Wireless connection issues

Hey there,
I’m running into a real headache with my Dell Inspiron Desktop running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, where the wireless connection—specifically that Intel Wireless Chipset—just refuses to kick in, and honestly, I feel like I’ve exhausted every single avenue available to me without any luck whatsoever. I have spent countless hours trying to install all sorts of different drivers, but nothing seems to stick, which is incredibly frustrating because the physical indicator light on the chassis reacts perfectly fine when I toggle the wireless via the Fn+F2 key combo, yet when I run the Windows troubleshooter, it stubbornly insists that the wireless is turned off. I even went as far as messing around with the hotkey drivers thinking maybe that was the culprit, but they seem to be working just fine, and if you look in the Device Manager, the module is detected and everything looks totally normal on paper. To rule out a software glitch within Windows itself, I booted up a Kali Linux environment to see if the connection would work there, but lo and behold, I ran into the exact same wall where it tells me the wireless is disabled by a hardware switch, and even after testing various Linux drivers, I am still stuck in the same spot. Since none of the digital fixes worked, I actually took the plunge and opened up the machine to physically inspect the card and make sure it was seated properly in its slot, but everything looks perfectly secure and connected, so I truly cannot figure out why it isn't communicating. I have tried absolutely everything under the sun and I am genuinely about to lose my mind 🙂 if I can't wrap my head around what is going wrong here, so if anyone has any insight or ideas at all, please, please let me know as soon as possible. If there is any other specific detail or technical info you need from my end, just ask and I will get it to you right away. Thanks so much 🙂🙂🙂

Check your BIOS settings first—make sure you haven't accidentally disabled the wireless card in there. And honestly, since you’ve already got Linux sitting right in front of you, you might as well try this out: http://sunilkumarn.wordpress.com/201...rdware-switch/

I had this nagging feeling that I’d left something out of my last message, so I went ahead and double-checked the BIOS settings just to be absolutely certain, and everything looks perfectly enabled there, plus I even tried performing a full reset but honestly, nothing changed at all, and as far as the Linux side of things goes, when I run sudo rfkill list, the terminal doesn't show a single thing.

Weird, the only thing that actually makes sense to me here—honestly—is that the card is just dead.

I’m honestly on the exact same page here, because I feel like I have tried absolutely everything under the sun at this point, and it really makes you wonder if there is just some tiny, incredibly stupid little setting hiding somewhere that I simply cannot wrap my head around right now.
The thing that keeps looping through my mind is whether or not the wireless functionality has been toggled off within the software itself, since you know how it goes with certain laptops where they have those specific options like "wireless on/not enabled" versus "wireless on/enabled" or just "wireless off," which usually means you have to manage it through a dedicated utility like an Intel wireless control panel, but I have already gone through the whole ordeal of downloading and testing multiple different versions and none of them seem to offer that kind of control at all.

Maybe try to figure out exactly which card you're dealing with first—if you can nail down the model, just scour Craigslist for it. Honestly, it shouldn't set you back more than $17. You can even find them for peanuts on eBay if you look around: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-M51T-WI...-/321143175235

If you use the Wi-Fi on/off switch, it will function. It's located under the mousepad, slightly left of center.
And I am not referring to the "Fn+F2 WLAN switch."

If you don't need Bluetooth right now, just press Fn+F2 three times in a row to turn on the Wi-Fi and kill the Bluetooth.

Regards,
B. W.

Just grab a gift card on eBay for $17 and you're golden. ☕