wireless expresscard not detected

[Randy]

Hi, I have tried several different troubleshooting methods to get Vista to
detect a Belkin ExpressCard wireless adapter, but I never see the "New
Hardware Found" message, nor do I ever see it in Device Manager. I followed
Belkin's installation instructions and also found that their Network Utility
program does not appear on the desktop, nor do I see anything in the system
tray (yet the install itself seems to go well, including the part where it
prompts to insert the card, after which the install continues, without
error). I should note that getting the external expresscard came about
because the wireless adapter installed in the laptop (HP Pavillion tx 1305)
failed and as with the Belkin card, I have been unable to get it re-detected.
Anyone know why Vista is behaving this way? I tried several different
versions of drivers, flashing the BIOS, uninstalling and reinstalling the
nForce Network controller (thinking it was maybe that acting as the "bridge"
with wireless). The only time that the wireless adapter ("internal" one) was
detected was after I temporarily partitioned off part of the drive and
installed XP Pro SP2, but even then it "disappeared" again after a subsequent
reboot. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[DL]

You might try looking in the Bios to see if there's an option to turn off /
disable the internal device

 

[Randy]

Hi DL, thanks for your reply. Good question: I did check in the BIOS and on
this particular laptop there is an option to disable/enable the "Internal
Network adapter" (buried under the "Security" menu in the BIOS), which I did
have to enable, but that didn't fix it. I haven't ruled out hardware (i.e.
something on the motherboard) as possibly being faulty, but the fact that it
did detect the built-in wireless adapter at one point after I installed XP
Pro leads me to believe this is something software-related. I also checked
Services, but to be honest, I wasn't really sure which ones might apply (if
at all) to wireless (I did make sure the "Network Connections" service was
started).