Wireless Signal Icon Disapeared

[lakeober]

Hello,

Everytime my laptop connects to my home wireless network, an icon appears in the bottom right corner that indicates my wireless signal strength.

However, today I was having issues with a wireless USB adapter I was trying to get to work on another machine. I called their tech support, and they asked me to install the adapter on my laptop so we could isolate the problem. The rep told me to disable my internal wireless adapter so we could see whether or not the USB adapter we were testing was working or not.

However, since testing the USB adapter, I have uninstalled its software/drivers and re-enabled my internal wireless adapter. Now though, my laptop is connecting to the wireless network in my home, but it keeps the ethernet with a red X through it in the system tray. Prior to this process today, my system tray would show my wireless strength when I was connected. Any idea how I can go back to how it was? I tried a system restore to before the USB adapter install, but the restore was not successful. Here is a screenshot of what I am seeing. Thanks!

 

[John Connor]

Since the system restore didn't work you can try resetting the winsock.

1. Run elevated command prompt.
2. Type netsh winsock reset > ENTER:
3. The following message should be seen: "Successfully reset the Winsock Catalog. You must restart the computer in order to complete the reset."
4. Restart computer.

 

[lakeober]

Thank you for your reply. I tried your steps and reset it, but the icon still stays the same even after restarting the machine.

 

[John Connor]

Okay, I would try to uninstall the wireless driver, restart and reinstall the wireless driver. See if that changes anything. I think it's just Windows acting funny.

 

[Fardringle]

To follow up on what John Connor said, make sure you download and save the wireless driver installer before you uninstall the existing driver.

 

[JackMDS]

Hmm... According to the Pic above the Wireless works OK, the Red x might be the Wired connection.

It is probably a matter of looking at the Taskbar Notification Area. Configuring the Wired Icon to be Hidden and the Wireless Icon to be Shown.

 

[John Connor]

I don't have to do that with my laptop.

 

[dealguru]

Hmm... According to the Pic above the Wireless works OK, the Red x might be the Wired connection.

It is probably a matter of looking at the Taskbar Notification Area. Configuring the Wired Icon to be Hidden and the Wireless Icon to be Shown.

That's also what I was thinking.. Could it be that the laptop is also wired to the router?

 

[dealguru]

And also, make sure the USB adapter is not connected.

 

[lakeober]

Thanks for all of the replies everyone, it is greatly appreciated. I tried changing the icon in the notification task bar. However, the only option was "network"... I did not have the ability to add a wireless icon.

So I went ahead and deleted the wireless drivers as John had suggested, performed a restart, and upon rebooting, Windows auto-installed the necessary Centrino drivers. Finally, it is back and working correctly! The wireless signal strength icon is in the bottom right hand corner as it was prior to today.

Thanks again for everyones help with this one. It has been solved.