I recently upgraded to Windows 7, and when I tried to turn on the network adapter, it didn't work.

 

My laptop is a HP Pavilion DV5.

 

 

 

When I go to Device Manager, it tells me that my Atheros AR5009 network adapter is indeed enabled, and the latest drivers are installed. It's not a problem with that.

 

 

 

There's a touch-sensitive button on my laptop which is required to be pressed for the network adapter to activate. Pressing it does nothing. It does not respond.

 

 

 

Is there a way to force-activate the network adapter, or could it be that my network adapter is not yet compatible with Windows 7? The latter is unlikely, since Windows 7 has backwards compatibility.

Those buttons on your laptop generally require you to install some piece of software, so installing that should solve your problem.

 

To manually enable your network adapter:

 

Start menu > type 'view network connections' and press enter.

 

This will open a screen which lists all of your network adapters. Simply right click the wireless adapter and click enable.

 

 

 

The network adapter is enabled, but it doesn't seem to activate or pick up any signals. When I right-click it and select Connect to, it shows that no networks are available. I know that there are, since I am currently using a USB dongle to connect to a wireless network.

Nevermind, I updated my BIOS to the current Windows 7 version and now it works. \

 

 

 

Lock please, problem solved. :D