Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter not working on Windows 7 64bit
As the title suggests, my laptop (Alienware m17x) is installed with the Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter and Windows 7 64bit Home Premium. I have had several other driver incompatibility issues with Windows 7, but those I have slowly been able to resolve. This however just cropped up after two months of successful use. Yesterday it started failing to connect to the internet, telling me that no wireless connections are available. I live in a dorm, and everyone else on my floor has successful wireless, including my Ipod Touch, PS3 and XBox 360. I called Alienware/Dell Support and we spent hours trying to fix the problem and all look well until I rebooted my laptop this morning and the same issue reappeared. When I reboot my laptop, all I get is a notification that no networks appear in range. If I uninstall the broadcom chip and let windows install it after a boot up it works until the machine is rebooted a second time. I have tried over a dozen windows 7 drivers for the chip, and about half a dozen vista drivers and they all have the same results, works on the first boot, fails every time after that
January 17th, 2010 9:31pm

Your issue sounds more hardware than software, if it works when you force windows to reinstall and then reboot and it fails I would look at the card first.Can you open case and reseat the card.If so uninstall it first.open the case remove the card (Static Kills)boot up with out the card in the laptopclean the pins on the cardshut it down and reinstall the cardtestOh and when you post..hit enter at the end of thought...makes it easier to read.
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January 18th, 2010 12:09am

Were you able to resolve this issue? I am having the same issue but this only started happening when I upgraded to Win 7 Ultimate. On the home premium version, it used to work with no issues. Everytime I uninstall the Broadcom and reboot, the wireless works. But if I restart, it goes away again. I have the same hardware, Alienware m17x. Thanks
March 4th, 2010 7:10pm

Same problem on my Alienware M17x running Windows 7 Home Premium. Upon rebooting my computer, I see my "Ethernet Adapter: No Connection" icon next to my Date/Time on the Taskbar, indicating that my Wireless is "turned off". In Device Manager, it shows a yellow triangle with an exclamation next to my "Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter" and "NVidia nForce Networking Controller" as well as 3 other drivers listed in my USB Controllers. A simple right-click, uninstall driver, and scan for hardware changes will re-install all 5 of these drivers and they will work again....until my computer reboots, in which I have to re-uninstall the drivers and install them again. Very annoying, very aggrivating.
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April 29th, 2010 8:56am

Just registered to say, on an Alienware M17x system as well running Windows 7 Ultimate, here is a link to a solution that worked exactly for me: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/436486-guide-properly-solve-wireless-connection-problems-m17x.html All I did was section I.a. If the link is down, I copied the only section that I needed to follow out of this guide, in order to get my wireless to work repeatedly without having to uninstall the wireless driver every single reboot. Now it works perfectly, already connected to a wireless network on startup. I.a. Disable Device sleep on disconnect Some newer Nvidia Ethernet drivers have a feature called Device sleep on disconnect. This is the culprit. Normally, it should only put the Ethernet adapter to sleep when the cable is disconnected, but it's buggy and thus kills the wireless connection as well. Follow these steps to disable this feature on your Nvidia Ethernet Adapter: 1. Open the Windows Device Manager by hitting Win+Pause, then click on Device Manager on the left side. 2. Double-click on Network adapters. 3. Double-click on NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller (yes, that's the wired Ethernet adapter indeed). 4. Click on the Advanced tab. 5. Select Device sleep on disconnect. 6. Set the Value to Disabled. 7. Click OK and wireless should work again (might require a reboot afterwards, but probably not).
July 1st, 2010 7:08am

Thank you TheWandererLee this was the issue I was having, after 5 hours of troubleshooting and internet searches I find this and fix it in seconds... Annymfilliu
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November 28th, 2010 6:33pm

Just wanted to say that this technique works. I wasted many hours trying figure out why my wireless adapter wasn't working. This fixed the problem. Thanks!!
December 28th, 2010 12:00am

Wow, just wanted to say thanks. I have a m17x as well and after doing some Windows 7 updates, this was the problem, too bad I didn't find this before I reformatted but I'm just glad to have everything working again. Thanks
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February 16th, 2011 10:12pm

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