Can't get wifi working

[jon76]

Hi, I'm just working on a work colleagues computer, I've sorted most of the issue's, but try as I might, I can't get the wifi working, I've been searching and installing drivers for ages now, the adapter is present in bios and shows as enabled, I've tried pressing the wifi putton on the function key at the top, but absolutely nothing happens, the wifi adapter doesn't appear to show in device manager, in all the time I've been using/repairing computers, this is the first time I've been unable to get the wifi working, it does however work fine via ethernet, the product i.d is 0301j4g and it's a thinkpad edge, is there anything I've missed here? thanks in advance

 

[johnb35]

If it's not showing in device manager then it's most likely dead. However, did the machine have major malware infection? It's possible the malware has corrupted the wireless. It should have did the same to the ethernet connection though.

 

[jon76]

Thanks for the reply, firstly, any of my workings, could be wrong, I like working with computers, but I'd still consider myself an amateur, that said, as far as I know, it has no malware infection, it seems to run fine now, I did a fresh install, the main problem it had, was it kept randomly shutting off, I don't mean shutting down, it just shut off dead instantly, I first thought this would be a problem with the battery, but then I noticed, it would run fine for long periods of time, then it would start suddenly shutting off, and after it had been running for long periods, the frequency it would shut off would increase to the point it was just unusable, this made me think, maybe it's over heating, tried applying cleaning out all of the vents and applying new thermal compound (probably should have checked temps first), after this, it hasn't shut off since, speccy reports the cpu and motherboard temps at between 60-80 degrees c at the minute, which does seem hot for a computer that's doing nothing more than windows update, but that said, it's running well and giving me no reason to believe there are any viruses, can't find any questionable programs on it. What confuses me the most, is it shows the adapter in bios, would it still do this if it's dead?

 

[johnb35]

So the wifi adapter still won't show up after a fresh install? If not, then its dead. Is this a laptop? Have you tried removing the adapter and reinserting it? What specific model of machine is it?

Also, if its running between 60 and 80 degrees then thats too hot.