Wi-Fi interface intermittently missing on HP laptop

Wi-Fi interface intermittently missing on HP laptop

[Larry Finger]

The BCM94311 interface on my HP dv2125nr is intermittent. Twice (so far) it has gone missing and
will not show up when the PCI subsystem is interrogated using lspci. It is hardware because Windows
doesn't find it either.

I remember seeing reports of this problem on mailing lists. If your computer has suffered from this
error, please let me know what it took to fix it. I suspect a motherboard problem, and would like to
know other's experiences when I try to get mine fixed under warranty.

Thanks,

Larry

Re: Wi-Fi interface intermittently missing on HP laptop

[Michael Buesch]

On Thursday 14 February 2008 17:37:10 Larry Finger wrote:
> The BCM94311 interface on my HP dv2125nr is intermittent. Twice (so far) it has gone missing and
> will not show up when the PCI subsystem is interrogated using lspci. It is hardware because Windows
> doesn't find it either.
> 
> I remember seeing reports of this problem on mailing lists. If your computer has suffered from this
> error, please let me know what it took to fix it. I suspect a motherboard problem, and would like to
> know other's experiences when I try to get mine fixed under warranty.

some broadcom chips have problems with some PCI signals.
I also saw stuff like that. Usually pulling and putting back the card helps.
I have a b44 card which doesn't work in a PCI extender, because of some signal
sensing being too low. The additional 10cm of wire added by the extender will
make it fail then. This also depends on the motherboard's signal strength.

-- 
Greetings Michael.

Re: Wi-Fi interface intermittently missing on HP laptop

[Ramesh]

Hi Larry.

I have a HP DV6040US & I do see the same problem. Initiallly, when I
hit this problem a year back, it was figured out to be a mother board
issue and HP fixed it by replacing the motherboard. I am seeing the
same problem for the past 10 days. The mini pci doesnt get detected,
for every 10 reboots it gets detected once-in-a-while.  It looks like
chronic condition with HP Laptops & my laptop went out of warranty & I
luckily had it extended, not sure if this is a bcm chipset issue or
HP's motherboard problem, planning to put a USB Wireless adapter to
fix this problem.

Cheers
/Ramesh

On Thu, Feb 14, 2008 at 8:37 AM, Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@lwfinger.net> wrote:
> The BCM94311 interface on my HP dv2125nr is intermittent. Twice (so far) it has gone missing and
>  will not show up when the PCI subsystem is interrogated using lspci. It is hardware because Windows
>  doesn't find it either.
>
>  I remember seeing reports of this problem on mailing lists. If your computer has suffered from this
>  error, please let me know what it took to fix it. I suspect a motherboard problem, and would like to
>  know other's experiences when I try to get mine fixed under warranty.
>
>  Thanks,
>
>  Larry
>
>
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>

Re: Wi-Fi interface intermittently missing on HP laptop

[Larry Finger]

Ramesh wrote:
> Hi Larry.
> 
> I have a HP DV6040US & I do see the same problem. Initiallly, when I
> hit this problem a year back, it was figured out to be a mother board
> issue and HP fixed it by replacing the motherboard. I am seeing the
> same problem for the past 10 days. The mini pci doesnt get detected,
> for every 10 reboots it gets detected once-in-a-while.  It looks like
> chronic condition with HP Laptops & my laptop went out of warranty & I
> luckily had it extended, not sure if this is a bcm chipset issue or
> HP's motherboard problem, planning to put a USB Wireless adapter to
> fix this problem.

Thanks for the info. Perhaps mine will fail 4 times in the next two years. My extended warranty has
a "lemon" clause. If the item needs hardware repair 4 times, you get the original purchase price
toward a new machine. My wife bought a new laptop in 2002 and has had it replaced twice. All it cost
us was the price of the new extended warranty.

Larry