Problem: Dell Laptop, Wireless/ethernet internet disabled

[evolvedbullet2]

Model: Inspirion 1525
Bought 3 years ago

*Don't know if this is the right section for such things*

Hey folks. I use this laptop for my school work and without internet, it can make things problematic. Id appreciate any help you guys can offer me.

The problem:
About 2 months ago, Dell released an update and the computer automatically installed it before I shut the laptop down. When I turned it back on, it took longer than usual to boot. To be exact, 3 minutes longer than usual. Once the computer showed the desktop, an error message appears:

(Program name) "Wi-Fi Catcher (tm) Network Locator"
Your Wi-Fi Catcher (tm) band configuration is not compatible with your WLAN card band configuration.

Select YES to automatically change you Wi-Fi Catcher (tm) band configuration or NO to keep your current band configuration.

(Options) Yes | No
​

I selected 'YES' for the hope of a quick fix and this appears:
*Error window*

Your Wi-Fi Catcher (tm) band configuration has been changed.
Previous selection: 802.11b/g (2.4GHz)
Current selection: (*completely blank*)
​

After a restart, this whole delema appears again and now I click on NO. Nothing happens.
I tried plugging in the internet manuelly with an Ethernet cable, I used 6 different cords that have proven to work on my main PC, no luck.

Thanks for reading folks, Id sure love to have this work horse ready before summer break is over. Even more for helping out!
:biggrin:

 

[Schadenfreude]

Have you tried contacting dell tech support and/or re-downloading the drivers (one a different computer) and re-installing it?

 

[Lanyap]

Did you get a chance to see what the Dell update actually was?

Try doing a driver rollback on your wireless adapter from device manager.

 

[postmortemIA]

you don't need any software to manage wifi access.. all that you need comes with windows
i would remove all dell garbage and install driver package only; and then use windows to manage wifi