From: Mike Easter on
jinxy wrote:

> OK. The laptop is now in my home.

So, what are its connectivity options there?

That is, are you going to connect its ethernet to an ethernet lan there
or are you going to try to configure its wireless to your wireless lan
there or what?

--
Mike Easter
From: jinxy on
On Jan 14, 8:05 pm, Mike Easter <Mi...(a)ster.invalid> wrote:
> jinxy wrote:
> > OK. The laptop is now in my home.
>
> So, what are its connectivity options there?
>
> That is, are you going to connect its ethernet to an ethernet lan there
> or are you going to try to configure its wireless to your wireless lan
> there or what?
>
> --
> Mike Easter

I would like it to be able to detect and use wireless networks in any
locations and have the option of a hardwire net connection. If I
figure out whats going on ( with the help of this group) I will return
it to my friend so they may use it in there home. I am starting to
think the controller may be euchered. Could a workaround be to buy a
USB wireless g/n adapter?
-J
From: Paul on
jinxy wrote:
> On Jan 14, 8:05 pm, Mike Easter <Mi...(a)ster.invalid> wrote:
>> jinxy wrote:
>>> OK. The laptop is now in my home.
>> So, what are its connectivity options there?
>>
>> That is, are you going to connect its ethernet to an ethernet lan there
>> or are you going to try to configure its wireless to your wireless lan
>> there or what?
>>
>> --
>> Mike Easter
>
> I would like it to be able to detect and use wireless networks in any
> locations and have the option of a hardwire net connection. If I
> figure out whats going on ( with the help of this group) I will return
> it to my friend so they may use it in there home. I am starting to
> think the controller may be euchered. Could a workaround be to buy a
> USB wireless g/n adapter?
> -J

Colorations for Device Manager entries are listed here.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/133240

"A blue "i" on a white field on a device resource in Computer properties
indicates that the Use Automatic Settings feature is not selected for
the device and that the resource was manually selected. Note that this
does not indicate a problem or disabled state."

As far as I know, in WinXP, wireless devices can be managed by code provided
by the driver installed for the device. Or, if you don't install a driver,
Microsft Wireless Zero Config (WZC) can be used to control the wireless device
instead.

"How can I disable wireless configuration services and
enable the Windows XP Wireless Zero Configuration services"

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968682

*******

You could always start with something like Belarc Advisor or Everest, to
get a dump of what hardware is inside the laptop. And then decide what
driver might be useful in the situation.

I don't find Belarc perfect for hardware, because it glosses over some
hardware types and doesn't give the details I need.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

I like Everest a bit better - even if it doesn't name the hardware, it
can still give a Device ID, and I can look up the device myself. (In
Linux, the equivalent would be lspci, lsusb, dmesg.)

(Everest)
http://majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

These two lists aren't official in any sense, and entries are added
as people discover them.

http://pciids.sourceforge.net/pci.ids

http://www.linux-usb.org/usb.ids

For example, I have a 9800 Pro video card. In PCI : PCI Devices, Everest
shows a Device ID of 1002-4E48, which shows as PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4E48 in
an INF file of the installer.

Device Properties:
Device Description ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Video Adapter
Device ID 1002-4E48

In the pci.ids file, such a device would correspond to these two lines
in the file.

1002 ATI Technologies Inc
...
4e48 Radeon R350 [Radeon 9800 Pro]

And based on that, I could go to the manufacturer's site and look for
a driver. Similarly, if it was a Dell computer, I could go to the Dell
site, use the service tag, and get a list of drivers. And from that,
I might be able to determine what wireless and wired networking devices
are present.

Also, go to Control Panels, and look in Add/Remove, to see if someone has
already installed a driver. You might get some idea what has already been
installed that way, if someone has tried to "repair" the computer before
you got it.

In terms of "bread crumbs", the setupapi.log file can give some info
on how hardware device installations are going.

C:\WINDOWS\setupapi.log

HTH,
Paul
From: jinxy on
On Jan 14, 10:43 pm, Paul <nos...(a)needed.com> wrote:
> jinxy wrote:
> > On Jan 14, 8:05 pm, Mike Easter <Mi...(a)ster.invalid> wrote:
> >> jinxy wrote:
> >>> OK. The laptop is now in my home.
> >> So, what are its connectivity options there?
>
> >> That is, are you going to connect its ethernet to an ethernet lan there
> >> or are you going to try to configure its wireless to your wireless lan
> >> there or what?
>
> >> --
> >> Mike Easter
>
> > I would like it to be able to detect and use wireless networks in any
> > locations and have the option of a hardwire net connection. If I
> > figure out whats going on ( with the help of this group) I will return
> > it to my friend so they may use it in there home. I am starting to
> > think the controller may be euchered. Could a workaround be to buy a
> > USB wireless g/n adapter?
> > -J
>
> Colorations for Device Manager entries are listed here.
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/133240
>
>     "A blue "i" on a white field on a device resource in Computer properties
>      indicates that the Use Automatic Settings feature is not selected for
>      the device and that the resource was manually selected. Note that this
>      does not indicate a problem or disabled state."
>
> As far as I know, in WinXP, wireless devices can be managed by code provided
> by the driver installed for the device. Or, if you don't install a driver,
> Microsft Wireless Zero Config (WZC) can be used to control the wireless device
> instead.
>
> "How can I disable wireless configuration services and
>   enable the Windows XP Wireless Zero Configuration services"
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968682
>
> *******
>
> You could always start with something like Belarc Advisor or Everest, to
> get a dump of what hardware is inside the laptop. And then decide what
> driver might be useful in the situation.
>
> I don't find Belarc perfect for hardware, because it glosses over some
> hardware types and doesn't give the details I need.
>
> http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
>
> I like Everest a bit better - even if it doesn't name the hardware, it
> can still give a Device ID, and I can look up the device myself. (In
> Linux, the equivalent would be lspci, lsusb, dmesg.)
>
> (Everest)http://majorgeeks.com/download4181.html
>
> These two lists aren't official in any sense, and entries are added
> as people discover them.
>
> http://pciids.sourceforge.net/pci.ids
>
> http://www.linux-usb.org/usb.ids
>
> For example, I have a 9800 Pro video card. In PCI : PCI Devices, Everest
> shows a Device ID of 1002-4E48, which shows as PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4E48 in
> an INF file of the installer.
>
>      Device Properties:
>         Device Description                      ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Video Adapter
>         Device ID                               1002-4E48
>
> In the pci.ids file, such a device would correspond to these two lines
> in the file.
>
> 1002  ATI Technologies Inc
>          ...
>         4e48  Radeon R350 [Radeon 9800 Pro]
>
> And based on that, I could go to the manufacturer's site and look for
> a driver. Similarly, if it was a Dell computer, I could go to the Dell
> site, use the service tag, and get a list of drivers. And from that,
> I might be able to determine what wireless and wired networking devices
> are present.
>
> Also, go to Control Panels, and look in Add/Remove, to see if someone has
> already installed a driver. You might get some idea what has already been
> installed that way, if someone has tried to "repair" the computer before
> you got it.
>
> In terms of "bread crumbs", the setupapi.log file can give some info
> on how hardware device installations are going.
>
>      C:\WINDOWS\setupapi.log
>
> HTH,
>     Paul- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Sorry Paul, the OS is Vista home prem. sp2 32bit. My fault for that
misinformation. Today I have a bit more time to start getting into it.
Again, thank you for your help and patience.
-J
From: Mike Easter on
jinxy wrote:
> Mike Easter
>> jinxy wrote:
>>> OK. The laptop is now in my home.
>> So, what are its connectivity options there?
>>
>> That is, are you going to connect its ethernet to an ethernet lan there
>> or are you going to try to configure its wireless to your wireless lan
>> there or what?

> I would like it to be able to detect and use wireless networks in any
> locations and have the option of a hardwire net connection.

I understand that concept.

Does the lack of any answer to what I asked mean that you have no
ethernet or wireless connectivity on a local network at your home with a
wired and wireless router for it to connect to?

Your troubleshooting mission will be considerably more hypothetical
rather than real if you have no connectivity there for it.


--
Mike Easter