# Wireless card driver will not load after install



## ggirl3000 (Apr 21, 2010)

I have a classic problem with my HP Pavilion dv6000...the wireless device recently decided to turn itself off and stay that way. Device Manager does not detect it, and as far as my laptop is concerned, it has no wireless device. My warranty is up, so no help there, but HP has already repaired it once (replaced the motherboard), and look how much good that did. So now it's up to me.

Here's everything I've tried so far:

1. At least ten destructive recoveries (no file backup)
2. BIOS updates
3. Driver updates
4. Uninstall/reinstall of just about everything

I thought it was a hardware problem, but, every once in a while, you can make the wireless card come back on if you uninstall the NVIDIA video driver. But that doesn't last long. Maybe one in ten recoveries will make it come back on for a few minutes.

I was going nuts troubleshooting and decided to see which drivers Windows was loading to see if maybe there was a conflict. Get this: Windows is not even loading the wireless driver! It's in the WINDOWS\system32\drivers folder and has been installed with the HP-supplied installer, but Windows is not loading it.

My question: How do I force Windows to load a driver that it should be loading anyway?


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi try downloading the latest available driver from hp support site for your model and try installing through device manager ie update driver,then choose not at this time,then choose install from a specific location and point windows to the downloaded driver


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## ggirl3000 (Apr 21, 2010)

How can I do that if the card is not detected in Device Manager? Which device do I select to update?


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi have you tried scanning for hardware changes,or uninstalling the card reboot then shut down reinstall the card and rebooting


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## ggirl3000 (Apr 21, 2010)

I've tried this many times with no success. The system log shows that "the device was removed from the system," which it can't be, because it's built in. But it's still receiving power, because it's red light is on.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi is there a key combo to enable and disable the wifi try looking at the manual if you do not have it the hp support site will


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## ggirl3000 (Apr 21, 2010)

My laptop has an on/off switch for the wireless on the front. It's definitely on "on" right now, but switching it back and forth has no effect.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Ok since you have not kisted the full model number I cannot locate the exact model however on the dv6000 cto model it lists in the service manual a mini wifi card module,it further lists a rtc battery now if your has a similar module it could be this has malfunctioned or possibly the battery needs replacing,I strongly advise looking up your models service manual and checking out if this is similar,it will also show the steps needed to locate the mini card and list the part number for it and the battery if they need replaced,also shown will be the connections which will bear checking


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## ggirl3000 (Apr 21, 2010)

The model is HP Pavilion dv6308nr. I tried taking out and replacing the card earlier, and the connections seem okay. I've also been looking into a device conflict between some NVIDIA stuff and the Broadcom card in my laptop, though it's hard to tell if that is the problem if the thing won't come on so I can check.


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## ggirl3000 (Apr 21, 2010)

Okay, I have it working FOR NOW, but I know from experience that it will not last through a restart. Tell me what to do to diagnose the problem, *please*, before I lose it again.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi did you update either driver recently,was it working ok before,sorry it all seems questions but it is the only way to gather info which may be relevant,I have to go for now as it is 2.35am and I do need to get some sleep,I will look at this again tommorowhopefully with a fresh eye lol,one last thing have you tried rolling back the nvidia driver


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## ggirl3000 (Apr 21, 2010)

I just did a destructive recovery, the laptop is supposedly back to factory condition and has not installed any updates whatsoever. I'm not sure if it's a good idea to turn it off, but I can't leave it on all night. The wireless adapter says there are currently no conflicts, and it seems to work just fine, except that it can't connect to the Internet. But I don't know how long it'll stay working.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi at this point you need to allow windows to update and install the service packs etc,do you know the name of the wifi driver ie intel,atheros etc,what was the issue with the nvidia driver


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## ggirl3000 (Apr 21, 2010)

The wireless card is a Broadcom 802.11 b/g WLAN. Apparently NVIDIA stuff simply doesn't work with the motherboard I have.

Doing a little more digging into the system, I found that Windows at least knows that the driver is installed and the device *should* be there, but it's service (called bcm43xx) is listed as being in manual mode. I have no clue how to set it to automatic mode, because it's a kernel driver. I got all this from System Information and can post the full info if it would be helpful.

BTW, if I want to uninstall some NVIDIA stuff to see if that helps, what is safe to uninstall and what isn't? I know I can uninstall the graphics card and network controller, but I'm not entirely certain what uninstalling, say, the ATA controller would do to my system, and I don't want to screw up anything important. I'll use a USB adapter before I do anything so drastic.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi can you do a little more digging for me in device manager click the + next to the device, then right click on the device, choose properties then details, and choose hardware id from the drop down list and post the info thanks


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## ggirl3000 (Apr 21, 2010)

Okay, I can't get at the wireless card that isn't working (since it's not listed in Device Manager). But I can post the NVIDIA ones and the hidden wireless devices that I'm not really even sure why they're there, which will hopefully be at least helpful.

These are all hidden network adapters, don't know if they do anything:

Microsoft ISATAP adapter, ID *ISATAP
Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface, ID *TUNMP
WAN Miniport (IP), ID ms_ndiswanip
WAN Miniport (IPv6), ID ms_ndiswanipv6
WAN Miniport (L2TP), ID ms_l2tpminiport
WAN Miniport (PPPOE), ID ms_pppoeminiport
WAN Miniport (PPTP), ID ms_pptpminiport

This is all the NVIDIA stuff, supposedly the cause of the trouble:

NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller, IDs PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0269&SUBSYS_30B7103C&REV_A3, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0269&SUBSYS_30B7103C, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0269&CC_068000, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0269&CC_0680

NVIDIA nForce PCI System Management (says no drivers are installed for it, don't know why), IDs PCI\BEN_10DE&DEV_0264&SUBSYS_30B7103C&REV_A3, PCI\VEN10DE&DEV_0264&SUBSYS_30B7103C, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0264&CC_0C0500, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0264&CC_0C05

NVIDIA nForce System Management Controller, IDs PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0271&SUBSYS_30B7103C&REV_A3, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0271&SUBSYS_30B7103C, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0271&CC_0B4000, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0271&CC_0B40

NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150, IDs PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0244&SUBSYS_30B7103C&REV_A2, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0244&SUBSYS_30B7103C, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0244&CC_030000, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0244&CC_0300

NVIDIA nForce 430/410 Serial ATA Controller, IDs PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0266&SUBSYS_30B7103C&REV_F1, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0266&SUBSYS_30B7103C, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0266&CC_010185, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0266&CC_0101

This is what System Information says for the Broadcom adapter:

Name [00000007] Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN
Adapter Type Not Available
Product Type Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN
Installed Yes
PNP Device ID Not Available
Last Reset 4/24/2010 11:56 AM
Index 7
Service Name BCM43XX
IP Address Not Available
IP Subnet Not Available
Devault IP Gateway Not Available
DHCP Enabled Yes
DHCP Server Not Available
DHCP Lease Expires Not Available
DHCP Lease Obtained Not Available
MAC Address Not Available

Hope this helps, I'll be happy to look up anything else if it would be helpful also.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi how did you come to have the nvidia drivers as they are not the correct driver for your wireless that would be the broadcom driver here http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=2093&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&product=3370282&lang=en can you disable the nvidia network driver do not uninstall the ata


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## ggirl3000 (Apr 21, 2010)

Not sure I know what you mean...the NVIDIA drivers are all for the NVIDIA stuff that came with the laptop. The Broadcom driver is installed but I can't get at the hardware ID because the Broadcom adapter isn't listed in Device Manager.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Ok I see the nvidia chipset so will assume that is where the network controller driver is from,I wonder if the blue tooth is causing some issue that is of course if you have bluetooth I saw this recently on a laptop and disabling the bluetooth solved the wireless issue


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## ggirl3000 (Apr 21, 2010)

Mine doesn't have Bluetooth, I'm afraid. I wish the fix could be that easy 

I have at least noticed something I think is worth mentioning, though. Whenever I restart and the wireless doesn't come on (99% of the time), I get this error in the Windows log about there not being an IRQ for the device on a PCI bus. I get this error for bus 2 and 3; the wireless device is on bus 3 (verified the last time I got it back after uninstalling NVIDIA). That 1% of the time when I manage to get the wireless back, I don't get the error. The Microsoft KB says it can be ignored, but I guess they forgot to take into account that you might have hardware attached to those buses...

As far as I can tell, NVIDIA is basically taking the IRQ that the wireless usually uses when it comes back (varies between 18 and 19), which is why uninstalling it *may* help. No idea if that's even the problem, but I see a corrlation there.


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## BCCOMP (Jul 9, 2007)

Hi,
See if your notebook falls into this recall:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01087277&lc=en&cc=us

Your issues with the wireless sounds as if it does.

Bill


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Thank you BCCOMP that had slipped my mind entirerly


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