Broken Wireless Hardware Switch Fix - Page 2

I realize it has been a few months since the last post but i have yet another solution. 

I also was in the boat with no wireless light on.   I first tried to see if it was the WLAN switch was broken etc, NEGATIVE. Upon opening the case to inspect the WLAN card, i noticed the main antenna from the wireless was disconnected.  This was responsible for preventing the wireless lan light from even coming on.  Upon reconnecting the antenna, and restarting the pc, everything was fine.  Why this would prevent the light from coming on, i don't know.  It seems like it would have been an amber light instead, but apparently on this type of pc (SONY PCG-7V2L), this is the case. 

(FYI if you have this model, you have to take off the bracket above the keyboard first, then remove keyboard to get access to WLAN card.  It is not on the back like most laptops.  I removed the bottom plate first, which was a waste of about 15 minutes.)

At the least i would have thought the wireless would appear to be working, but just not be able to keep a strong enough signal without the antenna, but i was wrong. Instead windows reported the switch was turned off. Weird.

Keep this in mind if you have a loose or dirty connection where the antenna connects. 

Hope this helps someone.

This worked for me and I want to say thank you properly.
Cheers. I own an old Compaq Presario r3000 and this worked a treat when nothing else would and I would like to thank all the smart guys who figure these things out and think to share. Here's my bit of 'media' - just in case someone suffers the same issue.

Keloni, UK.

Thank you. This worked out well. My laptop uses a PCI Express Mini Card, and pin 20 was indeed the second one from the notch toward the larger set of pins on the bottom side of the card. I had to do it twice since the tape got pushed over a bit when I inserted the card on my first attempt, but the second try was fine; tweezers helped. I was bit intimidated since I have never opened my laptop up before, but everything went better than expected. No more switch wiggling here.

Can one use liquid paper instead of tape? I found it hard to put tape on the pin 20 for the mini-pci card.

Does this work with the Intel 5100 AGN adapter?  I have a Sony VAIO VGN-FW280J and the wireless

switch broke when trying to get the monitor to work again (decided to unplug the hard to get battery),

now I lost the wireless, Stupid Sony computers. I am getting a MAC in a month.

Send email to currter@aim.com

THANK YOU!!!!!!

This fixed the issue a friend had with his ASUS X53K Notebook. The connectors are a bit tiny on that MiniPCI card, but after all it wasnt that hard a task to do. For other readers who are thinking about doing it: just take yourself some time and good working conditions (esp. light).

Thank you again!!!

I seem to have fixed the Intel 5100 wireless card by placing tape on pin

20 and even 18.  So far it works again after the wireless switch broke on

the Sony Vaio VGN-FW280J notebook.  Now, I am not sure if this notebook

had bluetooth.  Would you know how to recover the bluetooth wireless, like

is there a pin on that hardware device to cover to reactivate it?

I need to see if it had it in the first place, I believe it did now I see nothing.

That switch was very important and they placed it where it could get easily

broken when one had to open the case to reset the battery.

Thank you.

Terrance

Hi

I have similar problem here

thanks

yes, I have one slot under my keyboard where is the original wifi card and one slot free next to my modem on the bottom side, as I said, when both two cards are in their slots, my RTL card is operational, but Intel 6205 is in error code 10 in my device manager.

no, i didn't do you think it will help? cheers :)

nothing helps...even intel pro software tells that there is not intel card...but there is...in device manager i see it

may be whitelist block?SUBMIT

Hi guys!

I also joined to commemorate a successful repair, and to make a comment.

I have a 3 year old HP TouchSmart tx2-1270us.  I was working on something outside, and turned off the wireless with the external switch in order to save the battery.  Well, I could never get the wireless to turn on again.  That was 3 months ago; luckily I have an ALFA external wireless card that I use when I travel to more "austere" locations. (If you've got a weak signal, or travel a lot, I highly recommend it!)  So I had the ALFA suction cupped to the back of my laptop while I searched for repair solutions. Scouring the Google jungle, I tried the following:

1. Download and flash with new BIOS

2. Look for wireless switch behavior option in the BIOS- none found.

3. Set Power Options to "Always On," and run the battery down in an effort to drain the (possible) capacitor on the external switch.

4. Delete current driver, download from HP.com and install latest driver for the Broadcomm wireless modem.

5. Download hardware disassembly instructions and carefully tear the laptop apart to get to the slide switch and check its mechanical action.

Finally, I found this thread (wish I had found it earlier), and gave it a shot.  It worked!  With two tiny caveats:

1. Maybe all the "top" and "bottom" got me confused, maybe the diagrams of the PCIE card need to be reversed, because it didn't work the first time I applied the tape on the (supposedly) correct contact.  So I uninstalled the card and moved the tape from the "top" to the "bottom" of the card (or the other way around), and the external wireless indicator turned a heavenly shade of blue! IT WORKED!  So my advice is to keep the tweezers handy to reposition the tape, in case your world also turns upside down.

2. When booting up Windows, it will flash a notice that the wireless is disabled, but everything works fine.

Thank you all for the help!  I wasn't looking forward to going on another trip with the ALFA strapped to the HP.  When I pulled the contraption out in the airport during Christmas, I sure got some strange looks!

A million and one thanks,

-Walt