New Lappy No Wifi Please Help

[quinne]

Hi All,

For those that may have seen my previous thread on needing to decide which way to jump on a new laptop -- I made my purchase yesterday.  I got an HP dv7 3165dx.  I've been reading through the threads on hear all morning, and trying different things, but still no luck.  For all the many years I've been on pcs, I'm a complete newbie in relation to wireless setups, and with Linux even more so.

The wireless device: AR9285

I tried the ndiswrapper that was suggested on another thread with no success.  I tried blacklisting ath5k and ath9k as texstar suggested, along with the modification to the modprobe.conf file, and then installing the madwifi packages as he instructed.  Still no success.

I'm really out of my depth on this one.  I may be a simple solution.

If anyone has the time to help me with what I know is often a maddening problem, I'd be ever so greatful.  In the meantime, my new laptop is a novelty, and not able to perform in the way it needs to, to be of use....

[quinne]

Also, someone (just checked, it was coffeetime) on this board suggest to uninstall ndiswrapper netathw via synaptic and then download and install from elsewhere, but they were recommending this for an earlier kernel, so don't know if it still applies....coffeetime, you out there?

[Joble]

No clue.  I've got AR9285 and it comes up automagically on my box.

Did you check the switch?

[scoundrel]

same here .. no problem with that  or any of my friends lappys with AR9285 ??  have you tried just clicking on your network icon and setting it up ??

[quinne]

Hey Guys, thanks for checking in on this thread.

Joble, heh, switch?  Well, there may be one, but the scanty HP documentation that came with this machine tells me to refer to the 'tour' which I assume co-existed with Windows 7 which I sent into byte heaven.

scoundrel, like I said, it may be a simple solution -- I'm even guessing on the network setup.  But, yes, I've been through it a zillion times, selecting various options in hopes of success.

[Joble]

what's the model #?  Maybe I can find something online that will give us a clue.

[quinne]

Thanks for being willing to help me with this, joble.  I'm really in the dark with all the wireless ins and outs.
  It's an HP dv7 3165dx. 

[Joble]

I didn't see anything obvious on the case picures I could find.  But google revealed this support page:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=uk&lang=en&product=4121358&docname=c01667669

Should I use the wireless power switch on the outside of my case?

There is a power switch on the outside of the case to physically turn the power to the card on and off, however some power switches can also be controlled by software. The most common cause of a lost wireless connection is accidentally turning off the wireless power switch.

Still looking.  I wanna know exactly where the switch is.

[scoundrel]

there is a switch to turn the power on for the wifi and on couple of lappys there was no need to use it.. worked out the box

[Joble]

http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/hp-pavilion-dv7-3165dx/4505-3121_7-33970190.html?tag=also;modBingo.1

At the top of the keyboard is a touch-sensitive strip for controlling volume as well as other icons for muting audio, play/pause, stop, forward, and rewind, and turning on and off the Wi-Fi radio.

So, can you find that?  Touch sensitive strip, not a physical switch or key combination from the sound of it.

Soundrel:  Mine did too.  Usually when this should be working and it isn't, it still turns out to the the switch.  My netbook also has bios controlls, I turned my ethernet off in the bios, since I never use.  Maybe check the bios.

[quinne]

Hey Joble, yes, there appears to be such a switch.  I noticed that this morning (it looks like a little red broadcasting tower).  However, touching it seems to have no effect on anything, as far as I can tell.  I would think that if it were functional, it would go off and on...?

[quinne]

Is there any output I can generate in the terminal that would be helpful in troubleshooting?

[Joble]

I can't find anything at about that touch sensitive switch, but I have seen reports that wireless is working in that computer.

If there are driver issues we need an Atheros expert to address possible conflicts, I've always had trouble troubleshooting Atheros.

Please post the contents of the following files:
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
/etc/modprobe.preload

I'll calling for the experts to take a look.

[quinne]

Thanks, Joble.  Here's the file contents you asked for:

modprobe.d/blacklist

blacklist ssb
blacklist ssb
blacklist ath5k
blacklist ath9k

modprobe.preload.d

vbox-guest-additions containing

vboxadd
vboxvfs

Thanks again. 

[quinne]

(I just noticed I posted this in netbooks instead of laptops, my bad)

Also, for the brief time that I interacted with Windows 7 before dumping it, the WLAN worked without a hitch, so I'm quite sure it's not a hardware problem.