WiFi problem

[jhleslie]

Hi guys,

I am not much of a computer expert but I am trying to learn.

I have a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Li 2727 running Vista Home Basic SP1.
It is about 6 months old. I have always connected to the internet
using a wire plugged into the router.

This weekend I have been trying to make it connect using WiFi but it
says....

"Wireless capability on this computer is turned off. Turn on wireless
capability with a switch on the front or a function key
combination"....

Well there is no switch and I found that the function key combination
is supposed to be Fn + F1. When I press that, nothing happens.

I've managed to find out from the Device Manager that there is an
Atheros AR5007EG Wireless Network Adapter installed. Oh and I know
that the WiFi is okay because others are connecting.

I have now discovered from the crappy Fujitsu Siemens web site that I
should have something called "Launch Manager" installed and there is a
link, but it is broken. I have searched 'Everwhere' on the computer
for anything with 'launch' in the name and not found this pesky Launch
Manager hidding anywhere.

Thank you for reading this far!

My question is this. Surely there must be another way to turn the WiFi
on and off. I really don't want to have to spend the rest of the day
re-installing all the software only to discover that it still doesn't
work and I have deleted some of my important documents in the process.

Can I turn it on using "Run"? I read something somwhere that seemed to
suggest it was possible but I couldn't understand it.

Thanks in advance.

Julie

 

[Thee Chicago Wolf (MVP)]

I am not much of a computer expert but I am trying to learn.

I have a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Li 2727 running Vista Home Basic SP1.
It is about 6 months old. I have always connected to the internet
using a wire plugged into the router.

Yikes! Get this machine up to SP3 level.

This weekend I have been trying to make it connect using WiFi but it
says....

"Wireless capability on this computer is turned off. Turn on wireless
capability with a switch on the front or a function key
combination"....

Well there is no switch and I found that the function key combination
is supposed to be Fn + F1. When I press that, nothing happens.

Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services and check to see
if Wireless Zero Config has started. It's possible it was set to
disabled. If so, set it to enabled and click Start to start the
wireless service.

I've managed to find out from the Device Manager that there is an
Atheros AR5007EG Wireless Network Adapter installed. Oh and I know
that the WiFi is okay because others are connecting.

I have now discovered from the crappy Fujitsu Siemens web site that I
should have something called "Launch Manager" installed and there is a
link, but it is broken. I have searched 'Everwhere' on the computer
for anything with 'launch' in the name and not found this pesky Launch
Manager hidding anywhere.

Thank you for reading this far!

It doesn't need Launch Manager. The built-in one for XP is fine IF you
have at LEAST SP2 installed. Some major work was done to the WiFI
provisioning components in SP2 and in SP3 WiFi standards were brought
up to current standards (as of late 2007) so you can see hidden
networks and get on 802.11n as well. Get SP3 on there and update the
Atheros driver, forget the Launch Manager junk.

My question is this. Surely there must be another way to turn the WiFi
on and off. I really don't want to have to spend the rest of the day
re-installing all the software only to discover that it still doesn't
work and I have deleted some of my important documents in the process.

Can I turn it on using "Run"? I read something somwhere that seemed to
suggest it was possible but I couldn't understand it.

It might be the Wireless Zero Config service (see above) or in need of
a current driver.

- Thee Chicago Wolf (MVP)

 

[Lem]

Hi guys,

I am not much of a computer expert but I am trying to learn.

I have a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Li 2727 running Vista Home Basic SP1.
It is about 6 months old. I have always connected to the internet
using a wire plugged into the router.

This weekend I have been trying to make it connect using WiFi but it
says....

"Wireless capability on this computer is turned off. Turn on wireless
capability with a switch on the front or a function key
combination"....

Well there is no switch and I found that the function key combination
is supposed to be Fn + F1. When I press that, nothing happens.

I've managed to find out from the Device Manager that there is an
Atheros AR5007EG Wireless Network Adapter installed. Oh and I know
that the WiFi is okay because others are connecting.

I have now discovered from the crappy Fujitsu Siemens web site that I
should have something called "Launch Manager" installed and there is a
link, but it is broken. I have searched 'Everwhere' on the computer
for anything with 'launch' in the name and not found this pesky Launch
Manager hidding anywhere.

Thank you for reading this far!

My question is this. Surely there must be another way to turn the WiFi
on and off. I really don't want to have to spend the rest of the day
re-installing all the software only to discover that it still doesn't
work and I have deleted some of my important documents in the process.

Can I turn it on using "Run"? I read something somwhere that seemed to
suggest it was possible but I couldn't understand it.

Thanks in advance.

Julie

I don't know what the "Launch Manager" is but I suspect that you
shouldn't need it to turn the radio on or off. When you say "nothing
happens" when you press F1 do you mean that the light that indicates
that the radio is on does not turn on or that you get the same error
message?

You could try looking in Device Manager "properties" for the adapter and
see if there is something there that would help, but this sounds more
like a hardware problem. Try asking in the Fujitsu forum here:
http://tinyurl.com/c6mwq4

--
Lem -- MS-MVP

To the moon and back with 2K words of RAM and 36K words of ROM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer
http://history.nasa.gov/afj/compessay.htm