I have installed an MSI 6833 internal wifi card onto my TM240, but it will not detect any networks. I have installed the latest driver from MSI and the card is recognised by Windows (running XP-Pro SP3). Acer's launch manager programme is showing that the antenna is "Always on" (this remains shaded and can't be changed by the user) however, it would appear that the ariel is not switched on. When I first boot up, the wireless button flashes on briefly and then remains off. I have checked the antenna is connected properly and all is OK. When I plug in my pcmcia wireless card I can connect without any problems. This has become really annoying and frustrating, any suggestions would be very much appreciated.
First go into control panel > network connections, right click on the wireless network icon and if the option "Enable" is present at the top, click it. If it says "Disable" just leave it. Right click on it again and choose properties and then go to the advanced tab and tick the box that says "Let windows manage my wireless connections" or similar, back in the general tab make sure the box is ticked that says "show icon in notification are when connected" or similar. Now right click on the wireless network icon down by the clock (the icon of a single pc) and "show available networks", press f5 to do a refresh, is anything showing now? If not what message is shown in the window? Also, most laptops have a hardware button to turn the wireless card on or off physically, this may be a dedicated button or one of the function buttons which you use by holding the "fn" key (down to the left of the leyboard usually) and pressing the relevant function (usually marked in blue), in this case you would be looking for the function key with the wireless icon on it, hit that and then refresh the networks again, anything?
Hi, thanks for the reply. There is a separate wireless button across the top of the laptop which appears to make no difference. It appears as though although windows is recognising the wireless card, the wireless button does not. Since installing the card, the wireless button illuminates briefly when the laptop is turned on, but then remains switched off. The error message when using windows zero configuration states make sure the wireless card is is turned on. I can only assume that the wireless button is pre configured to only recognise the Ambit wireless cards that were originally fitted by Acer. The only problem with this is that these cards are no longer available.
Go into the bios at startup and check if there are settings for that button that switches on the wifi card, if there are set them to each different setting, save the changes and restart, each time checking if this helps.
Unfortunatley there are no user settings in the bios relating to the wireless button. It appears to be operated only via Acers launch manager programme. My best guess is that if there was a way to force Acers launch maager software to recognise other cards apart from the ones fitted as standard, this would solve the problem. Or alternitavley a way to manipulate or bypass the wireless button itself. I have seen other references to Linux which suggest blanking off pins 11 and 13 on the card itself. I have tried this also but still no joy.
solution found!! Firstly with regards to the wireless card. I used the same solution posted for Linux. This involves masking off BOTH pins 11 & 13 with insulating tape. I must admit that this is very fiddly as the pins are so small and close together. To locate these pins, look at the card keeping the small notch cut out on the left hand side. Pins 11 & 13 are 6th & 7th pins from the left including the small one to the left of the notch. ( see picture at http://www.minipci.biz/pin7.jpg ). This basically isolates the laptop wireless button and allows Windows to manage whether the antenna is turned on or off. With regards to Acer's Launch Manager programme with Vista, look for version 1.1.1.52.rather than the version given by Acer for Travelmate 240. This is actually designed for the a later model, but works perfectly with the TM240.
