Windows 7 Cannot use wireless

GrahamZA

New Member
At present I cannot use any wireless network devices on my system. It picks up my Linksys WAG200G router through Ethernet, but as soon as I use a wireless adapter it cannot pick up the wireless. I know that the router works cos I'm posting from my Vista notebook :) The adapter works with this (Vista Home Basic 32bit) system.

Here are my details...
System: Windows 7 Pro 64bit
Wireless Adapter: Canyon WF518N2 (Link Removed due to 404 Error)

Previously I tried a Canyon PCI card and a Linksys USB dongle and neither worked either.

Any ideas?
 
I looked and could not find any Canyon wireless devices listed on the Windows 7 Compatability Pages here Windows 7 Compatibility Center hardware browse results - Networking - Wireless Network Cards
Which Linksys USB dongle did you use, check and see if that device is listed? Does the device seem to install properly in device manager? Have you tried, disabling the wired adapter and with just the wireless device present, running the network troubleshooter from within the Network and Sharing Center and see if it provides any insight?
 
I looked and could not find any Canyon wireless devices listed on the Windows 7 Compatability Pages here Windows 7 Compatibility Center hardware browse results - Networking - Wireless Network Cards
If it helps I see that Canyon is only a branding name. The full name of the device (in Windows) is: Realtek RTL8188SU Wireless LAN 802.11n USB 2.0 Network Adapter

Which Linksys USB dongle did you use, check and see if that device is listed?
This is the Linksys (LINK) but it refused to work as well.

Does the device seem to install properly in device manager? Have you tried, disabling the wired adapter and with just the wireless device present, running the network troubleshooter from within the Network and Sharing Center and see if it provides any insight?
Yip it iall installs 100%. I've used the drives from the Canyon website as well as the Windows Update. Everything installs 100% and the adapter is active, no problems there. It just can't detect anything.
I tried disabling the LAN and no help. Windows just tells me there's a problem but can't tell me what it is.

I read somewhere that it might have something to do with the Winodws 7 WLAN Autoconfig being corrupted, but I dunno.

EDIT:
Oksy this is odd, but I think I might have fixed it. I went into change adapter setting and unticked everything except for IPv4 and File and Printer Sharing. After saving a second connection showed up with the subtitle of "Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter". Both of them now connect and it works!

Any thoughts on why this is?
 
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Realtek lists the driver version number as 1086.7 dated January 27th 2010 it doesn't say specifically 32bit or 64 bit, but I suspect it includes both. Check and make sure that is the version number you are using.
There is also a firmware update for that router dated March 13th 2009, not sure if that will help or not, generally a good idea to run the most current firmware but a bad update can pretty much brick the router, so follow the directions carefully and only attempt to perform the update with a wired connection.
Since the linksys wireless dongle link you provided shows that it is compatible with both 32bit and 64bit versions of Windows7 then I would suspect a potential router issue.
However, if you suspect a problem with a system component within Windows 7 like the Wireless Lan Autoconfiguration service, then I would suggest lauching a command prompt with admin privledges and running sfc /scannow.
Also sometime windows 7 doesn't play well with the software that comes with some of these devices so if you installed some type of wireless management utility as part of the driver install, then you might try uninstalling that software
 
Thanks a lot for all of your input!

I've uninstalled the Realtek application. At present I'm getting around 6000Kb on the connection, but that's fine since it's a small adapter.

As long as it works, I'm happy :D
 
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