Weird problem

[Picard]

One of the PC at work has a wireless network card and dual-boots between XP and Ubuntu.

In XP, since a while ago, it doesn't pick up any wireless networks but in Ubuntu it picks up all the surrounding wireless networks just fine.

Workgroup and IP settings are all correct.

I did reinstall drivers in XP ... no worky.

 

[AstroTurf]

Try plug the card into a different slot (sounds stupid but may help as it will force xp to go through the whole driver thing as if it was a new device).

 

[Pada]

Doing what AstroTurf said won't help at all.

In Windows the proprietary drivers often override the WiFi network discovery, which implies that the Windows' network discovery won't work and that you'll have to make use of the utility that came with the proprietary drivers to discover the WiFi networks.

There should be an option where you can switch between using the proprietary utility & Windows for WiFi network discovery, but I can't remember exactly where that option was.

 

[Picard]

Doing what AstroTurf said won't help at all.

In Windows the proprietary drivers often override the WiFi network discovery, which implies that the Windows' network discovery won't work and that you'll have to make use of the utility that came with the proprietary drivers to discover the WiFi networks.

There should be an option where you can switch between using the proprietary utility & Windows for WiFi network discovery, but I can't remember exactly where that option was.

Should have said it. I did switch to the Windows function. The issue is it has been working for 3 years perfectly till now. I suspect it may be a Windows problem, I just don't know what. Would a filechecker scan help perhaps?

 

[jord@n]

Make sure your wireless zero configuration service is started

 

[AstroTurf]

Doing what AstroTurf said won't help at all.

In Windows the proprietary drivers often override the WiFi network discovery, which implies that the Windows' network discovery won't work and that you'll have to make use of the utility that came with the proprietary drivers to discover the WiFi networks.

There should be an option where you can switch between using the proprietary utility & Windows for WiFi network discovery, but I can't remember exactly where that option was.

Cept it has helped me about 5 times already with wifi alone.

 

[oldhat]

Have you tried the wireless card in another PC? This may sound stupid but it could be hardware failure! I have similar problem with a wireless card(usb). Southbridge controller failing & Windoze won't recognise anything in usb port & does not find onboard audio controller. Ubuntu finds all hardware & works just fine. I guess Linux is a bit more tolerant of failing hardware...