Computer techies, help needed.

[Billy.]

So i recently had my hard drive replaced in my laptop (samsung np300e5a-a05dx) as the previous one was corrupted and causing my laptop to stay in the start up loop.

My cousins the computer know-it-all in my family, so he replaced the hard drive with a like-for-like replacement, re-installed windows 7 and Microsoft office etc, he also replaced all the necessary drivers (as far as im aware) e.g wireless/wlan, display, mouse touch pad drivers etc.

When i got it back it worked and connected to the internet perfectly fine, but now its not connecting at the internet at all, "windows is unable to detect any networking hardware".

If anyone has any ideas on how i could fix this, that'd be great, and also save me a long journey back to my cousins!

Cheers guys[h=3][/h]

 

[Carlv8415]

Do you have basic knowledge with computer are are you a blank canvas when it comes to these things ?

 

[Billy.]

Fairly knowledgeable buddy, try me

 

[Carlv8415]

Control panel > administration tools > computer management. Go down to devices and find your wifi. Right click on the relevant device and try updating or uninstalling the drivers (if you uninstall the wifi driver make sure you have a LAN connection or you will lose the net, If windows detects the wifi device It will automatically search the net for the drivers.

That's assuming its your wifi that is at fault, if it is your LAN then do the same by uninstalling the drivers just make sure you download a copy off the manufacturers site first.

If that makes no sense I'm sorry, I saying from memory so the lists make have slightly different names.

 

[Billy.]

That makes perfect sense., ill give that a go on my lunch break. Thanks buddy!

 

[Billy.]

Control panel > administration tools > computer management. Go down to devices and find your wifi. Right click on the relevant device and try updating or uninstalling the drivers (if you uninstall the wifi driver make sure you have a LAN connection or you will lose the net, If windows detects the wifi device It will automatically search the net for the drivers.

That's assuming its your wifi that is at fault, if it is your LAN then do the same by uninstalling the drivers just make sure you download a copy off the manufacturers site first.

If that makes no sense I'm sorry, I saying from memory so the lists make have slightly different names.

Tried your above list buddy but to no avail, I can't seem to find the wifi adapter. Here's some pictures

 

[Carlv8415]

Did you go control panel > administration tools > computer manager > device manager. Under the heading "Network" Look for your network devices in the list? Or any with exclamation marks next to them ?

Are you using Wifi? What happens if you connect a LAN cable ?

 

[Dink]

you haven't flicked the wireless off switch?

 

[Carlv8415]

you haven't flicked the wireless off switch?

Considered that but thought I might offend if I asked

 

[Billy.]

Double checked the wifi button as that was the first thing I tried, I've activated it and deactivated it but nothing works. Ill see what happens when I plug it in by Ethernet

 

[Billy.]

No luck finding an Ethernet cable, it was fine on the first boot up, looks like ill be handing it back to my cousin to re-install any network adapters/drivers as I'm not having much luck my end.

Thanks for all your help chaps

 

[Carlv8415]

If you know the network adapters why don't you download the drivers yourself from the relevant manufacturers website

 

[Billy.]

If you know the network adapters why don't you download the drivers yourself from the relevant manufacturers website

I've tried downloading/reinstalling the drivers from the Samsung website for this specific laptop, bang them on a USB then copy and extract into my laptop, run the setup wizard and it says the driver install has failed due to missing the relevant adapter?

 

[Carlv8415]

Oh that's not a good thing then. Is it Wifi and LAN that isn't working ?

 

[Billy.]

Oh that's not a good thing then. Is it Wifi and LAN that isn't working ?

As far as I'm aware yes, I've tried the wifi switch/button and that has no effect, it's not picking up any wireless devices at all, and I don't have a spare Ethernet to test a wired connection.

All very confusing as it worked a few days ago.

Also, the Microsoft essentials antivirus and the Microsoft office he installed for me has been wiped too... Maybe a sibling has been on the computer and accidentally restored my laptop to a previous date, or not turned the computer off properly - this causing it to auto restore (highly unlikely - plus I don't know how that works)

 

[Carlv8415]

Strange for them to suddenly just be removed. When windows encounters an error it can sometimes restore itself to last known working state but that only changes windows system files not programs.

All I can say is, this is why you don't buy Samsung

 

[Billy.]

Haha tell me about it! I was giving it by a family member as it was busted (dodgy hard drive) so it only owes me £40 for the hard drive I payed for.

Ill get my cousin to set it all back up again from scratch and go from there. Thanks for your help buddy

 

[Blighty]

Did you go control panel > administration tools > computer manager > device manager. Under the heading "Network" Look for your network devices in the list? Or any with exclamation marks next to them ?

Did you look at this? The adaptor is not simply disabled here?

 

[Billy.]

Did you look at this? The adaptor is not simply disabled here?

I couldn't gain access to anything which would allow me to look at the adapters, no administration tools/computer manager etc.

Edit: it's running windows 7 so layout may be different?

 

[Blighty]

Right click on Computer > Properties > Device Manager (top left).

Try that.

 

[Carlv8415]

I couldn't gain access to anything which would allow me to look at the adapters, no administration tools/computer manager etc.

Edit: it's running windows 7 so layout may be different?

If you view control panel in Icon layout not the stupid layout it is at default then you should see it.

 

[Carlv8415]

Sorry it's on the left, change view to classic view.

 

[ThomasBrentnall]

The laptop has not been dropped at all has it? Wireless card may have come out from the motherboard.

 

[Billy.]

Sorry it's on the left, change view to classic view.

Ill give that a shot when I get home from work, don't think my boss wants me tinkering with the computer anymore in his time lol!

 

[Billy.]

The laptop has not been dropped at all has it? Wireless card may have come out from the motherboard.

Not that I'm aware of, but it's something I can check

 

[@Spoonie]

As above, there is no driver installed for your wireless. Visit Samsungs website and look for the driver package. Once installed Windows should pick it up.

 

[Billy.]

As above, there is no driver installed for your wireless. Visit Samsungs website and look for the driver package. Once installed Windows should pick it up.

I went to samsungs website, searched for my laptop and the relevant drivers, upon download then installation of the new driver of samsungs website, a window would pop up saying installation had failed due to an incompatible/ missing adapter.

It's back with my cousin now and he's starting it all over again from scratch for me. Thanks for everyone's help/advice

 

[Carlv8415]

Main reason why I moved to Mac's, Two things I always hated was drivers and registry.

 

[MattW]

If I was a betting man, i'd be thinking that the network adaptor is no longer connected - for what ever reason.

 

[realnumber 1]

Or he picked the wrong driver. Looks to be a few...

http://www.samsung.com/uk/support/model/NP300E5A-A05DX-downloads?downloadName=DR

 

[Billy.]

Apparently only 1 of the selected drivers worked anyway... I post up on here when I get it back to see if and how he resolved the issue

 

[Jack!]

If I was a betting man, i'd be thinking that the network adaptor is no longer connected - for what ever reason.

I'd go with this too. A few years back we had a power surge after a thunderstorm, and it fried the network adaptor that was in the PC which was connected to the motherboard, so ended up buying a separate network card, and worked fine after.

 

[Billy.]

How would I go about checking/replacing the network card/adapter?

 

[Jack!]

You'll have to open it up, I don't think you can really test it as such. I'm assuming given it's a laptop the network card will be part of the motherboard, but I could be wrong (just assuming space saving). If possible, I'd connect another card, if you can, or perhaps getting hold of an external network card, and if that works then it's likely the original network card isn't working.

Could just be it's not connected properly mind, so worth wiggling it about about, or disconnecting and reconnecting if you can - it's a problem that often arises with RAM, which often causes the bootloop you spoke about in your first post, you normally get beeps too.

 

[Chapster5]

All else fails get a wireless dongle.

 

[Billy.]

Cheers chaps

 

[Jack!]

While an inconvenience, Chapster's solution is plenty good enough, they're dirt cheap now too IIRC.

 

[GiT]

Sounds like it's either like it's physically detached from the motherboard, it's died OR the motherboard drivers need an update.

Seen the latter before. In fact, seen all 3. First 2 on my Acer Laptop when only 13 months old.

 

[Carlv8415]

My old Samsung Nc10 use to do something similar. Wifi would work find then suddenly would display the same symptom as what you are experiencing. Wouldn't work until I restarted the computer. I reinstalled windows and that seemed to fix it.

 

[iain187]

Did we establish if the adapter was on the device manager?

Right click my computer > manage
Go to device manager

Is there something that looks like a wifi adapter under network adapters?
Does it have a yellow triangle or red x?


Are there any unknown devices (under their own heading) if so can you right click > properties and I think the final tab is details where you should see device ID - if anything there looks like your adapter google the device ID and the result will probably be someone on a forum going 'what is the correct driver for this device'