
called them again and asked about a status update on the case number which
was supposedly escalated on up the line. The Tech Support young lady was
very helpful and found the info and the answer was ......"reload windows
from scratch...". Yeah, right.

Explained again to the young lady that I have done many, many things,
including a repair install, updates, driver installs ad nausea and that no -
I was not going to wipe my system unless they could tell me that they had
repeated the problem and know absolutely why a scratch reload would "fix'
THINGS.

She agreed and asked me to try one more thing..............sure, why not.
That was to turn on the Windows Zero Configuration service. Well, I'll be
damned... it works. After being told to insure that service is disabled by
several other techs, turning it on appears to fix it.

The reason may be due to the brand new (Aug issue) of the Broadcom
utilities. Having that service off may have been correct for the previous
version but not the latest major revision. I'll go to Broadcom's site
shortly and see if their release notes have any clues.

Just thought I'd pass this tidbit along to those that may have the same
problem. I've cycled the system into and out of sleep mode and hibernation
mode four times and each time now it has connected back up. No more having
to do a repair on the network to force it to reconnect.

Bob S.

 

[Michael]

I've been struggling with the same issue with my Presario M2105US.

How is the Zero Configuration turned on? And is there a firmware update
necesary for the Broadcom NIC?

MIchael

 

[Michael]

I'm cautiously optimistic that my problem has been solved.

Upon reading your comments about the Broadcom NIC I investigated and
discovered that there was a newer driver version than what was installed on
my system. I obtained and installed the new driver and this seems to have
fixed the problem for me. Yeah!

I went to my Wireless Network Configuration, where it says "Connect using"
is where it indiates the Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN. I clicked on the configure
button and then in the properties window, clicked on Update Driver. Voila.
Fixed. I hope.

Michael

 

[Bob]

Sound like there's more than just me having this problem. Ahhhhhhh misery
loves company....

1. Yes, there are Broadcom updates available for both the driver and the
utility program.
2. To configure the Wireless Zero Configuration > Start > Run > type
Services.msc > scroll down the list of services > double click on the
Wireless Zero Configuration and then change the selection to Automatic (so
it will start when you boot up the system).

Now, what isn't making sense here (although it's now working) is that making
sure the service is set to Auto, the service is not started as evidenced by
checking the services after rebooting. It now indicates Auto and should
have started but I think the Broadcom driver is shutting it off. The system
is using the Broadcom drivers and utility to manage the wireless network and
not the MS software. The MS software is managing the wired NIC and Broadcom
is managing the wireless card. So I still think there's a bug here but it
"appears" to be working consistently now.

I can't say 100% if a particular update fixed any problem I was having but
until I turned the service back to the Auto setting, the system would not
reconnect after coming out of sleep mode. I guess this may be one of those
"If it works, it works, if not, it doesn't" type of fixes......;-)

Bob S.