posted
Alright, two quick questions for the tech savvy people out there.
My best friend is having a slew of computer issues.
1. Her laptop's wireless card isn't working right. It recognizes wireless networks, but it won't connect to them, or if it does, it has limited connectivity to them, which is the same thing basically as having no connection at all. Is this a hardware issue? It's not a problem with the network, I tried it on a couple different networks, and other laptops worked just fine on those networks, so it must be the laptop, and the only thing that makes sense to me is a hardware issue. If anyone has had this problem before or might know an answer, I'd appreciate some help.
2. The sound on her PC randomly stopped working. I'm convinced that this is an error with her drivers, but I can't find the right one to make it go. Both the Soundmax website, and the Windows website are impossible to navigate. (Windows is the most user UNfriendly website ever). Does anyone have a link to just a page of driver updates? She doesn't have a disc for the soundcard, and I can't for the life of me find out where the heck to find a replacement updated driver so her sound will work.
3. Both her sister's laptop and her PC's USB ports won't recognize a USB jumpdrive. Both of them previously did, but again just randomly stopped working. Any ideas?
Sorry about trying to bilk people for free technical advice, but I beyond what I've said here, I'm just plain stumped on how to fix them, and it'd be horribly expensive to take in three of their computers to get them checked out at a computer store that charges $50 bucks just to look at it.
Thanks ahead of time guys.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
1) It could be a hardware issue. It could also be an encryption issue. If you have admin rights on a wireless router, you can test her card by watching the router's status panel when she tries to connect; that'll usually tell you why she's not connecting. If you know the IP of the router, see if you can ping it from her laptop when she's in range.
2) The Windows website is enormously user-friendly. I'm not at all sure what you're talking about. The Microsoft KnowledgeBase, in particular, is one of the most useful tools known to man. That said, www.microsoft.com is not usually the best place to start looking for drivers. SoundMAX produces chipsets, not audio cards, and thus refers users to manufacturers' websites for soundcard drivers. You can find their referral page here: http://forms.analog.com/Form_Pages/soundMAX/soundMAXtechSupport.html
3) If neither machine recognizes the jumpdrive, it's entirely possible that the jumpdrive itself is broken. Have you tested the jumpdrive in a known good machine, or tested another known good jumpdrive in each of those machines?
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
1. I'm going to assume it's a technical issue and tell her to just bite the bullet and take it in to get checked out. It just seems too odd that it'd randomly stop working on a network it has always worked on, you know?
2. Well, maybe it's just not Lyrhawn friendly (or the fact that I couldn't get past the screen you linked me to really frustrated me, and I blame MS for that). I got to the soundmax referral page, but the PC is a built machine, and I don't know which company made the motherboard, where do I go to find out what motherboard it has?
3....Yeah it's possible. Thing is, her sister's jumpdrive burned out while being plugged into the PC, but this one was just usable the other day when she was over at my house copying pictures. Unless her PC burned this one out too between then and now. I'll have to double check that one and get back to you.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:where do I go to find out what motherboard it has?
If all else fails, it's usually printed on the motherboard. The person who built it will probably recall, as well.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
I really dont know if this would work, but you could reinstall the driver for the wireless card.
Posts: 2756 | Registered: Jul 2002
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