Help - Acer Travel Mate 2483 WXMi wireless (XP)

[Smashcrab]

HELP!!!

I have a Acer Tavel mate 2480 that I got under insurance about 18months ago, and it came with vista and i never used it as it was crap and rediculously slow.

I finally got XP pro SP2 on it and everything is working excellent, I am selling it to a friend and I have to get the wireles working... I have just not been able to do it under XP (even with vista it was very hit & miss).

In device manager I have the Broadcom 802.11g listed but it has the small exclamation mark, and it is definately not working.

Each time I try to install this driver the computer freezes up (needs hard reset).

I tried the other drivers but they do not instal, so I am assuming the broadcom is the correct wireless.

If anyone can help me it would be very much appreciated.

Cheers
Grimace

[Smashcrab]

Abit mor info I tried reinstalling the driver (yet another one from HP this time)
no luck. I get an error telling me the device could not be started. In device manager it tells me the following;

Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)

Click Troubleshoot to start the troubleshooter for this device.

trouble shoot is useless. Like myself

[Smashcrab]

guess i will just bin it!

[EpHeSuS]

I'll take it off your hands =P

Are you sure the drivers you're downloading are for XP? Have you tried opening it up to make sure the card is sitting properly?

[-=Alfonzo=-]

Just confirming what drivers you've tried, are you downloading them off the internet or from a system CD?

If the former, I recommend downloading any drivers Acer related from their Euro support site, for your model that means here. Acer's Australian support site is quite shit in comparison.

Secondly, are you trying to install over the drivers you've currently got? If you delete the thing from Device Manager and then try and reinstall, do you get any further?

[Smashcrab]

Originally Posted by -=Alfonzo=-

Just confirming what drivers you've tried, are you downloading them off the internet or from a system CD?

If the former, I recommend downloading any drivers Acer related from their Euro support site, for your model that means here. Acer's Australian support site is quite shit in comparison.

Secondly, are you trying to install over the drivers you've currently got? If you delete the thing from Device Manager and then try and reinstall, do you get any further?

All drivers have been downloaded from the net.

I do believe one of the last drivers I downloaded from the Euro support page. and since then I have just been trying other broadcom drivers all with no success.

I delete the item from device manager but the sys files are still in my system folder.

Makes no change. Might have to do the open it up and check it's sitting right. Might explain why it was so touchy with Vista when I first got it.

Cheers
Grimace aka Anthony

[romanx]

Are you downloading the drivers from the Acer website or the Broadcom website? I had the same problem with my Acer when I took Vista off and switched to XP, but eventually got it working. There will be about 3 sets of wireless drivers you need to install for it to work properly. Normally an Aetheros or whatever they are called, plus 2 Broadcoms.

[Smashcrab]

Originally Posted by romanx

Are you downloading the drivers from the Acer website or the Broadcom website? I had the same problem with my Acer when I took Vista off and switched to XP, but eventually got it working. There will be about 3 sets of wireless drivers you need to install for it to work properly. Normally an Aetheros or whatever they are called, plus 2 Broadcoms.

I have downloaded broadcom driver from acer sites, and broadcom, and other places (just to try anything)
I have not tried installing three drivers for the one device (didn't even know it was possible).

I opened up the unit yest arvo and could not see anything loose. But what i have also forgot to mention is that the wireless switch on the front of the laptop is never illuminated and does nuthing (like the bluetooth switch only I don't actually have bluetooth)

[-=Alfonzo=-]

Are there any bios updates available?

[romanx]

Originally Posted by Smashcrab

I opened up the unit yest arvo and could not see anything loose. But what i have also forgot to mention is that the wireless switch on the front of the laptop is never illuminated and does nuthing (like the bluetooth switch only I don't actually have bluetooth)

On some Acer laptops the switch my be there but the hardware isn't. I have a bluetooth switch but no bluetooth.

[Smashcrab]

Originally Posted by romanx

On some Acer laptops the switch my be there but the hardware isn't. I have a bluetooth switch but no bluetooth.

That's correct, I have both the bluetooth and wireless switch. Both seem to do nuthing, But I definately have the wireless inside the pc.

[Smashcrab]

Originally Posted by -=Alfonzo=-

Are there any bios updates available?

hmm not sure, might have a look at that avenue this arvo. Never done a bios update on a notebook...

[-=Alfonzo=-]

The updates I've done with Acer notebooks involve a windows based app called WinPhlash. Plug in DC power, run this, and restart the computer.

Has been the same process with the past 6 models of units I've serviced so I'm assuming that's the norm across their range now.