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How to enable wireless lan on laptop

griffo

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Posted May 9, 2012 at 3:32PM

I have an aged Acer Aspire 5021WLMi (XP) and the wireless on/off button on the front won't function.

All appears fine in device manager but in Launch Manager it says 'can not load HotKey.sys

Also, in Launch Manager, 'Wireless Device Boot Status' is greyed and shows 'Always Off'.

Can anyone kindly tell me how to do one of the following please?

Replace the wireless button module in the front of the laptop (I have a spare 'dead' machine that had a functioning button) or

Switch on the wireless device by some other means.

Hope someone can help.

Cheers

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griffo

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Posted May 9, 2012 at 3:36PM

Don't know what happened to the formatting there but it should read ...

Replace the wireless button module in the front of the laptop (I have a spare 'dead' machine that had a functioning button) or

Switch on the wireless device by some other means.

Hope someone can help.

Cheers

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Ian in Northampton

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Posted May 9, 2012 at 3:42PM

You could always just spend a fiver on a little USB wi-fi dongle. Not elegant, not satisfying - but almost certainly quicker and cheaper...

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mole44

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Posted May 9, 2012 at 3:43PM

You need to press the (FN) then F10,if that fails you'll have to do like i did for a friend go to Amazon and get a USB dongle and use that.The machine i did it on was an advent but i suspect it would worh on any machine.

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northumbria61

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Posted May 9, 2012 at 4:13PM

Try Downloading and Reinstalling Launch Manager from here enter link description here

Install it using "Windows XP sp2 compatibility mode" (right-click on the exe and select "properties")

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buteman

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Posted May 9, 2012 at 4:32PM

Go into services and make sure WLAN is set to automatic and is running.

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griffo

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Posted May 9, 2012 at 5:34PM

Thanks for the responses.

mole44 - Fn F10 doesn't do anything on this PC northumbria61 - may try that later, thanks buteman - it was set to manual but I had tried starting it earlier. Have now changed it to automatic. It is started but the wireless network connection is still showing as 'not connected' in the taskbar. Have tried 'repair' but it says it cannot configure this wireless connection.

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onthelimit1

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Posted May 9, 2012 at 5:59PM

Probably Launch Manager as northumbria suggested - it's sorted the same problem for me on a couple of Acers. If not, then I use these - effective and dirt cheap.

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griffo

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Posted May 10, 2012 at 12:24PM

northumbia61

Did the Launch Manager update and that's fixed it, even the button on the front is working again - many thanks!

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