If you own an HP laptop and are experiencing problems with your wireless network, it might be time to determine if the wireless card is dead or not. The wireless card consists of a transmitter and a receiver. If the transmitter goes out, the receiver may still be fine, but you won’t be able to connect with a network or communicate with it without both parts working properly.
You can determine if your wireless card is working by looking at the bars located at the bottom of your laptop. These bars show that the wireless part of your laptop is online. To check whether your wireless card is working, disable it by turning it off. If it is dead, you may need to use the function F key and the FN key to re-enable it, or you may need to push the button on your laptop. When you turn it back on, if the bars don’t reappear, something may be wrong with your wireless card.
If the bars don’t come up, you can suspect that something is wrong with your wireless card. If they do come up, click on them to see a bunch of networks that are available. If you have a problem with the receiver end, you won’t see any networks at all.
If you can’t connect to the networks or receive an error message when you try to connect, the transmitter may be bad. You can go through a Diagnostics application that will pop up when it tries to connect to the network and can’t. The dialog box will give you some networking Diagnostics that you can try to determine what’s wrong with the network card.
If the Diagnostics application doesn’t work, you can try installing an external card or USB wireless connector that will connect to your laptop through a USB port. Follow the installation instructions that come with the device and see if the network will come up and connect through one of these devices. You can also swap connectors with another machine that does have a network connection to eliminate the possibility of a bad card.
Finally, you can go into your control panel and find your network adapter. Uninstall it and reinstall it with the driver to see if the wireless card is corrupted or if there is a software problem. If none of these methods work, then it’s safe to say that the wireless card is dead, and it’s time to invest in a new one.
In conclusion, determine if your wireless network card is dead or not by checking the bars located at the bottom of your laptop. If the bars don’t appear, you can try installing an external card or a USB wireless connector. If none of those methods work, and you have exhausted all other options, then it’s time to get a new wireless network card.