Professional Laptop Repair

G

gebbel

Registered User
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My Dell laptop will not connect to the wireless router, even though it sees it. I have tried everything over the last 2 weeks but have failed. Now I am ready to give it to a professional to diagnose and repair it, if possible. Can anyone recommend someone around Louth/ Dublin who is reasonable?
By the way it is 4 years old so is not under any warranty.
 
It would be cheaper to buy a new router and wifi card. Do you have another desktop/laptop (or can you borrow one) to test the router.

Never really used them but the only one I know is http://www.computersunlimited.ie/ No idea if they are good or not.
 
That should only be a simple settings problem. Have you checked the configuration of the router and user id`s and passwords needed to connect to the Net are correct ?
 
When you say the laptop can see the router, do you mean in the wireless networks available on the laptop?

If you can then, as mentioned above, is probably user : password or wireless key settings.

Have you set the wireless keys and entered them in the laptop settings for the router? Once you do this and click auto connect when detected it should go on, if not then what happens when you click on the router and then connect?
 
The Router is fine as my flatmate's laptop connects fine. The wireless adapter is working fine according to Windows. Cheers for that link.
 
car said:
When you say the laptop can see the router, do you mean in the wireless networks available on the laptop?
Click to expand...

Yes.

Have you set the wireless keys and entered them in the laptop settings for the router? Once you do this and click auto connect when detected it should go on, if not then what happens when you click on the router and then connect?
Click to expand...

I`m not sure if I have done that. I'm not great at all of this and have run out of patience after 2 weeks trying something different every day!
 
It will probably take the technican about 20 minutes to go through the manual on how to set it up and check that the settings is correct.

That should cost you about 60 euro, but if it is not worth the hassle of re-reading the instructions, then pay for the technican. Where abouts in the Dublin area are you located ?
 
Ping me the area of where the router is located... if it is not that far from the D15 area I will come and take a look for free, if I cannot fix it I can see if any of my colleagues want to take a look, otherwise I dont know of any companies Off Hand who will call out and take a look !
 

Sorry I should have made it clear...I live in Drogheda...that's where the problem lies!
 

It really sounds like the keys arent in correct. Connect to the router using a CAT 5 cable or using the flatmates laptop, go to the administration of the router, usually by opening a browser (Ie or firefox) and putting 192.168.1.1 as the address. In the admin, you set up WEP or WPA security by giving it a passphrase, you click "generate keys" from that which are usually 16 chars long.

Then on your laptop, when you see the router in your wireless connections available, click it to connect and it should ask for you key, you need to enter the key above. Try that. If it doesnt connect after that you should see an error saying "invalid key".
 
OK did that. Set up WPA-PSK authentication using friends laptop. Was asked to generate a password which I did. Then tried connecting using my laptop. It asked me for the password. Inputted it and it tried to connect but after a while trying, it just quit. Same old story!
 
make sure your firewall is not blocking the connection to the internet.
 

On the laptop, did you put in the password, or the key that was generated? the key is whats required. Normally 4 keys are generated, the first usually works.

Interesting SBP article last sunday on shipping returns, think it was owner of komplett or elara who said they refer purchasers of faulty wireless routers to the manufacturers first as 70% of faulty routers returned werent faulty at all, was just the way they were configured.
 
Folks what do ye think of this: I am now occasionally getting the laptop to connect to the network. However it suddenly disconnects for no reason. When I attempt a "Repair" of the connection, it fails. I am also noticing that the closer the laptop is to the Router, the better the chance of success.

Do this imply that the wireless card is faulty? Any advice on their replacement?
 
whats the strength of the connection as it drops? you could test with the other laptop in the house and when one drops if the other is still connected with strong signal, log it as issue with vendor.
 
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