Help! Ralink Wifi Adapter Won't Work On Hp Pavilion G6

Feyisayo

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Location
United Kingdom
I have a friend who has an HP Pavilion G6 running a 64-bit edition of Windows 8.

He brought the laptop to me telling me he had issues connecting to wifi networks. I did the normal check to see if the PC was detecting the Wifi Adapter itself by going to Device Manager > Network Adapters ..only for me to get there and find out there were no Wifi network adapters, only a "Realtek Ethernet Controller". I checked HP's website for the laptop's model's wifi driver, downloaded and installed it and got a prompt that the driver wasn't installed correctly.

The F12 key that's supposed to turn the wifi adpater on didn't do anything. I decided to do a system restore to the last time my friend told me it was working and yet nothing.

I'm guessing its a hardware related issue and I might have to open up the network adapter compartment of the laptop and place the adapter properly. I'm so confused right now.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
Hi there. The card may be seated improperly, but you may want to try a few things first. Go to Device Manager and check "Show hidden devices" on the "View" tab. If it doesn't show up then it may well have to be reseated or the card went bad. Also, if you open it up, have a can of compressed air to clean the thing out. Being that it's a few years old, it's probably dusty. Make sure it's unplugged from a power source, the battery is removed, and take necessary precautions on static electricity before opening the case. I highly suggest doing a study of this procedure before performing.

Here's another fix you may want to try if the system does recognize the card:



Solution for issues connecting wifi or wireless using Ralink... - HP Support Forum - 2248179

Good luck and please report how it goes.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1 Pro X64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer T690
    CPU
    Intel Pentium D Dual Core
    Motherboard
    Acer/Intel E946GZ
    Memory
    2GB (max upgrade)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3000 - PCI Express x16
    Sound Card
    Integrated RealTek ALC888 high-definition audio with 7.1 channel audio support
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer AL1917W A LCD
    Screen Resolution
    1440 X 900
    Hard Drives
    350 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10
    Thumb drives
    PSU
    Standard 250 watt
    Case
    Desktop 7.2" (183mm) W x 17.5" (445mm) L x 14.5"
    Cooling
    Dual case fans + CPU fan
    Keyboard
    Acer Windows PS/2
    Mouse
    Wireless Microsoft Arc
    Internet Speed
    54mbp/s
    Browser
    IE11
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    Office Pro 2013 / Nokia Lumia 1520 Windows Phone 8.1DP GDR1
Thanks Hipsie, I decided to open up the laptop and check what's going on and found the Wifi adapter was intact, I detached it and cleaned it.

Then re-attached it, and restarted the computer but still nothing, I then decided to look in the PC's BIOS settings and checked the boot order, the network adapter had an exclamation mark "!" Next to which according to the bios meant that it was disabled and there was no way to enable it from there .

So it seems like the PC isn't detecting a network adapter .

---EDIT----
I used the "Show Hidden Devices" tab and found a lot of virtual drivers under the "network adapters" but nothing Ralink related. I've also booted the pc in safe mode to see if anything will happen.

The laptop's F12 key lights just stay orange. :( ..Looks like the wifi card is gone.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
Sounds to me like the card went bad. Perhaps a new one is in order.

Was the case dusty?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1 Pro X64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer T690
    CPU
    Intel Pentium D Dual Core
    Motherboard
    Acer/Intel E946GZ
    Memory
    2GB (max upgrade)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3000 - PCI Express x16
    Sound Card
    Integrated RealTek ALC888 high-definition audio with 7.1 channel audio support
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer AL1917W A LCD
    Screen Resolution
    1440 X 900
    Hard Drives
    350 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10
    Thumb drives
    PSU
    Standard 250 watt
    Case
    Desktop 7.2" (183mm) W x 17.5" (445mm) L x 14.5"
    Cooling
    Dual case fans + CPU fan
    Keyboard
    Acer Windows PS/2
    Mouse
    Wireless Microsoft Arc
    Internet Speed
    54mbp/s
    Browser
    IE11
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    Office Pro 2013 / Nokia Lumia 1520 Windows Phone 8.1DP GDR1
Sounds to me like the card went bad. Perhaps a new one is in order.

Was the case dusty?

At all, it was okay. But I've just noticed something which might be an atom of hope. I decided to check Windows' Updates and found out there was an update for the exact model of the ralink wifi adapter under the "Optional" updates tab. Its only about 932KB but I'm going to try to install it and then post back the results. Not sure if its going to do anything if the laptop wasn't even detecting the adapter in device manager.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
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